In her home in Santa Bárbara, Betty Vasquez describes how in pre-colonial times the territory around the Honduran city was governed by the indigenous Lenca, who distributed land by consensus via local assemblies or held it communally.
“Rivers were not used as borders like the Rio Bravo [that divides Mexico and the US today],” she says. “They were used as a means for communities to travel and trade.”
As a leader of the Santa Bárbara Environmental Movement, Vasquez (54) is one of many members of the surviving Lenca community who have become involved in land rights campaigns. Hanging on the walls of Vasquez’s home and painted on the streets outside are murals of Berta Cáceres, the prominent environmental activist and Lenca leader.
Cáceres was murdered in 2016, after years of death threats and state persecution linked to her campaign against the construction of a multimillion dollar water dam on the Gualcarque River.
Link to original article: https://www.irishtimes.com/world/americas/2025/02/27/defending-our-bodies-and-land-why-the-fight-to-protect-the-environment-is-a-matter-of-life-and-death-in-honduras