Blanca Saraí Izaguirre Lozano
National Commissioner for Human Rights (CONADEH)
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
August 15, 2025
Dear Commissioner Izaguirre Lozano:
We are writing to express our deep concern about the continuing injustice and violations of the rights of the Garífuna people in the case of Canadian property developer Randy Jorgensen. For years Garífuna communities along the Atlantic coast have suffered illegal land usurpation, lack of legal protection, and cultural theft. Late last year, more than 3,500 archaeological artifacts belonging to several Indigenous and pre-Columbian cultures—including sacred items likely taken from burial sites—were found in Jorgensen’s former property near Trujillo.
Randy Jorgensen’s property developments (including luxury condominiums, retirement villages, and a port for cruise ships) were expedited following Honduras’ 2009 military coup. Garífuna communities—illegally and forcibly displaced—filed legal complaints of land usurpation. Although some courts have ruled to protect Garífuna land rights, municipal authorities largely ignore the orders and issue unlawful building permits. After a decade, the Attorney General’s investigators did find Jorgensen guilty, but he was later acquitted. Finally in April of this year, the Attorney General seized 233 of Jorgensen’s properties and accused Jorgensen of money laundering and of defrauding Canadian investors. But Jorgensen has not been arrested or charged in relation to the property seizures. Furthermore, the Attorney General has taken to public action to investigate the illegal collection of cultural artifacts.
The Garífuna, desendants of Indigenous peoples from the Caribbean and formerly enslaved Africans, have lived on the Atlantic coast since 1797. The State of Honduras has already been condemned three times by the Inter-American Court on Human Rights for violating the Garífuna people’s right to collective land ownership in three separate communities: (1) Triunfo de la Cruz, Atlántida Department (2015); (2) Punta Piedra, Colón Department (2015); and (3) San Juan, Atlántida Department (2023)
Randy Jorgensen, meanwhile, remains free in Colón Department, walking around Trujillo Bay with armed guards and under apparent protection of the Administrative Office of Seized Goods (OABI). The failure of the Honduran state to stop his illegal activities demonstrates clear disrespect for the rights of the Garífuna people.
We therefore support the urgent demands of OFRANEH, including:
(1) immediate arrest of Randy Jorgensen and full criminal investigation into the charges of land usurpation, money laundering, and illegal possession and trafficking of cultural artifacts
(2) transparent handling and protection of the recovered cultural artifacts, with a commitment to returning them to the rightful Indigenous communities.
(3) full enforcement of land titling decisions in favor of the Garífuna and accountability for public officials who failed to protect Indigenous rights.
Sincerely,
Brian J. Stefan Szittai Christine Stonebraker Martínez
Co-coordinators
copies:
Javier Efraín Bú Soto, Ambassador of Honduras in Washington, DC ~ via email and US mail
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR): Andrea Pochak (Rapporteur for Honduras), Gloria Monique de Mees (Rapporteur on the Rights of Afro-descendants) ~ via email
Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OACNUDH): Isabel Albaladejo Escribano (Representative to Honduras), Alice Shackelford (UN Resident Coordinator in Honduras) ~ via email
US State Department: Honduras Desk Officer (Washington, DC) and US Embassy in Tegucigalpa: Roy Perrin (Chargé d’Affaires ad interim) and Human Rights Officer ~ via email
US Congress: Senators from Ohio (Husted and Moreno) ~ via emial
US Representatives from Ohio (Beatty, Brown, Jordan, Joyce, Kaptur, Latta, Miller, Rulli, Sykes) ~ via email
16 MAY 2025_OFRANEH_Honduras
