The undersigned organizations hereby express our condemnation of the environmental and human rights violations that have occurred in the Garífuna territory as a result of the filming of the reality show Supervivientes, and we express our support and solidarity with the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH).

OFRANEH was founded in 1978 to defend the Garífuna Peoples’ cultural and territorial rights. Its work has made it a national and international example both of environmental defense and of building alternatives for Garífuna communities to have a life with dignity. This work has made it a target of persecution, threats, forced disappearances and killings of men and women defenders of the Garífuna Peoples.

For years, OFRANEH, the National Network of Women Defenders in Honduras (part of IM-Defensoras) and various national and international organizations have denounced the severe impacts of filming the reality show Supervivientes in the Garífuna communities of the Cayos Cochinos archipelago.

The television show Supervivientes is broadcast in Spain through Tele5, owned by Mediaset España, which in 2023 became part of the Dutch company MFE-MediaForEurope. The show is produced by Cuarzo Producciones, which currently belongs to the French multinational company Banijay Group. These companies received permission to conduct their work on the territory by the State of Honduras and the Cayos Cochinos Foundation – the entity that was granted the administration of the territory and whose president is also the president of the Ecological Investment Society (SIEC), which owns the locations where the contest is filmed.¹

The filming of the show has created environmental damages, has restricted the ability of residents to carry out their livelihood activities, and has caused conflicts between communities. It has also led to acts of violence, racism and intimidation against those who have protested the imposition of the project. Examples of this include the dumping of garbage in the sea and prohibiting local people from entering the beach or fishing in order to simulate that the show takes place on a deserted island. Various Spanish media outlets have described the situation.²

Concerning the repression against local people opposed to the project, the most recent event took place on 4 September 2025, when police forces and members of the Honduran Navy engaged in violent and intimidating actions against people who were staging a peaceful demonstration in Cayos Cochinos to denounce that the filming of the show is also disturbing the Hawksbill turtles’ nesting process, which takes place in September, and may jeopardize the entire reproductive cycle and life of the endangered species.³

Despite OFRANEH informing the show’s producers about these social and environmental impacts, and the request to stop the filming, change the date and location, the filming continued without regard to the damages it is causing.

Given the lack of response from the State of Honduras regarding the violations of the Garífuna Peoples’ rights, and just like the cases of the Garífuna communities of San Juan, Punta Piedra and Triunfo de la Cruz (where the State of Honduras was found guilty of violating the rights of the Garífuna Peoples), OFRANEH has taken the case of Cayos Cochinos to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, where hearings on the matter took place last May.

Given the situation, we demand: That the relevant authorities in Spain – specifically the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the State Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure Agency – take the necessary measures to ensure that the television broadcaster immediately ceases all actions that involve human rights violations and, if it fails to do so, that it is punished in accordance with the severity of the situations it is causing. That the relevant authorities in the European Union ensure that the companies involved – all of which are European – are aware that their activities have a serious impact on the rights of the Garifuna communities of Cayos Cochinos, and that the situation is in breach of the contents and guiding principles of EU Directive 2024/1760 on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence. European External Action Service. We also demand that the relevant ministries and diplomatic delegations of France, the Netherlands, and Spain, refrain from taking actions that enable business activities that lead to rights violations to continue and instead implement actions aimed at ensuring that this does not happen again, as well as repairing the material and ecological damage caused.

SIGNATORIES:

• Organización Fraternal Negra Hondureña (OFRANEH)

• Red Nacional de Defensoras de Derechos Humanos en Honduras

• Red Nacional de Defensoras de Derechos Humanos en México

• Iniciativa Mesoamericana de Mujeres Defensoras de Derechos Humanos (IM-Defensoras)

Organizations from the Spanish State:

• Acció del cristians per l'abolició de la tortura (ACAT)

• ACCOES

• AIETI

• Alternativa-intercambio con pueblos indígenas

• Amarantas Colectiva Feminista Antiracista

• Asamblea 8M Zaragoza

• Asamblea Transfeminista Val de Benás

• Asociación Ayujara

• Asociación Cultural ONGD Thakhi-runa

• Asociación derechos humanos y de las mujeres de Extremadura (ADHEX)

• Asociación Entrepueblos

• Asociación Mujeres PaLante

• Asociación por la Paz y los Derechos Humanos Taula per Mèxic

• Associació Llavors d'ací

• Association mémoire graphique

• Basoa

• Calala Fondo de Mujeres

• Canopia Coop. V. / Espacio de Encuentros Rurales La Surera

• Càtedra UNESCO de Desarrollo Humano Sostenible

• Colectivo Abya Yala Mallorca

• Colectivo caminando fronteras

• Comissió Catalana d'Acció pel Refugi (CCAR)

• Comité de Solidaridad con los Pueblos - Interpueblos

• CSA A Melonera

• Ecologistas en Acción

• Ecologistas en Acción La Rioja

• Flama Cultural

• Fundación Atabal

• Grup Balear d'Ornitologia i Defensa de la Naturalesa (GOB)

• Grupo de acción comunitaria

• Grupo por el Socialismo

• La vall sostenible

• Lumaltik Herriak

• Medicusmundi Bizkaia

• Metik kolektiboa

• Mugarik gabe

• Mugarik gabe Nafarroa

• Mujeres migrantes diversas

• Observatori del Deute en la Globalització (ODG)

• Oficina de cooperación de la UIB

• Perifèries del món

• Plataforma para el Estudio y conservación de la Sierra de Chiva

• Red de hondureñas migradas en España

• SETEM Catalunya

• SUDS - Associació Internacional de Solidaritat i Cooperació

• Zehar - Errefuxiatuekin

International organizations:

• CEJIL, América latina y el Caribe

• CIVICUS: Alianza Global para la Participación Ciudadana, Internacional

• Climate Activist Defenders (CAD), Internacional

• Federación Internacional por los Derechos Humanos (FIDH), en el marco del Observatorio para la Protección de las Personas Defensoras de Derechos Humanos, Internacional

• Indigenous Peoples' Rights International

• Just Associates (JASS), Internacional

• La Sombrilla Centroamericana, Centroamérica

• Latinas en poder, Abya Yala

• Oficina Ecuménica por la Paz y la Justicia, Internacional

• Organización Mundial Contra la Tortura (OMCT), en el marco del Observatorio para la Protección las Personas Defensoras de Derechos Humanos, Internacional

• Red EU-LAT, Internacional

• The Regional Coalition for Women Human Rights Defenders in South West Asia and North Africa (WHRDMENA)

• Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition, Internacional

Organizations from other parts of the world:

• ADIVIMA, Guatemala

• Alianza Sierra Madre (ASMAC), México

• Asociación Movimiento de Mujeres de Santo Tomás (MOMUJEST), El Salvador

• Círculos de sanación afrocentrada, Guatemala

• Coalición Ambientalista Copán, Honduras

• Comité Ambiental en Defensa de la Vida, Colombia

• Comunidad de cristales y Río negro (CCYRN), Honduras

• CONAMINH, Honduras

• Consejo directivo de tribu Tolupan Agalteca, Honduras

• Consejo Wuxhtaj, Guatemala

• De Pueblo y Barrio, Honduras

• La Colmena Cimarrona, Puerto Rico

• Marcha mundial de las mujeres Macronorte, Perú

• Movimiento cimarrón nacional colombiano, Colombia

• Movimiento de Mujeres de Kurdistán en Abya Yala

• Movimiento Trans Feminista, Bolivia

• Movimiento Unificado Francisco Sánchez 1932 MUFRAS-32, El Salvador

• Otros Mundos Chiapas, México

• Patronato Promejoramiento de la comunidad garífuna de Nueva Armenia, Honduras

• Red contra la violencia hacia las mujeres de Intibucá, Honduras

• Red de Mujeres en Lucha, Honduras

• Red departamental de mujeres Santa Bárbara, Honduras

• Red Internacional de Promotores ODS, Internacional

• Red mujeres mariposas complejo Ramón Amaya Amador, Honduras

• Sanando entre mujeres (SAMUJES), EL Salvador

• Semillero de prácticas feministas negras, Abya Yala

• Tours operadora “Let’s go to cayos cochinos”, Honduras

• Voces de mujeres afrodescendientes en Panamá (VOMAP), Panamá

• Women Rehabilitation Centre (WOREC), Nepal

• Zimbabwe People's Land Rights Movement, Zimbabwe

1. https://www.publico.es/uwu/efectos-reallity-supervivientes-cayos-cochinos.html ↩︎︎
2. In 2008, media outlets El Observador y El Diario.es were already covering this issue:  https://revistaelobservador.com/2-uncategorised/1642-el-derecho-a-la-alimentacion-y-la-mentira-de-la-conservacion-la-cara-oculta-del-programa-supervivientes-de-tele-5 y https://www.eldiario.es/vertele/videos/actualidad/denuncian-grabacion-supervivientes-derechos-indigenas_1_7776024.html  Posteriormente se han encontrado otras noticias como estas:  https://www.elsaltodiario.com/honduras/pescadores-garifunas-denuncian-amenazas-del-reality-show-supervivientes-telecinco   ↩︎︎
3. https://im-defensoras.org/es/2025/09/alerta-defensoras-honduras-fuerzas-de-seguridad-del-estado-persiguen-e-intimidan-a-personas-defensoras-garifunas-que-denunciaban-los-impactos-sobre-sus-comunidades-del-reality-show-espanol-supervivientes/ ↩︎︎