The Price of Development: Evaluating Impacts of Neoliberal Multiculturalism and Settler Violence on Indigenous and Afro-Descendent Groups in Honduras (original) (raw)

Honduras is home to a dozen or more indigenous and Afro-descendent groups, each with their own unique history, identity, and culture. Despite the fact that these groups make up roughly 20 percent of the Honduran population, they represent some of the most marginalized people in contemporary Latin America. Modern development projects and infrastructure, from the growth of the Honduran tourism industry to the construction of hydroelectric dams, have created a major threat against the environmental and cultural autonomy of indigenous populations in the country. Development in Honduras represents not only the commodification and destruction of environmental resources and indigenous territories, but deeply embedded issues of racial and ethnic discrimination perpetuated by the state. Drawing on case studies of tourism-based development projects impacting Afro-descendent Garífuna populations and of the effects of extractive industries on the indigenous Lenca people, this paper will outline how exclusionary development has influenced indigenous rights over time through international and state-based tactics of neoliberal multiculturalism and settler colonialism.