Miriam M. Miranda Chamorro, born in the Garifuna community of Santa Fe in the department of Colón, is a Garifuna leader. She names herself as a defender of the human rights of the Garifuna community, of life, and of the cultural survival of her people. She is the current General Coordinator of the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH) and has more than 36 years as a defender of the common goods and human rights of the Garifuna people.  She received the Carlos Escaleras Environmental Prize in 2016, considered the most important environmental prize in Honduras. In 2015, she received the Oscar Romero Human Rights Prize and the International Food Sovereignty Prize from the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in the United States. Her main struggles center around the defense of Garifuna territories, and she is persecuted and complained about because of her work defending the human and land rights of her people.

Among her primary contributions we can highlight the following:

• At the head of OFRANEH, she has led the recovery of more than 1500 hectares of land in the regions of Vallecito, Colón, where the largest project in Central America of planting and processing coconuts was implemented. She has claimed this land as ancestral territory and has made use of international human rights laws to avoid eviction.
• She has brought and won two legal cases against the State of Honduras before the Interamerican Court of Human Rights in relation to the territorial rights of the Garifuna community in Punta Piedra and Triunfo de la Cruz.
• In 2015, after Canadian businessmen illegally constructed a megatourism business on Garifuna lands, she also successfully achieved taking the promoters of the project to court.
• Miranda has worked to stop other projects harmful for local communities–industrial projects like hydroelectric dams, palm oil plantations, and the famous Special Development Zones called “Model Cities.”

She has been detained, criminalized, kidnapped, and jailed for her intersectional struggle against the system of neoliberal, colonial, and racist oppression.

Miriam M. Miranda Chamorro. Nació en la comunidad Garífuna de Santa Fe, en el departamento de Colón. Lideresa Garífuna. Se autodenomina como defensora de los derechos humanos del pueblo garífuna, de la vida y la sobrevivencia cultural de nuestros pueblos. Es la actual Coordinadora General de la Organización Fraternal Negra Hondureña (OFRANEH); tiene mas de 36 años como defensora de los bienes comunes y derechos humanos del pueblo Garífuna; Recibió el premio ambiental “Carlos Escaleras” en el 2016, considerado el premio ambiental mas importante de Honduras. En 2015, recibió el Premio a los Derechos Humanos Óscar Romero y el Premio Internacional a la Soberanía Alimentaria de la Alianza por la Soberanía Alimentaria de los Estados Unidos. sus principales luchas se centran en la defensa de los territorios garífunas, perseguida y querellada por su trabajo por la defensa de los derechos humanos y al derecho a la tierra de su gente.

Dentro de sus principales aportes podemos destacar: Al frente de la OFRANEH ha liderado la recuperación de mas de 1500 hectáreas de tierras en la región de Vallecito, Colon, en donde se implementa el proyecto de siembra y procesamiento de cocos mas grande de Centro América, ha reclamando esta tierra como territorio ancestral y haciendo uso de las leyes internacionales de derechos humanos para evitar el desalojo. También ha llevado y ganado dos casos legales al Estado de Honduras ante la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos en relación a los derechos territoriales la comunidad garífuna de Punta Piedra y Triunfo de la Cruz.  En 2015, después de que los empresarios canadienses construyeran ilegalmente una empresa de mega turismo en tierras garífunas, también logró llevar a juicio con éxito a los promotores del proyecto. Miranda ha trabajado para detener otros proyectos perjudiciales para las comunidades locales, como los proyectos industriales hidroeléctricos, de aceite de palma y las famosas Zonas Especiales de Desarrollo, ‘ciudades modelos’. Ella ha sido detenida, criminalizada, secuestrada y encarcelada por su lucha interseccional en contra del sistema de opresión neoliberal, colonial y racista.

The Alliance for Global Justice has prepared a sign-on letter in support of the hunger strike by Honduran political prisoners Edwin Espinal, Raul Alvarez, Rommel Herrera, and Gustavo Caceres. They are demanding an improvement in prison conditions for all prisoners, transfer from the maximum security prison in which they are currently unjustly detained before their trial, as well as the resignation of President Juan Orlando Hernandez. They have been joined in their fast by a broad sector of the Honduras social movement.

Click on the following link to support their cause and learn more:

https://afgj.salsalabs.org/2019hnhungerstrike/index.html?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=1af0f29b-7259-441e-838b-6e2cc24671e4