Bajo Aguán

Bajo Aguán (Lower Aguán) refers to the lower part of Honduras' Aguán River Valley, in the north-eastern Colón Department and Yoro Department; the entire valley covers 200,000 hectares.^[1] The area was at one time farmed by banana companies, but was abandoned in the 1930s, after which infrastructure deteriorated and the population sharply declined, to 68,000 inhabitants in 1961.^[1]

Re-colonization of the area after 1974 resulted in a population increase, to 181,000 by 1980.^[1] The region is now again a major agricultural area, and by the early 1980s was producing "the majority of the nation's pineapple, grapefruit, and coconut, and nearly half its banana output".^[1] By 2011 though, much of the farmland was turned to oil palm plantations, including 22,000 acres (around a fifth of Bajo Aguán's agricultural land) owned by Miguel Facussé Barjum's Corporación Dinant.^[2]

Ramón Amaya Amador set his novel Prisión verde [es], among the concerns of life on banana plantations in the area.

References

1. Jeffrey R. Jones, Colonization and Environment: Land Settlement Projects in Central America, The United Nations University Press, 1990
2. The New York Times, September 15, 2011 In Honduras, Land Struggles Highlight Post-Coup Polarization

Further reading

• Miguel Alonzo Macías (2001), La capital de la contrarreforma agraria: El Bajo-Aguán de Honduras, Editorial Guaymuras

External links

• Food First Information and Action Network, Human Rights Violations in Bajo Aguán, July 2011