approval because it included a tourist area. 4 According to the petitioner, the Ministry of Tourism unlawfully authorized that expansion on January 20, 1992, without advising the Community even though the authorization affected Community lands. When its urban limits were enlarged, the Municipality of Tela interpreted that the lands of the Garífuna Community of Triunfo de la Cruz had become its property and it awarded a plot of land to its own Labor Union. 16. In addition, the Municipality bought parcels of land from community members who had no authority to sell, and later transferred that land to a tourism enterprise. According to the petitioner, the municipality did this even though the full ownership deed of the Community clearly states that any sale or donation of lots in the lands awarded to the Triunfo de la Cruz Community must be authorized by the Honduran Tourism Institute and may take place only if the purchasers are descendants of the beneficiary ethnic communities, in this case Garífunas of the Triunfo de la Cruz Community. Several members of the Community were also forced under threats and duress to sell land to businessmen from the firm ofInversiones y Desarrollo El Triunfo S.A. (IDETRISA) for a development known as Club Marbella, without any record of authorization by the Honduran Tourism Institute or the purchasers being Garífunas. Members of the Community who opposed the sale were targeted for attacks, including murder and slander, as in the case of community leaders Jesús Alvarez and Oscar Brega, as well as unlawful arrest, as in the case of Alfredo López. These actions ushered in an atmosphere of fear and insecurity that persists in the area. 17. IDETRISA built houses within the property of the Community and the area is now fenced in; Community members are prevented from using that land, which includes an area of farmland. 18. Another problem faced by the Triunfo de la Cruz Community, is the situation of the peasant production cooperative named El Esfuerzo, made up of Community women. In 1996 the Community asked the INA to donate 25 square blocks of the guaranteed occupancy tract of land to this peasant enterprise of Community women, so that they could carry on their activities there. However, because of the expansion of the urban limits of the municipality, the women of the cooperative have been involved for years in a legal battle with the municipality, in which complaints have even been lodged against the cooperative for trespassing, even though it is the municipality that is trespassing on the property. In addition, the municipality has taken steps to harass them, as in 2002, when the yucca plantations of the women's association were destroyed and cattle were brought into the plantings. The report to the Criminal Investigation Bureau led nowhere and the problem continues to this day. 19. To stop the dispossession of their lands, a Committee to Defend the Land of Triunfo (CODETT) was formed. It reported to the authorities the various actions of third parties bent on appropriating the Community's land. CODETT requested certification of land sales in the Community, collected testimony and documentary evidence and reported matters to the municipality, to the INA and to the Prosecutor's Office for Ethnic Groups, with no positive results. 20. Concerning the exhaustion of internal remedies, the petitioner states that all actions taken to protect the property rights of the Triunfo de la Cruz Community have been fruitless. In the case of IDETRISA a criminal action was filed with the courts and, in the lower courts, municipal officials who took part in the fraudulent sales were found guilty. However, on appeal, the decision was reversed and this last decision was later upheld by a higher court. No notice of this last decision was given to the Community, which found out about it on July 8, 2003. Nor was the Community notified of the decision to expand the urban limits of the Tela Municipality, thus preventing the Community from taking legal action against it. 4 It is important to note that the second paragraph of this document reads: "exclude from the limits of the urban area the land awarded to the beneficiaries of the Agrarian Reform prior to this resolution until the total value thereof has been canceled," and item 3 reads: "this statement is without prejudice to the right of ownership and possession of individuals or corporations within the boundaries of the area (Triunfo)." 3