Canadian developers have acquired Garifuna communal lands belonging to the communities of Cristales, Rio Negro, San Antonio and Guadalupe. The conflict dates back to 2007 when Randy Jorgenson, through his development company Life Vision Properties, began acquiring land outside Trujillo to develop into a cruise ship terminal and retirement home properties for North Americans. From the outset, the communities, with the support of OFRANEH (the primary Garifuna rights organization in Honduras) opposed these land acquisitions and developments. In 2008, the community of Guadalupe filed legal complaints with the Fiscalía Especial de Etnias y Patrimonio Cultural (FEEPC) for illegal sale of community land; however, the complaints have been unsuccessful.[1]

Jorgensen's first retirement home development, Campa Vista, was developed on the government-titled ancestral land of the Garifuna community of Cristales, a portion which had been traditionally used for planting and hunting.[2] Following Jorgenson's acquisition and development of the land, Garifuna community members were cut off from access to the land and their traditional pathways in the area.[3],[4],[5] Around the same time, Jorgenson acquired land claimed by the Garifuna community Rio Negro, adjacent to the town of Trujillo. OFRANEH and the communities of Rio Negro and Cristales protested the acquisition, declaring it a fraudulent acquisition of communal lands, and filed a lawsuit demanding the acquisition be nullified.[4] However, Jorgenson ended up acquiring the land through eminent domain, a status which observers alleged was acquired through bribery and connections within political officials.[2] The protests of the community, and particularly those who were displaced, were also unsuccessful, and the land was developed into the 'Banana Coast' cruise ship terminal, which opened in 2014.[6]

Subsequently, there have been repeated conflicts between the Garifuna communities of the Bay of Trujillo and various Canadian developers, including Mr. Jorgenson:

Jorgensen acquired additional land adjacent to the Garifuna community of Guadalupe and within that community's government-recognized communal territory. [5] While Jorgensen later began developing this land into the second complex of retirement homes (this one called "Alta Vista"), community members protested that the land acquisition was illegal, as the community had not consented to the sale. In this case, as in others, Jorgensen claimed he had purchased the land legally, while the community has strenuously asserted that they were given no opportunity to consent to the sale of their communal land, and whoever 'sold' the land was not their legitimate representative. Moreover, their collective title to the lands should legally preclude their sale--though this has not stopped the local and national governments from recognizing the fraudulent titles resulting from the sales. [7]

Following a similar pattern, Canadian-owned development companies Carivida and NJOI have acquired additional lands belonging to the communities of Guadalupe and San Antonio.[8],[9] As of 2014, the community of Guadalupe reported that they had lost 80% of their communal lands in this way.[7]

In the ongoing struggle to prevent the loss of these lands, Garifuna land defenders have been criminalized, subject to physical and verbal abuse, and even shot.[9],[10],[11] In November 2015, Vidal Leiva, a member of the Land Defense Committee of Cristales and Rio Negro was shot outside his home by an unknown gunman, and other committee members began receiving threats. However,  the police argued that the shots were self-inflicted, and the case was not pursued.[10],[12] In 2016, residents of the Garifuna community of Santa Fe had their homes burned down by police, as there were reportedly Canadians with plans to develop the site. [8]

Later, in 2021, arrest warrants were issued for dozens of members of the communities of Cristales and Rio Negro, who sought to defend their ancestral, and historically titled, communal land against illegitimate sale and development.[13] Two sisters--Marianela y Jenifer Mejía Solorzano--were arrested and the judge decided to prosecute them for the charges of usurpation, damages, and threats, as well as the charge of "forced displacement" of the company (Bienes y Raíces Juca SRL) seeking to develop the land, in Jennifer's case.[14] The hearing drew substantial protests from the Garifuna community on behalf of the criminalized land defenders, indicative of the substantial unresolved tensions surrounding this conflict.

Life Vision Properties states that they have 1,500 acres under development. Total area under development by all three companies is unknown.