Indigenous workers and African descendants in Honduras have launched an initiative with Vía Campesina to secure women’s access to land and strengthen their rights in the country.
With International Women’s Day as their platform, at least 100 indigenous workers and peasants of African descent marched in the capital of Tegucigalpa last Thursday.
The primary demands of the new campaign are access to land tenancy among rural workers and a new legal framework regarding gender.
“We, women, need land,” said Leoncia Solórzano, spokesperson for Thursday’s protest. “We don’t have access to it because the Honduran legislation has always tried to make us invisible, as if women didn’t exist in Honduras.”
In front of the building of the National Agrarian Institute (INA), protesters denounced evictions faced by rural communities and called for a new, comprehensive agrarian reform law, with 15% of the national budget allocated to a trust.
Participating women also held a special event at the doors of the INA, demanding the cessation of violence against women and punishment for their attackers.
Continuing their push for further rights, the women of Vía Campesina Central America plan to expand their campaign throughout the region.
