The Office of the Special Prosecutor for Ethnic Groups in Honduras is investigating the construction of small hydroelectric dams without the required environmental licences in the western department of Intibucá, which is home to most of the country’s Lenca indigenous people. Special Prosecutor Yani del Cid told Tierramérica that local indigenous communities have presented “irrefutable proof of the construction of dams without legal authorisation, taking advantage of the boom in the government’s promotion of renewable energy.”

According to del Cid, the Ministry of the Environment has been informed of these irregularities, “but we also want to know who the guilty parties are, in order to enforce the law on them.”

The Honduran government is encouraging the development of different renewable sources of energy to reduce the country’s dependence on oil imports, from which 70 percent of electricity is currently produced.

Energy companies claim that the country has the potential to generate 3,200 MW of hydroelectric power, while the demand is 1,400 MW.