About 1,000 hectares of banana plantations located in the village of Isletas, in Sonaguera, Colón, Honduras, were reclaimed on November 23 after peasant groups invaded them a month ago. 

The eviction of the 300 families who had taken the land was peaceful and obeyed an order of a judge in Tegucigalpa after executives of the agricultural company Santa Inés, a subsidiary of Standard Fruit of Honduras, owner of the farms, filed the corresponding complaint. 

The eviction was carried out by some 800 officers from different police and army units. 

In recovering the three farms, Guanacaste, La Paz, and La Esperanza, members of Human Rights, the executing judge and prosecutors from the Public Ministry also participated. 

The peasant groups claimed the lands, arguing that they were sold to Standard in a fraudulent manner; however, after analyzing the purchase and sale documents presented by Standard, the judge determined that they were the legitimate owners. 

The invasion of the farms generated losses of around 5 million lempiras per day (USD 202,600) for the Santa Inés company since they prevented them from taking out the bananas exported to the United States. In addition, about a thousand employees were on the verge of losing their jobs because they could not go to work with the seizure of the farms.