Survey Confirms Land Rights Project’s Impact

April 15, 2010

Couple Alba and Mario Cantor are among the roughly 3,750 homeowners in Flor del Campo who have obtained land titles in the last four years. Having a title, and knowing that no one would be able to take their home away from them, gave them the confidence to invest in a variety of remodeling projects, including the beautiful door and frame shown here.

An ASJ (formerly known as AJS)-administered survey in the neighborhood of Flor del Campo proves that ASJ’s Land Rights project is paying off.

Flor del Campo, a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa, was the first community to benefit from a Property Law that ASJ helped to develop and that was signed into law in 2004. Under the law, when multiple owners claim to own the same large areas of land, preventing the people who actually live in the neighborhoods that have developed on that land from being able to get titles, the government has the right to come in and take possession of these communities.

The people who live in the communities then pay a fair price for the land they live on in exchange for a title, which serves as legal proof that the family owns the land. These residents can then use these titles as collateral to take out loans to improve their homes or start a small business.

(If people claiming to be large-scale landholders whose property was settled without their permission can substantiate those claims in court, they receive reimbursement for the land now titled to the current residents via the payments these residents have made for their titles.)

The survey was designed and implemented by Joy Nissen, a Wheaton College student who interned with the Land Rights project for six months. She organized a group of youth from Flor del Campo to administer the survey door to door to 200 randomly selected households—about 4% of the total households in the neighborhood. The results: 75 percent of households surveyed have already received land titles. This suggests that in the neighborhood of Flor del Campo as a whole, around 3,750 households, or a total of nearly 20,000 people, who five years ago did not have legal ownership of their land, now do. Praise God for this accomplishment!

Of the 151 households surveyed that have obtained title, 25 have attempted to take out loans using their title as collateral, and 15 of them were successful. Most said they wanted the loan to improve their home, replacing rotting wood with cement blocks, or corroding roofs with fresh tin. The land titles also ensure that people making false claims to own the land Flor del Campo occupies now have no legal basis whatsoever to kick families out of their houses or charge them rent.

The attorney in charge of the ASJ land team, Gilda Espinal, says that ASJ’s hard work in helping residents understand the process and guiding community leaders through all of the steps is a major factor in the high percentage of families who are now legal landowners. Without ASJ’s accompaniment, the communities might still be stuck in a bureaucratic tangle.

“Considering that Flor del Campo was our pilot community, and after all the work we did to determine who the real owner of the land was, this is excellent news,” Gilda said of the survey’s results. “We have learned a lot over the last five years about how to help communities and community leaders avoid errors that delay the process. They are more empowered and better understand their own obligations.”

Since the Property Law passed in 2004, some 30,000 land titles have been given out to residents in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, thanks in large part to the Land Rights team’s efforts to educate and advocate on behalf of communities undergoing the titling process.

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ASJ-US and ASJ-Canada Joint Statement on Honduran Elections

December 2, 2025

ASJ-Canada and ASJ-US Congratulate the Honduran People, Call for Full and Transparent Results As sister organizations committed to justice, peace and hope in Honduras, ASJ-Canada and ASJ-US extend our deepest congratulations to the people of Honduras on the peaceful conduct of their national elections on November 30, 2025. With the initial tally showing an extraordinarily close vote, we call on election authorities to do what is necessary to ensure a transparent count of the remaining ballots in order to guarantee public trust in the final outcome. We commend the Honduran voters for their dedication to democratic participation and their commitment to shaping the future of their country through civic engagement. We also recognize the efforts of electoral authorities, civil society organizations, the international community and the thousands of volunteer observers who worked to ensure a transparent, orderly, and secure process. We are especially proud of our sister organization, ASJ-Honduras, for their unwavering commitment to democracy demonstrated through their electoral observation efforts, their analysis activities, and their consistent call for a fair and orderly process. Now that such a process has been achieved, the work turns to counting the votes with accuracy and transparency. The results remain close, increasing the possibility of a contested result. We support the work of the election officials at the National Electoral Council to give Hondurans confidence in the final results by conducting their count with rigor and transparency. We remain hopeful that the spirit of peaceful participation in the democratic process embraced by the electorate will carry forward into the post-election period to come. We look forward to continued collaboration with ASJ-Honduras as we all work together toward a just and hopeful future for all Hondurans. Matthew Van Geest President, Board of Directors ASJ-Canada Russ Jacobs President, Board of Directors ASJ-US

Artisans of Fraternity, Guardians of Hope

November 28, 2025

A call to action for Honduras

November 2025 ASJ-US Statement about Honduran Elections

By Elizabeth Hickel • November 25, 2025

The Association for a More Justice Society-US Supports the Network to Defend Democracy; Calls for Free and Fair Elections in Honduras November 25, 2025

Context Updates on the 2025 Elections in Honduras

November 13, 2025

Honduras’s Institutional Crisis Deepens Ahead of the 2025 Elections

HOPE

By Elizabeth Hickel • November 12, 2025

Dear friend, I couldn’t stop looking at the picture. Of course, there had been plenty of inspiring photos from this summer’s Prayer Walk for Peace and Democracy. The sea of blue and white rising and falling as hundreds of thousands walked the Honduran hills through Tegucigalpa, flowing like a never-ending stream. Catholic nuns praying their rosaries alongside Pentecostals dancing in the streets. But the picture that still knocks me flat is the closeup. The one of the two men standing side by side (picture enclosed). They are exhausted, and the shorter collapses into the taller. The tears mostly hold joy and relief, but they are mingled with something darker. After all, there had been threats—promises of harm done to themselves and their loved ones if they led their followers through the streets of Honduras in prayer. Despite the fear and intimidation, Pastor Gerardo Irías and Monsignor José Vicente Nácher forged ahead. They knew Honduras needed unity and, above all, prayer before the looming November 2025 presidential elections. As an ASJ supporter, you know that these kinds of threats aren’t out of the ordinary, and your support has helped slow and reverse violence in Honduras. Today, I am writing to share a way you can continue standing with brave Hondurans like Pastor Gerardo and Monsignor José in hope. The Evangelical pastor and the Catholic archbishop put the word out as widely as they could to their churches, hoping to mobilize 20,000 to walk and pray. Instead, an estimated 230,000 walked in the capital of Tegucigalpa alone. It was a historic moment. And without your past support for ASJ, it may have never happened. After all, two years prior, Pastor Gerardo and Monsignor José didn’t even know each other’s names. They first met in 2023 at ASJ’s offices. They were two of many civil society leaders convened by ASJ to discuss safeguarding democracy– especially before the election in 2025. It was at that meeting that they shook each other’s hand and learned each other’s name. It was at that meeting–and many subsequent meetings–where old religious prejudices began to be replaced by trust and mutual affection. So, when the moment came this summer to act, Pastor Gerardo and Monsignor José knew what they had to do. And they knew that they had to do it together.