TITLE: HONDURAS HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES, 1994 AUTHOR: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE DATE: FEBRUARY 1995 HONDURAS Honduras is a constitutional democracy with a President and a unicameral Congress elected for 4-year terms, and an independent judiciary headed by a Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ). President Carlos Roberto Reina took office in January as the fourth democratically elected president since the reestablishment of democracy in 1982. Both major parties (Liberal and Nationalist) have now assumed power from the other after free elections. The Honduran Armed Forces (HOAF) comprise the army, air force, navy, and the National Police (Public Security Force--FUSEP) as a fourth branch. The HOAF operates with considerable institutional and legal autonomy, particularly in the realm of internal security and military affairs. It controls the police, the merchant marine, and the national telephone company. In November the Congress passed legislation which will remove the merchant marine from military control in 1995. The Government established an Ad Hoc Commission on Police and Judicial Reform in 1993, in response to credible allegations of extrajudicial killings by members of the FUSEP, particularly its Directorate of National Investigations (DNI). On January 6, it established a new Public Ministry containing a new Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DIC) to replace the DNI. The Government formally dissolved the DNI in June, but the DIC is still in the process of formation, leaving a gap in investigative capability. Human rights organizations, including the Government's National Commission for the Protection of Human Rights (CONAPRODE), say there was a noticeable drop in reports of abuses after the DNI was abolished. However, members of both the armed forces and the FUSEP continued to commit human rights abuses. The economy is primarily based on agriculture, with a small but growing light manufacturing sector. The armed forces also play a sizable role in the national economy, controlling numerous enterprises usually associated with the private sector, including several insurance companies and one of the two cement companies. Economic activity was plagued by a drought-induced shortage of electricity, and real gross domestic product declined by about 2 percent. Combined unemployment and underemployment were approximately 58 percent, and the Government estimated that 62 percent of all citizens live in poverty. The most widespread human rights abuses were arbitrary and incommunicado detentions, and beatings and other abuse of detainees, sometimes including torture. There was a small number of extrajudicial killings. One major cause of human rights problems is the impunity enjoyed by members of the civilian and military elite, exacerbated by a weak, underfunded, and sometimes corrupt judicial system. Prison conditions remained deplorable. Other continuing human rights problems were violence against women, discrimination against indigenous peoples, and the inability of the judicial system to provide prisoners awaiting trial with swift and impartial justice. Almost no elected official, member of the business elite, bureaucrat, politician, or anyone with perceived influence or connections to the elite was tried, sentenced, or significantly fined in 1994. RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS Section 1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom from: a. Political and Other Extrajudicial Killing There were no reports of politically motivated killings, but members of the security forces committed several extrajudicial killings. The crime rate surged in 1994, including a rise in the number of homicides. It has become increasingly difficult to differentiate between homicides that may have been extrajudicial acts by government forces or agents and those which were common crimes. In March two FUSEP agents kidnaped, tortured, and stabbed to death a 78-year-old evangelical pastor, Justo Irias Ordonez, in Lepaguare, Olancho (located in a remote part of eastern Honduras). Witnesses to the events claim the two agents went to the home of Ordonez, beat him with rifle butts, tied his hands, and took him to a place known as Pozo Malacate where they sodomized and killed him. The FUSEP commander in Juticalpa arrested the two agents and charged them with the crime. At year's end, they were awaiting trial by civil court. On November 7, the authorities suspended the Chief of Police in La Ceiba and two of his subordinates pending an investigation by the Attorney General's office into the alleged kidnaping and murder of a vendor suspected of killing an 11-year-old boy during an attempted burglary. Officials from the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras (CODEH), the Attorney General's Office, and the police are working together on the investigation, the first time this has ever occurred, according to CODEH. Credible allegations of extrajudicial killings by members of the FUSEP, particularly its now defunct Directorate of National Investigations, led to the creation of the new Public Ministry to manage investigations of criminal cases. The new Ministry is also responsible for investigating all cases of extrajudicial killings, including those of past years. The Government formally dissolved the DNI on June 11 and moved its functions to the new civilian-controlled DIC. Human rights groups noted a drop in the number of reports of human rights abuses since the dissolution of the DNI. The Public Ministry is still in the process of training and organizing its staff and recruiting members for the new DIC. The attorneys and staff of the Ministry will lack the capability to investigate adequately current or past criminal cases until the DIC completes its training in the spring of 1995. The authorities undertook no further investigation or prosecution of alleged extrajudicial killings committed in previous years. These included the 1993 killings of Eduardo Pina van Tuyl, Guillermo Agurcia Lefebvre, Lourdes Enamorado, Roger David Torres Vallejos, Rigoberto Quezada Figueres, Cleofes Colindres Canales, Juan Jose Menendez, Glenda Patricia Solorzano Medina, and Jorge Alcides Medina Hernandez; the 1992 killings of Juan Humberto Sanchez, Rigoberto Borjas, Ramon Castellon Baide, and Cayo Eng Lee; the 1991 murder of Manuel de Jesus Guerra; and the 1990 killings of Francisco Javier Bonilla Medina and Ramon Antonio Briceno. The family of 18-year-old student Riccy Mabel Martinez, victim of a July 13, 1991 rape and murder, appealed the original verdict in the case (equivalent to second-degree murder), and requested that the two military defendants be convicted of first-degree murder (which would preclude any possibility of pardon). The defendants filed a countersuit; at year's end, both cases were pending before the Supreme Court of Appeals. b. Disappearance There were no reports of disappearances motivated by politics or conducted by the security forces. Local human rights groups and Amnesty International continued to press, unsuccessfully, for an official accounting of the 184 claimed disappearances which occurred mainly during the early 1980's under the tenure of former armed forces Commander General Gustavo Alvarez Martinez. In December 1993, Human Rights Commissioner Leo Valladares presented a preliminary report on political disappearances during the 1979-89 period. On November 9, a CSJ Commission announced that all but 9 of the 184 missing persons cases lacked the evidence required for proper legal proceedings. (The nine cases referred to are those or persons who were missing for some time but were later found alive.) The report also noted that the survivors accused the current Minister of Defense of involvement in the detention, torture, and disappearance of four suspected leftists in 1988 (when he commanded an infantry brigade), but offered no proof. The Commission sent the nine cases warranting further action to the Attorney General's office. All nine were reopened and at year's end, preliminary investigations were under way. A full investigation will be possible only when the DIC is trained and in place. On December 9, three forensic anthropologists who excavated a grave site believed to contain a death squad victim from the 1980's were able to confirm the identity of the body buried at that site since 1982 as that of Nelson Mackay Chavarria, a Honduran citizen. Because of serious decomposition of the body, the anthropologists could not determine the cause of death or whether the victim had been tortured. Human Rights Commissioner Valladares called for an immediate investigation by the Attorney General's Office and an end to impunity for those involved in the 184 disappearances during the 1980's. The Attorney General began an investigation which will include testimony by members of the security forces. c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment Although the Constitution prohibits torture, and police and military authorities issued assurances throughout 1994 that the practice had been stopped, credible charges of torture and other abuse of detainees continue. Members of the police force resort to abuses to obtain confessions and keep suspects in jail. There were no reports of torture for political motives. One case of alleged torture involved 27-year-old narcotics suspect Fernando Flores Salgado. The Public Ministry reported that a FUSEP agent arrested Salgado on August 11 in the airport at Puerto Lempira and took him to a police station where, during a search of his luggage, police found an AK-47 automatic assault rifle. Salgado claimed he was beaten and a sack laced with lime was placed over his head, causing burns. The Ministry's report said the beatings continued on August 12 and, when the officers and their commander failed to extract information from Salgado about the seller of the AK-47, they took him to a lake and repeatedly submerged him in the water. On August 13, an assistant prosecutor from the Public Ministry obtained Salgado's release. Attorney General Edmundo Orellana presented charges against all three FUSEP agents for human rights violations, torture, battery, and attempted homicide. The courts in Puerto Lempira issued warrants, but none of the three were arrested. Prosecutors at the Public Ministry stated that FUSEP officials attempted to halt any investigation of the three agents by filing charges of drug trafficking against the assistant prosecutor who secured Salgado's release. Local human rights groups say this is an attempt by the FUSEP to discredit the charges and intimidate the investigators. The FUSEP rearrested Salgado on October 15 and charged him with terrorism because of the AK-47 found in his possession. In late October, the FUSEP dropped all charges against Salgado and the prosecutor; charges were also dropped against the FUSEP agents. On October 7, police arrested two juveniles in Tegucigalpa. The juveniles charged that police held them in a cell with adults and that both police and the other prisoners beat and tortured them. Officials of Casa Alianza (an affiliate of Covenant House in New York), which operates a refuge for street children, obtained the release of both of them on October 10. Following medical confirmation of the injuries to one of the youths, Casa Alianza filed charges against the FUSEP for violating the youth's rights, illegal detention, and torture. It also requested a full investigation by the Attorney General's office. Market vendors and a FUSEP regional commander protested Casa Alianza's actions, asserting that the organization provides refuge for juveniles who commit crimes. Casa Alianza, in response, called on the national Human Rights Commissioner to fulfill his obligation to protect children's rights. Amnesty International and Casa Alianza both received reports of minors whom members of the police and the army subjected to illegal arrest, ill-treatment, and sexual abuse. A street girl in San Pedro Sula, 11-year-old Martha Maria Saire, charged that two uniformed members of the military battalion based in Tamara grabbed and raped her. Medical examinations confirmed she had been sexually abused. On April 22, the authorities presented the case to the first criminal district court. The Attorney General's office issued arrest warrants for the soldiers, but they are reportedly absent without leave. Another case involved 16-year-old Mario Rene Enamorado Lara who lives in Casa Alianza's transition home in Tegucigalpa. On July 10, while on his way to the home in the company of other children, eight uniformed members of the FUSEP's first squadron stopped the group and accused Mario of having stolen a watch. They arrested him without a warrant, took him to the squadron headquarters, and placed him in detention in a cell with adult detainees. He charged that three policemen severely punched and kicked him during detention; adult male prisoners also beat him while he was in the cell. The same afternoon, legal counsel from Casa Alianza obtained his freedom, and an independent doctor confirmed injuries to his body, face, and head. Casa Alianza presented a formal complaint to the FUSEP and to the Public Ministry. Lacking an investigative arm, the Public Ministry had made no arrests by year's end. In February police officers severely beat U.S. citizen Terry George Clymire, whom they were in the process of arresting on civil charges. The Prosecutor's office and the FUSEP Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) investigated the case, but made no charges or arrests in the case. Charges against Clymire were dropped. The Office of Professional Responsibility investigates cases of alleged torture and abuse; OPR officials recommend sanctions for police agents found guilty of such mistreatment. However, neither the FUSEP General Command nor the OPR is empowered to punish wrongdoers; only the commander of the accused agent has the authority to do so. During the past 12 months, OPR investigated eight FUSEP agents for abusing and beating street children in the Tegucigalpa area. The FUSEP dismissed all of them, and the courts convicted three agents and gave them 30-day jail terms. Prison conditions in Honduras are consistently deplorable. Prisoners suffer from severe overcrowding, malnutrition, and a lack of adequate sanitation. In the Central Penitentiary in Tegucigalpa, there are 1,954 internees, of whom only 512 have been convicted and are serving sentences. More often than not, the mentally ill and those with tuberculosis and other infectious diseases are thrown together in the same cells. A new, larger detention facility in Tamara lacks water and power and probably will not open until 1995. Prisoners with money routinely buy private cells, decent food, and conjugal visitation rights, while prisoners without money often lack the most basic necessities as well as legal assistance. d. Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile The law states that the police may arrest a person only with a court order, unless the arrest is made during the commission of a crime, and that they must clearly inform the person of the grounds for the arrest. (By law the FUSEP cannot investigate; it only detains those suspected of committing a crime.) Police must bring a detainee before a judge within 24 hours; the judge then must issue an initial temporary holding order within 24 hours, release an initial decision within 6 days, and conduct a preliminary investigation to decide whether there is sufficient evidence to warrant further investigation. However, in practice, the authorities do not routinely observe these requirements of the law. While bail is legally available, it is used primarily for what are ostensibly medical reasons. Poor defendants, even when represented by a public defender, are seldom able to take advantage of bail. Under the 1984 Code of Criminal Procedures, a judge, the police, public officials, or any citizen may initiate criminal proceedings. Perhaps as many as 80 percent of the cases reported to the police are never referred to the criminal justice system but instead are settled administratively by the police or by municipal courts, which are separate from the regular judicial court system. There were continued allegations that the FUSEP hired some former members of the DNI, and that these and other security force elements continued to practice arbitrary arrest and detention in a substantial number of cases. Local human rights monitoring organizations asserted, however, that this situation improved markedly after the issuance of a report by the Ad Hoc Commission on Police and Judicial Reform and the dissolution of the DNI. The Constitution prohibits the expatriation of a Honduran citizen to another country; exile is not used as a means of political control. e. Denial of Fair Public Trial Congress elects the nine Supreme Court justices and the President confirms them. Their 4-year terms coincide with those of the Congress and the President. The Supreme Court appoints all the judges in the lower civilian courts. Some headway was made in using a career system to depoliticize the appointments process and to break the subcultures of corruption, clientism, patronage, and influence peddling within the judiciary. In midyear the Supreme Court ordered strict adherence to the judicial career law, i.e., a merit-oriented selection and retention process for judges and court officials, commencing with second-instance judges. However, both major political parties continue to resist the recommendation by the Ad Hoc Commission that they agree to a completely apolitical, independent judiciary. Members of Congress representing powerful economic and political interests continued to pressure the President and magistrates of the Supreme Court to permit politicians to appoint judges and court functionaries purely on political criteria and without regard to professional and ethical qualifications. The judicial system also still suffers from woefully inadequate funding. Traditionally, the Honduran Armed Forces insisted that only its courts-martial could try its members. However, in 1993 Congress passed a resolution restricting the jurisdiction of the military court system to military crimes committed by active duty personnel. Since then enlisted military personnel accused of crimes against civilians have in fact been remanded to the civilian judicial system. The military continued to accept civilian court jurisdiction over its members, and the Public Ministry assigned civilian prosecutors to each of the 11 military courts. It also began much publicized investigations of human rights violations (past and present) by military personnel and followed up on anonymous published accusations of financial fraud by senior military officers. An accused person has the right to a fair trial, which includes the right to an initial hearing by a judge, to bail, to an attorney provided by the state if necessary, and to appeal. The number of public defenders was doubled from 51 to 104, providing greater legal assistance to the poor. Detention of criminal suspects pending trial averaged 18 months and constituted a serious human rights problem. In an extreme case, a mentally deficient, illiterate peasant spent 17 years in jail after being acquitted, due to the failure by responsible officials to process his release papers. A significant number of defendants serve the maximum possible sentence for the crime of which they are accused before their trials are ever concluded or even begun. Of the 6,042 detainees making up the country's prison population in early 1994, 5,103, or 84 percent, had been neither sentenced nor exonerated. These judicial weaknesses, along with the almost total lack of thorough investigation of crimes and collection of evidence, greatly undermine the right of citizens to a speedy, fair public trial. In addition, some judicial authorities in rural areas received anonymous threats. The passage of the 1994 Public Ministry Law and subsequent creation of the new ministry, with 76 public prosecutors assigned nationally and twice that many planned for 1995, is intended to strengthen the citizenry's ability to seek redress from government abuses and to enjoy fair and public trials. The Public Ministry's independence from the other branches of the Government also is intended to reduce somewhat the opportunities for the politically and economically powerful to distort the judicial process with impunity. The widely respected new Attorney General stressed the importance of personnel selection for the Public Ministry, and indicated he would refuse to employ former members of the DNI. In the short time it has existed, even before becoming fully organized, the Public Ministry began investigations of a number of court officials on various corruption and malfeasance charges. As a result, the authorities dismissed 38 court officials, including 10 Superior Court judges and 11 justices of the peace. Despite the creation of the Public Ministry and the DIC, at year's end the justice system still favored the rich and politically influential and remained weak, underfunded, marginally politicized, and generally inefficient. While the Supreme Court made strides in both organization and investigation of corrupt court officials, the underfunded judiciary remained very vulnerable to influence and corruption. f. Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or Correspondence The Constitution specifies that a person's home is inviolable and that persons authorized by the State may enter only with the owner's consent or with the authorization of a competent authority. Entry may take place only between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. or at any time in the event of an emergency or to prevent the commission of a crime. However, as in previous years, there were credible charges that police and armed forces personnel failed at times to obtain the needed authorization before entering a private home. Despite a new system of "duty judges" and "duty prosecutors" to issue search orders, they appeared to lack the discipline to make themselves available 24 hours per day, 7 days a week. Coordination among the police, the court, and the Public Ministry is improving. However, interagency liaison problems still undermine the effectiveness of the system. Judges may authorize government monitoring of mail or telephones for specific purposes, such as criminal investigation or national security. However, the armed forces reportedly continued to use its operation of the national telephone company to monitor illegally telephone lines of influential people in the Government, the military, and the private sector without authorization from the appropriate civilian judicial authority. Section 2 Respect for Civil Liberties, Including: a. Freedom of Speech and Press The Constitution provides for freedom of speech and press, and the authorities largely respected these freedoms in practice. The media, while often openly critical of the Government and frequently willing to expose corruption, are themselves subject to high levels of corruption and politicization. Serious investigative journalism is still in its infancy. Journalists are known to have requested bribes to kill stories. There continued to be credible reports of intimidation by the authorities, instances of self-censorship, and payoffs to journalists. The Government respects academic freedom and has not attempted to curtail political expression on university campuses. b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association The Constitution provides for the right to peaceful assembly for political, religious, or other purposes. The Government does not generally require prior authorization or permits but may ask for a permit to "guarantee public order." In most cases, neither the Government nor the armed forces interfere in the right of citizens to assemble. For example, when several thousand Indians staged a protest march to the capital in July, they were allowed to occupy the center of the city for several days, withdrawing peacefully after meeting with the President and other officials and winning concessions on their demands. c. Freedom of Religion The Constitution protects all forms of religious expression, and the Government respects this right in practice. Numerous foreign missionaries work and proselytize throughout the country. d. Freedom of Movement Within the Country, Foreign Travel, Emigration, and Repatriation Citizens enter and exit Honduras without arbitrary impediment, and travel within the country's borders is freely permitted. There were no known instances in which citizenship was revoked for political reasons. Of the 250 Haitian refugees who arrived in Honduras in November 1991, 45 remain.