Database of Violence, Bajo Aguan
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Land and Violence in Honduras
Honduras has been consistently ranked as the world’s deadliest country for land defenders. Within Honduras, the Bajo Aguan Valley, home to some of the most fertile land in Latin America, has been the epicentre of a long-standing conflict that embodies the historically conflictual relationship between land, capital, and violence. The land conflict in the Bajo Aguan could be described as a low-intensity war, given that inside the world’s most dangerous country for land defenders, this is the region with the highest murder rate of peasant activists. Most of the latter are members of peasant cooperatives that form part of the movement Plataforma Agraria (Agraria Platform). Hence, the Bajo Aguan, and the Plataforma Agraria more specifically, have been a key focal point of the research project “Land Violence, Security, and Development in Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico” which investigates the relationship between violence and land dispossession.
Origins of the Land Conflict in the Bajo Aguan
In the 1970s, as part of the Agrarian Reform Law, the Honduran state granted frontier land to landless families in the northern part of the country and peasant cooperatives were set up. With the onset of neoliberal restructuring in the 1990s, as the World Bank pushed for the commodification of land that had rich potential for export agriculture, private corporations demonstrated interest in acquiring fertile land in this region for the expansion of oil palm plantations. In response, the state passed the Law of Modernization and Development of the Agricultural Sector (1992) to enable the mass acquisition of land originally destined for landless families, by removing the prohibitions on the sale of collectively owned (cooperative) land.
As a result of a concerted effort that involved a combination of threats, assassination attempts, murder, fraudulent / illegitimate sales, and a massive ideological offensive, cattle-ranchers and a few large agribusiness producers of flex crops, such as sugar cane and oil palm, acquired most of the land belonging to peasant cooperatives. In early 2000, members of the cooperatives and their descendants began a collective struggle to recover the lands that were, according to them, unconstitutionally ‘sold.’ This process initially involved seeking justice through legal channels, but when that proved to be futile, peasant families began to engage in direct action in the form of land occupations.
The Plataforma Agraria was formed in 2013 as an umbrella organization that unified the struggles of the cooperatives affected by land dispossession. Currently it is seeking recognition of peasant land rights over approximately 12,000 hectares. This struggle has come with a heavy human cost. Since 2009, more than 200 peasants involved in struggles for land recovery in the Bajo Aguan have been murdered. Many others have been wrongfully imprisoned, and dozens face arrest warrants based on fabricated accusations. Between 2021 and 2023, there were seven open judicial proceedings involving 45 members of the Plataforma Agraria.
"Clandestine Cemetery"
One of the oil palm plantations called Paso Aguan (located on land currently under dispute) has been the hub of violent attacks against members of the Plataforma Agraria and has been described by the peasant movement as a ‘clandestine cemetery’ (cementerio clandestino) given that six bodies have been exhumed from or found on that property between 2012 and 2017.
Database of Violent Incidents Experienced by Members of the Plataforma Agraria
This database documents incidents of violent acts and threats of violence carried out by state and non-state actors against the Plataforma Agraria peasant movement of the Bajo Aguan Valley, Honduras for the period 2013-2025. This initiative was born out of the need to have a space where all the data that comes out in the form of announcements circulated on social media, letters to human rights bodies, and other forms of communication denouncing assassinations, forced disappearances, and violent evictions systematically carried out against this peasant movement, can all be compiled and systematized. Given the high rate of violence experienced by land defenders from the Aguan Valley and a climate of almost complete impunity for crimes, it is crucial to have consistent data that can support assertions about the magnitude, perpetrators, responsibility of the state, and barriers to justice. The creation of this database entailed review of material published by local newspapers, NGOs, alternative media outlets, and other local and international human rights organizations, in order to cross-reference each violent incident reported by the Plataforma Agraria.
Organization and Terminology
The database is organized by year. Please note that it documents ONLY incidents of violence experienced by families and cooperatives affiliated with the Plataforma Agraria.
The total number of cases is higher than what is recorded in the database due to the fact that there have been deficiencies in record keeping by the Plataforma Agraria during certain periods of time.
It is important to keep in mind that many violent incidents have taken place during the period 2013-2015 against other social movements, environmental defenders, and human rights activists in the Bajo Aguan region which are NOT included in this database.
All the content is available in Spanish only (for now).
Each entry represents an incident. Often, a single incident includes more than one victim.
The term ‘civiles armados’ (or armed civilians) includes members of existing paramilitary groups, hired hitmen, and loose associations of armed civilians. When the name of a paramilitary group was known, then the term ‘paramilitares’ is used along with the name of the group.
Disclaimer
The documentation of these incidents relies on statements issued by the Plataforma Agraria, interviews conducted by Dr. Jasmin Hristov’s research team with the Plataforma Agraria, online news articles, as well as reports by NGOs and human rights organizations where available. These online materials themselves often rely on testimonies and anecdotal evidence provided by people who live and work in the region. While every effort has been made to ensure that the information is as accurate as possible by cross-referencing incidents, it is possible that reporting errors by the above-mentioned entities may have been reflected in the database. If you find any error or discrepancy, please contact us.
Please note that this initiative embodies the participatory action-oriented research methodology of the project, which entails using knowledge creation and dissemination to respond in concrete ways to the needs and priorities of research participants. In line with this principle, the database is meant to provide a living document that reflects lived experiences of violence by the peasant population of the Bajo Aguan region by systematizing reports of violent acts carried out by state and non-state armed actors. It is an outlet that keeps record of events and incidents as reported by the Plataforma Agraria. The database does not rely on findings of criminal investigations and court decisions since most of these cases are characterized by an absence of proper investigation and lack of impartiality by the relevant authorities. Thus, we are unable to make any final assertions about culpability.
Violent Incidents Experienced by Members of the Plataforma Agraria by Year
2025
Plataforma Agraria 2025.pdf2024
Plataforma Agraria 2024.pdf2023
Plataforma Agraria 2023.pdf2022
Plataforma Agraria 2022.pdf2021
Plataforma Agraria 2021.pdf2019 & 2020
Plataforma Agraria 2019 and 2020.pdf2018
Plataforma Agraria 2018.pdf2017
Plataforma Agraria 2017.pdfPrior to 2017
Plataforma Agraria prior to 2017.pdfPage updated
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