International ruling protects the Garifuna people from ‘Survivor’ shoot in Honduras

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) on Wednesday condemned the state of Honduras for violating the collective property rights and political participation of the Garífuna community in relation to the Cayos Cochinos islands in the Caribbean. The court found that Honduras declared the archipelago a protected natural area without providing the community with proper, informed consultation.

Cayos Cochinos is the filming location of the Spanish-language version of Survivor, one of Spain’s most-watched reality shows, broadcast by Telecinco. During filming, Garífuna residents are prohibited from approaching the area.

According to the ruling, Honduras designated the archipelago as a protected area in 2003 and placed its management under the Cayos Cochinos Foundation, excluding the Garífuna people, who have lived there since the mid‑19th century.

For at least two decades, the government has favored tourism operators and television production companies while restricting local residents’ access to the islands and prohibiting them from fishing in their own ancestral territory.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered the Honduran state to adopt several reparation measures. These include guaranteeing the participation of the Garífuna community in the administration of Cayos Cochinos and in the development of the management plan for the protected area, as well as paying compensation for damages and legal costs.

The Garífuna community of Cayos Cochinos is an Afro‑Indigenous people who have lived on the islands for more than two centuries. They originally migrated from the Honduran coast, although their ancestral roots trace back to the island of Saint Vincent, now Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The archipelago consists of two main islands and 13 smaller cays. Although most of the land is privately owned, 10 Garífuna communities live in the area, supporting around 1,000 families, according to the Honduran Black Fraternal Organization (OFRANEH).

“We see this sentence as a victory, or at least as a hope in our struggle, because we are talking about more than 32 years of fighting against the Cayos Cochinos Foundation, against the violations they have been committing, and this gives us hope that perhaps the state will deign to recognize our rights,” said Mabel Robledo, OFRANEH director.

For the past two decades, the Garifuna people of Cayos Cochinos have denounced abuses by the Cayos Cochinos Foundation. “They have even displaced us with the use of force, with the deployment of the navy and the police. In 2003 alone, when it was declared a protected natural area, the authorities displaced more than 60 families, and subsequently, we have been prohibited from fishing, which is how our families make a living,” said Robledo.

Last September, while the latest edition of Survivor was being filmed, a group of Garifuna people from the Nueva Armenia community organized to prevent the show’s participants from performing a helicopter jump over Cayo Menor, one of the first challenges of the program.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights found that the filming of the reality show has violated the rights of the Garífuna communities. “The regular airing of these television programs caused the suspension of artisanal fishing activities and restricted the mobility of Garifuna communities within their own marine habitat, affecting their access to food and essential resources,” the document says.

The show is filmed in an area officially designated as a “total exclusion” zone, where no one is supposed to enter. In practice, however, this restriction is enforced only against the Garífuna population.

“Right now, at this moment, they’re filming a reality show on the islands, and they’ve forbidden us from going near it. The worst part is that they’re using Cayo Palomas for their show, and that cay is a sanctuary for migratory birds. We respect that, but there’s a private contract between the reality show producers, the Honduran government, and the Cayos Cochinos Foundation for its use,” Robledo stated.

On Wednesday, the show Survivor announced on its social media accounts that the new contestants have already arrived in Honduras, with the new season scheduled to begin on March 5.

The court also ordered the Honduran state to investigate reports of threats made against Garífuna community members following protests over the leasing of the cays for tourism and television productions.

“Since 2021, we have filed complaints about threats coming from the president of the Cayos Cochinos Foundation and the Ecological Society S.A. They have threatened us,” said Robledo. “They have told us that people who mess with them disappear. We hope the government investigates before it is too late.”

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