EVICTION ORDERED FOR THE GARIFUNA COMMUNITY WHERE TELECINCO´S REALITY SHOW “SUPERVIVIENTES” IS BEING FILMED
By Berta Camprubí Pàmies
September 19, 2026
The communities of the indigenous Garifuna people announce a massive mobilization towards Cayos Cochinos in response to the presence of 200 police officers while Supervivientes (Survivors) changes the filming location.
The spectators who, this Thursday, were enjoying the morbid curiosity and excitement of the Supervivientes All Stars gala on Telecinco, could hardly have imagined the violations of human and territorial rights behind the filming of this reality show. The National Court of Criminal Matters with Jurisdiction over Organized Crime, the Environment and Corruption of Honduras issued, on the morning of this September 17, an eviction order for the Garifuna community of Cayos Cochinos, the Caribbean island located atop the world´s second-largest coral-reef, where Supervivientes is being filmed. “This shows us that we live in a scenario of dispossession and genocide, but we are going to go to Cayos in large numbers to defend our territory”, said Miriam Miranda, a recognized Garifuna woman leader from the Camp for the Life of the Garifuna People in Tegucigalpa.
The communities of Cayos Cochinos, protesting against the presence of the reality show´s production, resisted throughout September 17 in the face of a contingent of more than 200 riot police officers from the Honduran police, who arrived by boat at the beach where the programme gala was supposed to be filmed, but whose location was changed at the last minute. That night, some police officers had left, however, Kaleb Navarro, a lawyer for the Organización Fraterna Negra Hondureña (OFRANEH), which defends the rights of the Garifuna people, did not rule out “a military-style action” against the people maintaining the protest at the beach camp. “We remain on full alert”, he said.
“Our weapons are tobacco, incense and drums, and faced with that, the police sometimes back down”, says Garifuna woman leader Yessica Trinidad, also from the Honduran capital. “The Garifuna people will resist, we are mobilizing: different communities have gone there to stand with us, because this is a matter concerning the people”, she continues.
Supervivientes sidesteps justice
“We are holding a protest against the filming of the reality show Supervivientes, which was going to take place despite the fact that the State of Honduras had been found liable for violating the right to prior consultation that we have over our territory”, said from the beach of Cayos Cochinos Mabel Robledo, a Garifuna woman leader from this paradisiacal territory. She refers to the judgement of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) issued in March 2026, in which the State of Honduras was found liable for violating the human, territorial and cultural identity rights of the Garifuna communities of Cayos Cochinos. The rulling compels the State of Honduras to implement binding prior consultation processes before granting any tourism or environmental concession or entering into contracts for television productions in their territory. There are three other judgements of the same kind, concerning three other communities, including San Juan, where a similar situation occurred a month and a half ago.
In fact, this eviction on the northern coast of Honduras takes place while, in the capital, the Camp for the Life of the Garifuna People has been resisting since August 10, in front of the Supreme Court of Justice, a space of revindication that emerged after an attempt to evict of the community of San Juan, which ended with five members of the community being criminalized. “We are here, where the Camp Berta Lives has also been held, to demand that the four judgements of the IACHR in favour of the Garifuna people be complied and to denounce the judicialization of comrades in the San Juan community”, said Miriam Miranda.
The IACHR ruled that the touristic and television exploitation of Cayos Cochinos was carried out without the consent of the Garifuna people, thereby violating their rights to subsistence. The judgement orders the recognition of their collective marine property rights, guarantees their participation in the administration of the protected area and the cessation of acts of harassment against them. The aggravating factor is that Cayos Cochinos is a territory considered Natural Herritage: Marine Natural Monument and World Cultural Heritage Site (UNESCO).
This is a historical territorial conflict between the interests of the Spanish programme Supervivientes and the communities that have traditionally inhabited the territory where it has been filmed for the past 19 years. Supervivientes, a programme featuring 14 white contestants who have to survive in the Honduran jungle, is a television format owned by the French audiovisual giant Banijay and produced in Spain by its local subsidiary, Cuarzo Producciones. “An ILO report stated in 2021 that Honduras not only lacks mechanisms, but there is also a profound lack of knowledge within the Honduran State about what the right to prior and informed consultation is and how it is exercised”, said the lawyer for OFRANEH.
Judicialization and persecution
Apart from the production company, there are other parties responsible: the private company that filed the complaint that resulted in the eviction order, Sociedad de Inversiones Ecológicas S.A – commercial entity claiming property rights over the disputed area –; the Fundación Cayos Cochinos or Honduras Coral Reef Fund (HCRF), which claims to protect the area environmentally; and finally, the Honduran State itself. The largest shareholder of the Honduras Coral Reef Fund is businessman Ricardo Salinas, one of the richest and most controversial magnates in Mexico.
In the order issued by the specialized court for organized crime, strategically selected to continue the campaign of racist hate against the Garifuna people, the eviction was described as a “neutralizing measure”. What concerns the women leaders of OFRANEH is not only that the eviction could be carried out, but also that they can detain comrades who are in that territory”, says Navarro. The risk is judicialization. “Any Garifuna person found there will be put in jail”, she continues.
The judicialization comes with attacks and persecution of women leaders like Mabel Robledo, who was a key witness in the case that this community brought before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Robledo has been a victim of several attacks by the Honduran public security forces, forcing her, in a complete contradiction, to go accompanied by a security arrangement made up of five army soldiers.
To stand with and raise awareness of the violation of the rights of the Garifuna people, on September 17, 18 and 19, an international delegation has arrived at the Camp for the Life of the Garifuna People, with solidarity and pressure on public institutions and embassies as its main objectives. It has not been possible, however, to obtain any meeting with any institution of the Honduran State, which shows the State´s lack of willingness to engage in dialogue and begin moving towards compliance with the judgements of the IACHR. In the face of the State´s refusal, OFRANEH is building alliances with other peoples and organizations and remains organized, through peaceful resistance, to continue championing a dignified life in their territory.
