Category: Chapter 9

CISPES Supports Human Rights Defender in Face of Death Threats

Chapter 9 / The scale and nature of present day violence / Troublesome Lawyers and Human Rights Defenders

Sent: 26 January 2010 09:01 by Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES)

CISPES would like to express our heartfelt solidarity with El Salvador’s Human Rights Ombudsman, Oscar Luna, who announced last Thursday, January 21 [2010] that he and his family have been receiving death threats. Luna declared that the threats have been delivered in the name of supposed extermination groups, demanding that he leave the country within 48 hours so as to not “obstruct the work of social cleansing” that they are attempting to carry out against “delinquency.” The re-emergence of such “social cleansing” groups was previously denounced by former Human Rights Ombudswoman Beatrice de Carrillo in 2006.

Oscar Luna has been an outspoken advocate for human rights in El Salvador. He defended the Suchitoto 13, water privatization protesters who were charged under the anti-terrorism law and denounced electoral fraud by ARENA during the 2009 elections. Most recently, he has pushed the Attorney General’s office to investigate the intellectual authors of the murders of Marcelo Rivera, Ramiro Rivera and Dora Alicia Sorto Recinos and mobilized his office to provide protection for environmental activists in Cabañas. He has decided not to leave his post, nor to leave the country. Instead, he is calling on the Attorney General and the head of the National Civilian Police to investigate and to provide additional protection for him and his family.

On January 16, El Salvador celebrated the 18th anniversary of the Peace Accords, when much of the State’s repressive apparatus was formally dismantled. However, the re-emergence of death squad structures, and the continued death threats against and assassinations of social movement activists, FMLN leaders and human rights defenders, represent a terrifying roll-back in the struggle for real democracy. CISPES stands with Mr. Luna in defending his position and in continuing his important work of promoting human rights in El Salvador and we call on the Attorney General’s office and the National Civilian Police to do everything within their power to protect Mr. Luna and all others in the struggle for justice in El Salvador.

You couldn’t make it up – III – Top brass gangsterism

Chapter 9 / The drug channel

The following are extracts from an article by Annie Bird which appeared in a Rights Action communiqué 15 August 2010 and was entitled ‘Cracks in the wall of impunity and corruption’ (www.rightsaction.org).

This week arrest warrants were issued against at least 19 members of an organised crime network that operated at the highest levels of Guatemalan justice administration from 2004 to 2007, though some have been active in organised crime and death squads since the 1980s.

One figure apparently involved in this network worked for President Reagan aid Lt Col Oliver North and former CIA agent Luis Posada Carriles. Amongst other political crimes, the network appears to have been involved in the 2007 murders of PARLACEN congressmen.

The investigation by CICIG, the United Nations sponsored Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, focused on extrajudicial executions within the prison system. Jails in Central America have played a key role in coordinating organised crime activities. Control of the prisons is critical in the struggle for dominance between organised crime networks.

Two of those wanted for arrest are Carlos Vielmann, named Minister of Governance in 2004, and Edwin Sperinsen, named Director of the National Civil Police in 2004. The two resigned together in 2007 amid accusations of running a death squad and they left Guatemala later that year. Vielmann currently lives in Spain and Sperinsen currently lives in Switzerland. A third, Alejandro Giammettei, was Director of the Penitentiary System, and sought asylum in 2010 in the Honduran embassy in Guatemala City.

The 2007 accusations and the arrests in August 2010 were related to ‘social cleansing’, extrajudicial executions within the prison system. The CICIG investigations demonstrate that this network killed gang members and criminals with the logic of protecting the higher levels of organised crime.

Sperinsen and Vielmann worked closely together and were also implicated in a strategy of criminalising protests and killing protestors. … In August at least nine were arrested and at least ten other arrest warrants were issued. Those arrested include former heads of special police units to fight kidnapping, extortion and an elite unit within the penitentiary system.

All of the arrests were related to two ‘operations’ undertaken by the network, Operation Gavilán (Hawk) and Operation Pavo Real (Peacock). Operation Hawk tracked three prisoners who had escaped from El Infiernito prison in October 2005 and weeks later extra-judicially executed them.

In Operation Peacock, prison authorities supposedly re-took control of El Pavón prison, in the course of which seven prisoners were killed. Press reports claimed that a mafia had controlled the prison for ten years and that prison facilities served as the headquarters for criminal activities, that kidnap victims were held in the prison and that drugs were processed there. Though the press also reported that the prisoners were killed in the confrontation, it was demonstrated they were executed and that the death squad had compiled a list of targets to be executed during the operation.

Many of those now with arrest warrants participated directly in the operation, including then Minister of Governance Carlos Vielmann, then Director of Police Edwin Sperinsen, Chief and Assistant Chief of Special Investigations Javier Figueroa and Victor Soto, and Director of the Penitentiary System Alejandro Giamattei.

Oligarchy

Chapter 9 / The 2009 coup and its aftermath in Honduras

The essence of the term oligarchy is captured by the briefest of descriptions as ‘rule of the few’. But the vagueness and uncertainty of the term are highlighted when trying to define who exactly the few are. Originally the term applied to rule by a local lord or family whose wealth allowed power over local decisions, but as populations, state machinery and national integration grew, the power and wealth of some families and business sectors grew disproportionately.

The sector of activity in which the oligarchy is involved varies from country to country. It may include specific productive sectors of a country such as plantation agriculture, logging or mining; the business sector may be dominated by foreign interests rather than national; the church may wield significant power over local populations; or some families may have benefitted from a history of financial dealings from which they have accrued enormous wealth.

In his important work on ‘The Political Economy of Central America since 1920’[1], Victor Bulmer-Thomas explains how a traditional élite of small merchants and landowners had been replaced by the 1920s by a powerful new élite, based largely on the export sector as growers, traders or financiers (particularly of coffee). The success of this new élite had been so great that

the new interests came to form a virtual oligarchy exercising economic, social and political influence out of all proportion to their numbers. The new élite absorbed foreigners into its midst without losing its national character and demanded from the state changes in legislation to guarantee an adequate supply of land and labour for the expansion of the export sector.[2]

The close links between the US government, US transnational companies and Central American oligarchies, resulting from a history of US involvement in and control of the Central American economy and military, are explored in other parts of this chapter.

[1] Victor Bulmer-Thomas (1987) The Political Economy of Central America since 1920, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[2] Ibid., p.2.

María Santos Domínguez

Chapter 9 / The scale and nature of present day violence / Troublesome Lawyers and Human Rights Defenders

On 5 March 2014, as human rights defender Ms María Santos Domínguez returned to her home, she was surrounded and attacked with sticks, stones and machete by a group of seven individuals. Her husband and her son came to her rescue but were also attacked, with her son losing his ear. María Santos Domínguez has faced death threats on repeated occasions.

She is the co-ordinator of the Organización del Consejo Indígena del Río Blanco y del Sector Norte de Intibucá (Indigenous Coucil of Río Blanco and the North of Intibucá). The human rights defender is also a member of the Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Indígenas y Populares de Honduras – COPINH (Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organisations of Honduras) and an emblematic leader in the struggle for the defence of the Gualcarque river and the indigenous Lenca territory. Her husband, Mr Santos Roque Domínguez, is also a member of COPINH and a community activist.

On 5 March, just after noon, María Santos Domínguez was returning from preparing school lunches, on the route she normally uses. Santos Roque Domínguez phoned her several times due to the worry caused by the threats already made against the human rights defender. On the fourth call, María Santos Domínguez informed her husband that seven individuals, allegedly the same who had threatened her with death, and who had been waiting for her on her route, had her surrounded. In that moment, her husband and son left the house to search for her and found her, having already received deep machete wounds, being beaten with sticks and stones by the group. Santos Roque Domínguez tried to reason with them and pleaded with them not to kill his wife, meanwhile his son attempted to aid his mother. Immediately, one of the group slashed the child with the machete, chopping off his right ear and part of his face. Santos Roque Domínguez was also gravely injured. The attack against the three family members has left them in a serious state of health.

María Santos Domínguez, as well as her husband and son, have been the target of serious threats and attacks because of their work in opposition to the Agua Zarca hydroelectric plant. The same group who attacked them on 5 March also destroyed their crops on a previous occasion.

Honduras is one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a human rights defender, owing to threats, defamation, judicial harassment, physical attacks, attempted killings and killings. Indigenous leader and member of COPINH, Mr Justo Sorto was killed on 21 January 2014. Human rights defender Mr Tomás García was killed on 15 July 2013, and the case has still not been properly investigated.

Front Line Defenders roundly condemns the attempt on the life of human rights defender María Santos Domínguez, as well as the attack on her husband and son. Front Line Defenders considers the attack to be directly related to the peaceful and legitimate work of María Santos Domínguez and the Organización del Consejo Indígena del Río Blanco y del Sector Norte de Intibucá.

http://protectionline.org/2014/03/09/attempted-killing-of-human-rights-defender-ms-maria-santos-dominguez/

Wealthy Land-owner Miguel Facussé, Bio-fuels, Repression: Wikileaks Reveals links to Narco-trafficking

Chapter 9 / The drug channel

By Suzanna.Reiss | Via Rights Action | September 19, 2011

It is not surprising to hear that representatives of the U.S. State Department stationed in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, believed since at least March 2004 [1] that the wealthiest man in Honduras, biofuel magnate and political powerhouse Miguel Facussé, was involved in the cocaine trade.

It is not surprising, but it is disturbing.

Facussé was a solid U.S. government ally [2] in the 2009 overthrow of President Manuel Zelaya, and he has also been accused of documented human rights abuses [3] against communities living on lands he sought to monopolize for an extractive biofuel export-oriented palm oil industry.

This is all detailed in the final cache of documents recently released by WikiLeaks.

Beyond the immediate scandalous implications of the revelations (a major player in the U.S.-backed overthrow of a democratically elected government had known ties to drug trafficking even while he helped negotiate the post-coup transition government [4] with U.S. representatives) are a number of other sobering phenomena.

The recently appointed U.S. ambassador to Honduras, Lisa Kubiske, also an established advocate for the biofuel industry [5], recently demonized drug traffickers as terrorists [6] apparently unaware, or unmoved by these revelations implicating contacts at her diplomatic post. “Narco-traffickers and the gangs that support them are hardly different from terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda. They launch savage attacks on people to intimidate entire communities and instill fear in the public at large,” she said.

Biofuel, unlike bananas, is not destined for human consumption. But the mono-crop export economy was never geared toward sustaining the population. Today, in a world where food should be in abundance but is unnecessarily and selectively rare, the transition from bananas to fuel represents only the intensification of a capitalist logic that has increasingly valued fuel (whether destined to sustain the labour of humans or machines) at the expense of agricultural practices geared toward the sustenance of human life.

In fact, cultivating land for fuel rather than food has contributed to global food shortages [7] and has fostered widespread instability as profit motive trumps considerations of human or ecological justice.

What is happening in Honduras is a prime example.

Annie Bird for rightsaction.org [8] has documented [9] the massacres of people challenging the exploitative economic program advanced by biofuel magnates like Facussé and representatives of the U.S. government.

As Jesse Freeston of theRealNews.com [10] reports in “Battle for Land in Post-Coup Honduras” , the real terrorists in the countryside where biofuel power reigns are capitalism’s security forces. Private security, military, police, and paramilitary forces have all been responsible for the violent displacement of people [9] and communities, including dozens of political assassinations of indigenous organizers, labour leaders and reporters.

(The Real News: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1s29zCqVQE, & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe9pdsZM2MM)

It is commonplace for governments in the Americas to label their political opponents “drug traffickers.” It is more rare when their own blatant trafficking – and criminal impunity – is out there for everyone to see.

Read more of Suzanna Reiss’ blog, Traffick Jam [11], or check out the Jan/Feb issue of the NACLA Report on the Americas, “¡Golpistas! Coups and Democracy in the 21st Century [12].”

[1] www.cablegatesearch.net/cable.php?id=04TEGUCIGALPA672&q=facusse%20miguel
[2] www.cablegatesearch.net/cable.php?id=09TEGUCIGALPA901&q=facusse%20miguel
[3] www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCIQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kua.fi%2Ffilebank%2F3870-Honduras_FFM_Report_Bajo_Aguan.pdf&rct=j&q=HONDURAS%3A%20Human%20Rights%20Violations%20in%20Bajo%20Agu%C3%A1n&ei=XcVxTvWKEMTYiAKTxbyhCQ&usg=AFQjCNF9ovBLQh09f7SNU07_oKg2GWdIcg&cad=rja
[4] www.cablegatesearch.net/cable.php?id=09TEGUCIGALPA900&q=facusse%20miguel
[5] http://quotha.net/node/1725
[6] http://honduras.usembassy.gov/sp-091111-eng.html
[7] http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/jun/01/biofuels-driving-food-prices-higher
[8] http://www.rightsaction.org/
[9] http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3198-honduras-aguan-massacres-continue-to-support-production-of-biodiesel
[10] www.therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=272
[11] https://nacla.org/blog/traffick-jam
[12] https://nacla.org/edition/6883

FOR MORE INFORMATION, INTERVIEWS, QUESTIONS:

Annie Bird, annie@rightsaction.org
Grahame Russell, info@rightsaction.org

Gunmen Kill 2 Journalists in Southern Town in Guatemala

Chapter 9 / Troublesome Journalists

Posted by: This reporter has chosen to remain anonymous.

Date: 10 March 2015
Location: Zona 1, Mazatenango, Guatemala

Description of Event: Gunmen shot and killed two journalists and wounded a third Tuesday as they walked in a park in southern Guatemala, the editor of Prensa Libre newspaper said.

Danilo Lopez, the local correspondent for Prensa Libre, and Federico Salazar, of Radio Nuevo Mundo, were killed in a park in Mazatenango municipality.

7

The men were the vice-president and secretary, respectively, of the recently created Suchitepequez Press Association, according to Centro Civitas, a nonprofit organization dedicated to journalists’ human rights.

Prensa Libre editor Miguel Angel Mendez Zetina said Lopez had worked at the paper for more than a decade and recently filed a complaint against Jose Linares Rojas, the mayor of San Lorenzo, for making death threats against him. Lopez had written stories about the lack of transparency surrounding public funds in Linares’ administration, the editor added.

“Two mayors from Mazatenango municipality had threatened him for his stories,” Mendez said. “Danilo was a very ethical reporter, very transparent and he was very good at accounting for public funds and how this impacted communities.”

Marvin Robledo, director of Radio Nuevo Mundo, said Salazar had not mentioned any problems or threats and was not working on anything special when he was killed.

“We’re going to await the investigations, we don’t know the motive,” Robledo said.

Lopez’s family said he had also been threatened recently by Julio Juarez, the former mayor of Santo Tomas La Union, who had left his post to become a congressional deputy candidate, according to a statement from the press association.

6Local volunteer firefighters said a third man, Marvin Tunches, was taken to a hospital in serious condition. The press association said Tunches was a reporter for a local cable channel and requested protection for him.

Local prosecutors announced through their Twitter account the capture of a suspect in the attack.

During the current government, four journalists have been killed in the Suchitepequez department. Investigators have received 20 complaints about aggression toward journalists so far this year.

Miguel Gonzalez Moraga of Centro Civitas, said that while President Otto Perez Molina announced a program in November 2014 to protect journalists, so far no related actions have been made public.

This report first appeared on 1voz.org

UK arms sales to Honduras 🇬🇧

Chapter 9

Few people will be aware that the UK government has sanctioned sales of surveillance and telecommunications equipment to Honduras, despite the appalling situation for defenders of human rights, land rights and environmental rights in that country. In April this year (2018) a group of UK and Honduran organisations wrote to Liam Fox, the UK Secretary of State for International Trade, to urge the UK government to ensure that no further export licences are granted to the Honduran government for any equipment that could be used for internal repression.

The letter and a list of its signatories to Dr Fox follows.

Dr Liam Fox MP
Secretary of State for International Trade
Department for International Trade
King Charles Street, Whitehall
London, SW1A 2AH

3 April 2018

 

Dear Dr Fox,

We, the undersigned, are Honduran and UK based human rights organisations. We are writing to express our dismay about the UK Government’s sanctioning of sales of telecommunications interception equipment to Honduras, given the country’s human rights situation. Furthermore, we were alarmed to learn that the export of this equipment was allowed despite the question of human rights compliance being raised multiple times in Parliament.[1] We urge you to ensure that no further export licences are granted to the Honduran Government for any equipment that could be used for internal repression.

On 8 February, The Guardian revealed that the UK granted export licences for telecommunications interception equipment to be sold to the Honduran Government just before the elections.[2] On 20 February, in response to a written question regarding the licences, the Rt. Hon. Graham Stuart on behalf of the UK Government stated that:

“all export licence applications are considered on a case-by-case basis against the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria based on the most up-to-date information and analysis available at the time, including reports from NGOs and our overseas network.”[3]

Firstly, we would like to draw your attention to the fact that recent NGO reports point to an alarming human rights situation in the country as well as targeted repression of human rights defenders (HRDs), including through illegal surveillance:

  • A report by Global Witness in January 2017 entitled ‘Honduras: The deadliest place to defend the planet’ reported that 123 land and environmental activists were “murdered in Honduras since the 2009 coup, with countless others threatened, attacked or imprisoned.”[4]
  • Amnesty International’s 2017 report documents security incidents suffered by HRDs including killings, threats, surveillance and harassment.[5]
  • A 2017 report by an independent group of experts into the murder of renowned Honduran environmentalist, Berta Cáceres, demonstrated that state security forces colluded with officials from a hydro-dam company to carry out surveillance of members of Cáceres’ organisation, COPINH, as part of a strategy to control and neutralise community protest. Surveillance increased in the months and hours leading up to her assassination.[6]
  • Illegal surveillance of members of COPINH and Berta Cáceres prior to her assassination was not an isolated occurrence, but part of a wider pattern of repression by the Honduran state. A 2016 report by the NGO Peace Brigades International notes that eight prominent Honduran HRDs were on a government list to be put under illegal surveillance. HRDs frequently report the use of surveillance against them, among other tactics to restrict their rights to exercise freedom of expression and association.[7]

Secondly, we note that criterion two of the consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria states the government should:

“exercise special caution and vigilance in granting licences, on a case-by-case basis and taking account of the nature of the equipment, to countries where serious violations of human rights have been established by the competent bodies of the UN, the Council of Europe or by the European Union;”[8]

However, these international bodies have frequently drawn attention to serious human rights violations in Honduras:

  • The EU Parliament adopted a resolution in April 2016 stating that “Honduras has now become one of the most dangerous countries in the region for human rights defenders.”[9]
  • The UN High Commissioner’s 2017 report on Honduras states that: “In a context of stigmatization and questioning of their work, including by government representatives, OHCHR-Honduras continues to document cases of threats, surveillance, information theft and homicides involving human rights defenders.”[10]
  • In August 2016, two top United Nations and Inter-American human rights experts described Honduras as one of the “most hostile and dangerous countries for human rights defenders.”[11]

We therefore consider the Government’s assertion that “the issue of the licence was consistent with the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria and remained so at the time of export”[12] to be a misrepresentation.

Furthermore, in the wake of the contested elections in November 2017, peaceful protests broke out across the country. These were met with brutal state repression, with the OHCHR registering 23 killings, 16 at the hands of the state security forces, with at least 60 people injured, half of them by live ammunition.[13] The national human rights network “Coalition against Impunity” registered at least 50 complaints related to threats and surveillance targeting individuals who participated in protests. In some cases, victims identified the author of the threat or surveillance as members of the National Police or the Military Police.[14]

We note that in recent months the UK Government has repeatedly called on Honduras to prioritise respect for human rights, highlighting in particular freedom of speech and freedom to protest peacefully.[15] However, local organisations have expressed concern that state repression is getting worse. This analysis was echoed by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein at the UN Human Rights Council in March 2018, who stated that: “The already fragile human rights situation in Honduras, which suffers from high levels of violence and insecurity, is likely to deteriorate further unless there is true accountability for human rights violations.”[16] We are concerned that in licensing the export of telecommunications interception equipment to the Honduran Government, the UK is in fact contributing to the curtailment of fundamental human rights in the country.

Taking into account the above, there is reason to believe that the telecommunications interception equipment are highly likely to be used for internal repression. We urge you to ensure that no further export licenses are granted to the Honduran Government for any equipment that could be used for internal repression.

We look forward to hearing from you further to the above.

Yours sincerely,

Amnesty International UK

Asociación de Jueces por la Democracia
Asociación LGTB Arcoíris de Honduras
La Asociación por la Democracia y los Derechos Humanos (ASOPODEHU)
ATALC-Amigos de la Tierra (FoE) América Latina y El Caribe
The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre
Campaign Against Arms Trade
La Coalición contra la Impunidad
Coordinadora de Organizaciones Populares del Aguan (COPA)
The Corporate Responsibility Coalition (CORE)
The Environmental Network for Central America (ENCA)
Foro de Mujeres por la Vida
Fronteras Comunes de Canadá
Global Justice Now
Global Witness
Grupo Lésbico Bisexual LITOS
Latin American Mining Monitoring Programme
Movimiento Madre Tierra Honduras
Movimiento Mesoamericano contra el Modelo extractivo Minero -M4-
Organización Fraternal Negra Hondureña (OFRANEH)
PAPDA – Haïti
Tavistock Peace Action Group
War on Want

[1] Written questions ‘Honduras: Arms Trade’/’Honduras: Electronic Surveillance’ 8 February 2018 -12 March 2018
https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-questionsanswers/?
house=commons&max=20&member=4615&page=1&questiontype=AllQuestions
https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2018-03-12/131977/

[2] The Guardian. ‘UK sold spyware to Honduras just before crackdown on election protesters.’ February 2018
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/08/uk-sold-spyware-to-honduras-just-before-crackdown-on-election-protesters

[3] Honduras: Electronic Surveillance:Written question – 127539. February 2018
https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2018-02-08/127539/

[4] Global Witness. ’Honduras: The deadliest place to defend the planet.’ January 2017 https://www.globalwitness.org/engb/campaigns/environmental-activists/honduras-deadliest-country-world-environmental-activism/

[5] Amnesty International Report 2017/18 https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/americas/honduras/

[6] GAIPE. ‘Dam Violence: The plan that Killed Berta Cáceres.’ November 2017.
https://justassociates.org/sites/justassociates.org/files/exec_summ_dam_violencia_en_final.pdf

[7] PBI Honduras Bulletin. December 2016 http://www.pbi-honduras.org/fileadmin/user_files/projects/honduras/files/Bulletins/BOL04-EN-12-l.pdf

[8] EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmhansrd/cm140325/wmstext/140325m0001.htm#14032566000018

[9] European Parliament resolution of 14 April 2016 on Honduras: situation of human rights defenders. April 2016
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&reference=P8-TA-2016-0129&language=EN&ring=P8-RC-2016-0469

[10] Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the human rights situation in Honduras. February 2017
https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G17/029/29/PDF/G1702929.pdf?OpenElement

[11] ‘Honduras, one of the most dangerous countries for human rights defenders – Experts warn’. August 2016
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=20397&LangID=E

[12] Honduras: Electronic Surveillance:Written question – 130861. March 2018 https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/writtenquestions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2018-03-05/130861/

[13] Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights ‘Human rights violations in the context of the 2017 elections in Honduras.’ March 2018 http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countrie/HN/2017ReportElectionsHRViolations_Honduras_EN.pdf

[14] ibid

[15] ‘British Embassy calls for restraint in Honduras’, 19 Dec 2017; ‘Honduras’ General Elections’, 8 Jan 2018; ‘UK Statement following the Presidential inauguration in Honduras.’ 31 Jan 2018
https://www.gov.uk/government/announcements?include_world_location_news=1&world_locations%5B%5D=honduras

[16] ‘Honduras election protests met with excessive and lethal force – UN report.’ March 2018
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID

Venta de armamentos del Reino Unido a Honduras 🇪🇸

Chapter 9

Muy pocas personas estarán consciente del hecho que el gobierno del Reino Unido ha autorizado la venta de equipos para la interceptación de las telecomunicaciones a Honduras, pese a la situación espantosa para los defensores de derechos humanos, derechos territoriales y derechos ambientales en ese país. En abril este año (2018) un grupo de organizaciones británicas y hondureñas escribieron a Liam Fox, el Secretario del Estado Británico para el Comercio Internacional, para instar al gobierno del Reino Unido a asegurarse que no se otorgue más licencias de exportación al gobierno hondureño por ningún equipo que pueda ser utilizado para la represión interna.

Siguen la carta y la lista de las firmantes a Dr Fox.

Dr Liam Fox MP
Secretary of State for International Trade
Department for International Trade
King Charles Street, Whitehall
London, SW1A 2AH

3 abril 2018

 

Estimado Dr. Fox,

Los abajo firmantes somos organizaciones de derechos humanos de Honduras y Reino Unido. Le escribimos para expresarle nuestra consternación sobre las autorizaciones para la venta de equipos para la interceptación de las telecomunicaciones a Honduras, dada la situación actual en cuanto a derechos humanos en el país. Además, nos alarmamos al saber que el gobierno de Reino Unido decidió exportar este equipo a pesar de que las preocupaciones sobre estándares de los derechos humanos fueron planteadas en el Parlamento varias veces.[1] Le urgimos a que no otorguen más licencias de exportaciones a equipos que podrían ser utilizados para la represión interna.

El pasado 8 de febrero, The Guardian reveló que el Reino Unido otorgó licencias de exportación de equipos para la intervención de telecomunicaciones para que fuesen vendidos al gobierno de Honduras justo antes de las elecciones.[2] El 20 de febrero, en respuesta a una pregunta parlamentaria en referencia a dichas licencias, el honorable señor Graham Stuart en nombre del gobierno de Reino Unido señaló lo siguiente:

“todas las solicitudes de licencias de exportación se considerarán caso por caso teniendo en cuenta los criterios nacionales y de la UE en cuanto a licencias de exportación de armas y basándose en la información y análisis más actuales del momento, incluyendo informes de ONGs y de nuestra red exterior.”[3]

En primer lugar, nos gustaría llamar su atención sobre el hecho de que los informes recientes de las ONGs apuntan hacia una alarmante situación de los derechos humanos en el país así como también a una represión dirigida hacia las personas defensoras de derechos humanos, mediante incluso vigilancia ilegal:

    • Un informe de Global Witness de enero de 2017 titulado ‘Honduras: El lugar más mortífero para la defensa del planeta’ reportó que 123 activistas protectores del medio ambiente y la tierra fueron “asesinados en Honduras desde el golpe de estado de 2009, sin contar las amenazas, ataques o encarcelamientos.[4]
    • El informe de Amnistía Internacional de 2017 documenta incidentes de seguridad sufridos por personas defensoras de derechos humanos incluyendo asesinatos, amenazas, vigilancia y acoso.[5]
    • Un informe de 2017 de un grupo de expertos independientes sobre el asesinato de la renombrada ambientalista, Berta Cáceres, demostró que las fuerzas de seguridad del Estado en connivencia con personal de la empresa hidroeléctrica llevaron a cabo seguimientos y vigilancia a miembros de la misma organización de Berta Cáceres, COPINH, como parte de una estrategia para controlar y neutralizar la protesta de la comunidad. La vigilancia se incrementó en los meses y horas previas a su asesinato.[6]
    • La vigilancia ilegal de los miembros de COPINH y Berta Cáceres previo a su asesinato no fueron un hecho aislado, sino que forman parte de un patrón de represión por parte del Estado Hondureño. Un informe de la ONG Brigadas Internacionales de Paz destaca que ocho personas destacadas por la defensa de derechos humanos estuvieron en una lista del gobierno para ser vigilados de manera ilegal. Los defensores y defensoras de derechos humanos denuncian frecuentemente el uso de la vigilancia/inteligencia contra ellos, entre otras tácticas están las restricciones para el libre ejercicio de la libertad de expresión y asociación.[7]

En segundo lugar, el criterio número dos de los criterios consolidados nacionales y de la UE para la autorización de la exportación de armas, estipula que el gobierno debería:

“ejercer una especial atención y vigilancia a la hora de otorgar licencias, estudiando caso por caso y teniendo en cuenta la naturaleza de los equipos, para los países donde se constaten serias violaciones de derechos humanos por parte de los organismos competentes de las Naciones Unidas, el Consejo Europeo o la Unión Europea;”[8]

Estos organismos internacionales han puesto su atención sobre las serias violaciones de derechos humanos en Honduras:

  • El parlamento Europeo adoptó una resolución en abril del 2016 indicando que “Honduras se ha convertido en uno de los países más peligrosos en la región para los y las defensoras de derechos humanos”.[9]
  • El informe sobre Honduras de 2017 del alto comisionado de Naciones Unidas afirma que: “En un contexto de estigmatización y cuestionamiento de su trabajo incluso por parte de los representantes del gobierno, OACNUDH-Honduras sigue documentando casos de amenazas, seguimientos, robo de información y homicidios contra personas defensoras de derechos humanos.[10]
  • En agosto de 2016, dos expertos en derechos humanos del sistema Inter-América y de Naciones Unidas describieron a Honduras como uno de “los países más hostiles y peligrosos para los defensores de derechos humanos.”[11]

Por lo tanto, consideramos la afirmación del Gobierno de que “la cuestión de la licencia era coherente con los criterios consolidados de concesión de licencias de exportación de armas de la UE y nacionales y seguía siéndolo en el momento de la exportación”[12] como una tergiversación.

Además, como resultado de las disputadas elecciones en noviembre 2017, surgieron protestas pacíficas a lo largo y ancho del país. Estas fueron contestadas con una brutal represión del Estado, OACNUDH registró 23 asesinatos, 16 a manos de las fuerzas de seguridad del Estado y al menos 60 personas fueron heridas, la mitad de ellos por munición real.[13] La red nacional por los derechos humanos “Coalición contra la impunidad” registro por lo menos 50 denuncias relacionadas con amenazas y vigilancia ilegal para identificar a quienes participaban en las protestas. En algunos casos, las víctimas identificaron a los autores de las amenazas o seguimientos como miembros de la Policía Nacional o de la Policía Militar.[14]

Destacamos que en los últimos meses el gobierno de Reino Unido ha pedido repetidamente a Honduras para que priorice el respeto por los derechos humanos, resaltando en particular la libertad de expresión y la libertad de la protesta pacífica.[15] De cualquier modo, organizaciones locales han expresado preocupación por la escalada de la represión del Estado. De este análisis se hizo eco el alto comisionado para los derechos humanos Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein en el Consejo de Naciones Unidas en marzo de 2017 quien afirmó: “La frágil ya situación de los derechos humanos en Honduras, que sufre de los altos niveles de violencia e inseguridad, se va a deteriorar más a no ser que se haga una verdadera rendición de cuentas en cuanto a las violaciones de los derechos humanos.”[16] Nos preocupa que la autorización para la exportación de equipos para la interceptación de las telecomunicaciones al gobierno de Honduras, suponga de facto que el Reino Unido contribuya a la restricción de derechos humanos fundamentales en el país.

Teniendo en cuenta todo lo anterior, existen razones para creer que los equipamientos para la interceptación de las telecomunicaciones serán usados para la represión interna. Quisiéramos urgirle de que no se otorguen más licencias de exportación al gobierno hondureño por ningún equipo que pueda ser utilizado para la represión interna.

Esperamos noticias suyas en relación a lo expuesto.

Cordialmente,

Amnesty International UK
Asociación de Jueces por la Democracia
Asociación LGTB Arcoíris de Honduras
La Asociación por la Democracia y los Derechos Humanos (ASOPODEHU)
ATALC-Amigos de la Tierra (FoE) América Latina y El Caribe
The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre
Campaign Against Arms Trade
La Coalición contra la Impunidad
Coordinadora de Organizaciones Populares del Aguan (COPA)
The Corporate Responsibility Coalition (CORE)
The Environmental Network for Central America (ENCA)
Foro de Mujeres por la Vida
Fronteras Comunes de Canadá
Global Justice Now
Global Witness
Grupo Lésbico Bisexual LITOS
Latin American Mining Monitoring Programme
Movimiento Madre Tierra Honduras
Movimiento Mesoamericano contra el Modelo extractivo Minero -M4-
Organización Fraternal Negra Hondureña (OFRANEH)
PAPDA – Haïti
Tavistock Peace Action Group
War on Want

________________________________________

[1] Written questions ‘Honduras: Arms Trade’/’Honduras: Electronic Surveillance’ 8 February 2018 -12 March 2018
https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-questionsanswers/?house=commons&max=20&member=4615&page=1&questiontype=AllQuestions

[2] The Guardian. ‘UK sold spyware to Honduras just before crackdown on election protesters.’ February 2018
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/08/uk-sold-spyware-to-honduras-just-before-crackdown-on-election-protesters

[3] Honduras: Electronic Surveillance:Written question – 127539. February 2018
https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2018-02-08/127539/

[4] Global Witness. ’Honduras: The deadliest place to defend the planet.’ January 2017 https://www.globalwitness.org/engb/campaigns/environmental-activists/honduras-deadliest-country-world-environmental-activism/

[5] Amnesty International Report 2017/18 https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/americas/honduras/

[6] GAIPE. ‘Dam Violence: The plan that Killed Berta Cáceres.’ November 2017.
https://justassociates.org/sites/justassociates.org/files/exec_summ_dam_violencia_en_final.pdf

[7] PBI Honduras Bulletin. December 2016 http://www.pbi-honduras.org/fileadmin/user_files/projects/honduras/files/Bulletins/BOL04-EN-12-l.pdf

[8] EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmhansrd/cm140325/wmstext/140325m0001.htm#14032566000018

[9] European Parliament resolution of 14 April 2016 on Honduras: situation of human rights defenders. April 2016
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&reference=P8-TA-2016-0129&language=EN&ring=P8-RC-2016-0469

[10] Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the human rights situation in Honduras. February 2017
https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G17/029/29/PDF/G1702929.pdf?OpenElement

[11] ‘Honduras, one of the most dangerous countries for human rights defenders – Experts warn’. August 2016
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=20397&LangID=E

[12] Honduras: Electronic Surveillance:Written question – 130861. March 2018 https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/writtenquestions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2018-03-05/130861/

[13] Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights ‘Human rights violations in the context of the 2017 elections in Honduras.’ March 2018 http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/HN/2017ReportElectionsHRViolations_Honduras_EN.pdf

[14] ibid

[15] ‘British Embassy calls for restraint in Honduras’, 19 Dec 2017; ‘Honduras’ General Elections’, 8 Jan 2018; ‘UK Statement following the Presidential inauguration in Honduras.’ 31 Jan 2018
https://www.gov.uk/government/announcements?include_world_location_news=1&world_locations%5B%5D=honduras

[16] ‘Honduras election protests met with excessive and lethal force – UN report.’ March 2018
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22799&LangID=E

COFADEH’s open letter to the Director of Public Prosecutions

Chapter 9 / A Culture of impunity

Tegucigalpa M.D.C., 9 December 2011
Mr Luis Alberto Rubí
Fiscal General de la República

Dear Mr Rubì,

COFADEH has repeatedly condemned the state of impunity for serious human rights violations committed in Honduras, which has intensified since the military coup of 28 June 2009. At the close of 2011, we would once again like to draw attention to the lack of transparency and inaction on the part of the Ministerio Público (Public Prosecution Service) in relation to these crimes.

Numerous politically-motivated human rights violations have been committed in the country before, during and after the coup, including arbitrary and summary executions, torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, kidnappings, mass illegal detentions and repression of peaceful demonstrations.[1] The breakdown in the due functioning of state institutions is demonstrated by the systematic denial of the right to truth and justice for the victims and their relatives. Many of these violations were committed years ago. However, in cases involving agents of the state, the investigations have not been launched and those responsible continue to go unpunished.

COFADEH is aware of numerous cases of human rights violations. Several of the reports received relate to cases of murder, apparently politically-motivated, or to people who have died as a direct result of the use of excessive force by state authorities. COFADEH has been in regular contact with the victims’ relatives, and we can attest to the fact that the Ministerio Público disregards them and fails to keep them informed of progress in investigations. When it does contact them, it is to violate their right to decide who represents them legally.

The right of the families of victims of human rights violations to know the truth has been recognised by the United Nations and by the Inter-American System for the protection of human rights. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has declared that this right belongs, not only to the families, but to society as a whole, as knowing the truth about what occurred can prevent it happening again in the future. In view of this, the current state of impunity within Honduras is extremely alarming.

We request that you conduct, as soon as possible, thorough and impartial investigations into cases of serious human rights violations and that the people responsible are brought to justice …

Yours sincerely

C O F A D E H

(Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras)

[1] IACHR, ‘Honduras: Human Rights and the Coup d’Etat’, OEA/Ser.L/V/II. Doc. 55, 30 December 2009. See also: IACHR, Annual Report 2010, Chapter IV: Honduras, OEA/Ser.L/V/II, Doc. 5 corr., 17 March 2011.