Honduran fisherfolk ask navy to protect them

[Judi Lynn]

Online News Editor
July 21, 2023

San Lorenzo, Honduras, Jul 21 (EFE).- Representatives of the estimated 12,000-14,000 artisanal fishers who operate in the Honduran portion of the Gulf of Fonseca want their country’s navy to protect them from intrusions by the navies of neighboring El Salvador and Nicaragua.

“We have seen the absence of patrolling by the Honduran naval force,” Modesto Ochoa, chairman of the Committee for the Defense and Development of the Flora and Fauna of the Gulf of Fonseca (Coddeffagolf), told EFE during a recent tour of the zone. “Every day we are threatened by naval units of Nicaragua and Salvador who enter our waters,” he said.

Part of the Pacific Ocean, the Gulf of Fonseca is an expanse of roughly 3,200 sq km (1,200 sq mi) that is shared among Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua within boundaries set in 1992 by the International Court of Justice. The lion’s share of the gulf’s 261 km (162 mi) of coastline belongs to Honduras. Nicaragua’s navy said Monday that it detained two Hondurans on July 15 for illegally fishing in Nicaraguan waters.

Fisherfolk in the Gulf of Fonseca “currently live under the law of the jungle, of save yourself if you can,” Ochoa said, as they often don’t catch enough to cover the cost of fuel for their boats due to the dwindling of fish stocks.

More:
https://www.laprensalatina.com/honduran-fisherfolk-ask-navy-to-protect-them/