Minority Group Fears ‘Genocide’ in Trump-backed Honduras

CALI, Colombia—It’s been almost three weeks since five Afro-Indigenous Garifuna men were abducted at gunpoint from their homes in Triunfe de la Cruz, on Honduras’ northern Caribbean coast. 

Witnesses say the kidnappers were wearing police uniforms, and at least four of the five victims were prominent environmental defenders and community leaders who opposed development projects on their ancestral lands. All five remain missing, despite mass protests and calls for justice from groups like Amnesty International and members of the U.S. Congress.

A letter signed by more than a dozen U.S. lawmakers on July 30 cited the case of the missing Garifuna activists and decried “the deterioration of human rights protections and the growing culture of impunity under the administration of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández.” In spite of such concerns, Hernández remains a close ally and so-called “proven partner” to the Trump administration. (More on that later.)

Read more at The Daily Beast.