Land Grab: Green Neoliberalism, Gender, and Garifuna Resistance in Honduras

4. Gendered Rights and Responsibilities: Privatization and Women’s Land Loss in Sambo Creek

73 four Gendered Rights and Responsibilities Privatization and Women’s Land Loss in Sambo Creek The processes of territorialization are often gendered. Not only are new (attractive) values assigned to previously untradable goods, thus bringing in new market-oriented actors to the coast, but women are assigned different values in their own communities. In Sambo Creek, the reregulation of land has meant that women’s responsibilities and relationships to territory are redefined by neoliberal discourse and practice, further disenfranchising them within their households and communities. Communal Title, Private Lands On August 27, 1997, Sambo Creek received a communal title of domino pleno (the highest level of land ownership) for 184.23 hectares. The only other title issued to the community had been a title of occupation that protected just 41 hectares, issued by the INA in 1979. ODECO, who assisted in processing the legal paperwork for the 1997 title, worked for it to protect Sambo Creek’s residents from the potential threat of outsiders purchasing their untitled land for investment projects. ODECO leadership frequently reiterated that before the 1997 title was issued all land in the community was not legally protected. However, the residents of Sambo Creek issued 74 • Land Grab serious complaints over the limits established by the title. Their disapproval of the title led the community patronato and the Committee for Defense of the Land to issue a statement to the INA indicating that ODECO should henceforth not be granted the authority to represent Sambo Creek in any further land issues. Like most of the titles granted to Garifuna communities, the 1997 land title did not include ancestral territory, which is estimated to extend beyond 1,000 hectares, nearly ten times what was granted in 1997 (Central American and Caribbean Research Council 2002). Some areas of the community that have been occupied for well over a century, and perhaps even since the community’s foundation (e.g., La Louba or el otro lado, or “over there”) were completely left out of the title. About 50 Garifuna individuals in nine houses live in La Louba, all descendants of an 86-year-old Garifuna woman who inherited the land from her mother and now holds a private title. The families that live in this area reported to me that the municipality of Jutiapa is now asking them to pay taxes (whereas in the past they were considered part of Sambo Creek and under the jurisdiction of La Ceiba’s municipality). While traditional landholding in Sambo Creek is communal, with the patronato having the ultimate authority regarding its distribution and use rights, and many of the Garifuna I knew stated they preferred communal holding and use rights, the rules of communal holding apply only to land that was not previously privately titled. Unfortunately, much of the land had already been privatized prior to 1997. The majority (75 percent) of households I surveyed reported that their land was private land, including households located in Colonia Libertad (i.e., the donated area of the community ), and homes constructed on land obtained through encroachment. By 2002 many people had already gone through the legal process to obtain a private title. Even those who had yet to begin the legal procedure to privatize their holdings still stated a preference for private land titling over communal land titling. When I asked, inevitably I was told it is “because private titles are more secure” and “no one can take your land if you have a title.” One mestizo respondent reported that the reason he got a private title was that “the negritos wanted to take our land.” The two mestizos who reported obtaining land through encroachment desired a private title, fearing that under the current land struggle they might lose their land to Garifuna residents. In general there is a shared sense among local mestizos and Garifuna that private property is a more secure form of property ownership, even in light of state-sanctioned communal lands. Collective land titles appear Gendered Rights and Responsibilities • 75 ambiguous—exactly which members of the community have rights to the land, and how are communal plots managed on a day-to-day and longterm basis? The ambiguity in the meaning behind collective land titles combines with the rising value of private property to form an imperative among local people to prioritize individual, private landholding. Matrifocality, Privatization, and Women’s Land Loss As mentioned earlier, Garifuna homes typically consist of...