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Race and Natural Resource Conflicts in Honduras: The Miskito and Garifuna Struggle for Lasa Pulan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2022

Sharlene Mollett
Sharlene Mollett*
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Abstract

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The Honduran Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve has become a place of struggle over natural resources. This paper examines a land contest between the Miskito Indians and the Garifuna, an indigenous group and Afro-indigenous group respectively. The area in question is Lasa Pulan, a one square kilometer of forest and farmland, historically shared by both Miskito and Garifuna collectives. Through discursive analysis, this paper traces contemporary discourse and practice that these actors employ to justify exclusive claims to Lasa Pulan. Such contemporary claims are structured by longstanding colonial and postcolonial racial ideologies that stereotypically label blacks as “immoral” and “violent” and Indians as “ignorant” and “backward. ” This paper argues, through analysis of Miskito and Garifuna claims to Lasa Pulan, that natural resource struggles are simultaneously racial struggles, and it acquaints policy makers with the multiple tenure arrangements in pluricultural Honduras.

Resumen:

RESUMEN:

La Reserva de la Biosfera de Río Plátano se ha convertido en un terrenode lucha por sus recursos naturales. Este trabajo examina la disputa por su tierra que existe entre los Miskito y los Garifuna, grupos indigenas y afroindigenas respectivamente. El area en cuestion es Lasa Pulan, un kilometre cuadradode bosqueytierra de cultivo,compartidaa 10 largode la historia por ambospueblos. Atravesde un analisisdiscursivo,estetrabajo trazael discurso y la practica contemporaneos utilizados por estos actores para justificar los derechos exclusivos que ellos poseen sobre Lasa Pulan. Dichas pretensiones fueron estructuradas por muchosafios de ideologiasracialesexistentesdurante y despues de la colonia, que etiquetaban a los negros como “inmorales” y “violentos,” y a las indigenas como “ignorantes” y “retrasados.” Este articulo argumenta, a traves de las reclamaciones hechas por Lasa Pulan, que luchas sobre sus recursos naturales son simultaneamente las luchas raciales, e informa a aquellos responsables de las politicas sobre las multiples normas de tenencia de la tierra existentes en Honduras pluricultural.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , February 2006 , pp. 76 - 101
Copyright
Copyright © 2006 by the University of Texas Press

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