At 10:30pm on the evening of Saturday, 21 June, Garífuna woman defender Mabel Robledo was traveling from Jutiapa to Nueva Amenia, along with three others, when the vehicle in which they were traveling had mechanical problems and they were forced to stop in Atlantida. They were then intercepted by a gray car without license plates and with four armed men wearing vests, one of whom got out of the car and fired two shots at Mabel.
Minutes later, when the police responded, far from attending to the woman defender who had suffered an attempted killing, they detained her, beat her and took her to the police station in Jutiapa, where she was held for several hours without communication. The woman defender was released at 1am on Sunday 22 June.
Mabel Robledo is member of the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH) and president of the Armenia community board; she was recently a key witness in the hearing held by the Inter-American Court regarding the protection of the Cayos Cochinos territory.
Mabel Robledo is beneficiary of the Protection Mechanism because she has been the victim of continuous harassment, persecution and threats for her work as a woman defender of territory, the commons and ancestral cultures. On 23 January 2025, the National Police detained her and four other defenders, all OFRANEH members, when they were returning to their community in Nueva Armenia, Atlantida. Last year, on 3 December 2024, she was summoned by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, together with other defenders, accused of the alleged crime of usurpation to the detriment of the company Palma de Atlantida, S.A.
The National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders in Honduras and IM-Defensoras condemn the attempted killing of woman defender Mabel Robledo, the attacks against her and her arbitrary detention.
We demand an end to the threats and persecution against the Garífuna Peoples and protection for the life and integrity of woman defender Mabel Robledo and her family.
We demand that the State of Honduras act urgently and guarantee the safety of the Nueva Armenia defenders who have been facing serious human rights violations since October 2024 for defending their ancestral territory.
We call on national and international organizations to be alert to the situation of risk faced by those who defend the territories and ancestral rights of the Garífuna Peoples.