Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras/Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH)

Through decades of struggle, COPINH has expelled dozens of illegal logging operations from the territories of the Lenca people of Honduras, recovered over 200 indigenous communal land titles, and amplified the voices of Indigenous communities at the international level.

The Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras/Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) was founded in the early 1990s to fight for the rights of the Lenca people of Honduras to their ancestral territory and culture. It also works to eliminate patriarchy, oppression and relations of inequality between women and men, and to promote relations of equity and respect for sexual diversity. Over the years since its founding, COPINH has become one of the strongest voices in Mesoamerica and globally for the defense of Indigenous Peoples’ rights and has actively worked to strengthen and unify Honduran social movements.

Since the beginning of 2013, COPINH has led the struggle against Agua Zarca, a megaproject of four large dams in the Gualcarque River basin, which would privatize the Gualcarque River and usurp their territory and ancestral and Indigenous rights. The Lenca people have bravely resisted the construction of Agua Zarca dam in their territory, despite many attacks, including the criminalization of their leaders and assassination attempts against them. To date, international financiers have withdrawn from the project, effectively blocking it, in a major victory for the movement.

In 2016, COPINH’s internationally renowned co-founder Berta Cáceres was assassinated. In the words of of COPINH and other Honduran movements, “Berta did not die; she multiplied!” Despite ongoing threats and intimidation, grassroots movements continue to organize for human rights and justice for Berta Cáceres, environmental justice, and the protection of sacred Indigenous territories. In 2021, one of the main masterminds behind the assassination was convicted, and the struggle for healing through justice continues.

#Articles & Analysis#Defense of territory