Background: Ruguma Suffers Attacks

Vallecito, Limón, also called Ruguma, lies approximately 800 kilometers from the capital city of Tegucigalpa, a twelve-hour drive over a river and across several miles of roads full of crater-like potholes. Vallecito is the home of a Garifuna community made up of some 169 families. These families etch out their living by planting such crops as watermelon, yucca, rice, and plantains. Under an international agreement regarding indigenous people's rights, this community received full title for the land on which they live, about 150 hectares. This title, however, appeared to mean little when armed men from a business sharing a border with Ruguma invaded 40 hectares of their land, bulldozing over about 13,000 dollars worth of crops, burning houses and using other tactics to intimidate the people. This business was owned by Miguel Facussé, possibly the richest man in Honduras and uncle to the president in office at that time.

These lands belonging to the community of Vallecito, Limon (otherwise known as Ruguma) were coveted and seized by a business intent on planting African palm.

The people of Vallecito immediately protested the invasion, staging a hunger strike in the capital and protesting before the National Agrarian Institute, responsible for land titling. The National Agrarian Institute in turn carried out an investigation and issued an order for the invaders to leave. Unfortunately, the order was almost immediately revoked when Miguel Facusse´s lawyers filed a complaint. In fact, a few months later, these same lawyers, issued a charge against the people of Ruguma for "invading" their land when they attempted to move back, having appealed to all authorities to no avail. The mayor, the judges, the credit institutions, in fact, the whole system intended to assure justice for the Honduran people seemed to be working against them. Justice, it appeared, was up for sale to the highest bidder, the humble Garifuna community of Ruguma was no competition for this business giant.

AJS Involvement: Stopping the Violence with Maps

When the Association for a More Just Society (AJS)'s Honduran partner organization, ASJ, became involved, upon the request of CONPAH, the organization representing indigenous groups in Honduras, the situation in Vallecito was becoming increasingly violent.

Lombardo Lacayo

Community leader Lombardo Lacayo (see picture) had been shot at while in his car, several homes were burned, causing the death of one child, and it was feared that more violence and bloodshed were possible, even inevitable. ASJ's first action was to make the12 hour trip out to Vallecito with a team of journalists to investigate the situation. As a result of the reports from this trip, the situation captured the nation's attention. Reports were published in Honduran newspapers and television programs, and even a Mexican news agency. ASJ published a website on the topic, and interviewed lawyers, congressmen, the director of the National Agrarian Institute, the mayor, the District Attorney for Ethnic Groups, and the Attorney General of the State of Honduras, forcing them to take a position and bringing the public's attention to the situation.

Because of the attention it was receiving, the violence in Vallecito ebbed away, and ASJ began looking for a way to resolve the situation on a long-term basis. Given that the problem centered on border disputes, it became increasingly evident that in order to resolve it, a clearly defined map would be necessary. ASJ agreed to coordinate the making of this map as the first measure that needed to be taken in order to clarify the situation and establish Ruguma's case. It turned out to be a much longer and more complicated process that we had imagined.

First, we had to obtain the technical equipment and then get a team out there to take the coordinates (at one point they traveled out to about a half hour away from the village and never made it there, supposedly because of lack of appropriate transportation). Then all those coordinates had to be sent somewhere to elaborate a map and the map had to be authorized by the National Agrarian Institute.

Despite all of the obstacles that had to be overcome, in March of 2002, Ruguma received a signed and sealed copy of the map. It appears that the community had more land than they had even thought! This map will be a tool for years to come for Ruguma--an indelible asset in the court cases against Miguel Facussé, a means of preventing future violence with anyone who would dispute their rights, and an affirmation of the community itself in its struggle and triumph.

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