The Moskitia: The Honduran Jungle Drowning in Cocaine

The region of the Moskitia on the border between Honduras and Nicaragua is one of Central America’s last great wildernesses, a paradise of pristine ecosystems and biodiversity. But today, the jungle of the Moskitia is dying. And it is organized crime that is killing it.

First came the drugs, as traffickers turned the region’s coasts and forests into a cocaine corridor. Then came the traffickers themselves, financing invaders that are clear-cutting thousands of hectares of forest and fencing off vast tracts of land with barbed wire and armed guards.

The region’s Indigenous Miskito people have been left trapped in desperate poverty, and are caught between the traffickers and an indifferent state. But some are now preparing to fight back.