Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/Honduras.htm
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CAUTION: The following links have
been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Honduras. Some of these links may lead to websites
that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No
attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Torture by Authorities are of
particular interest to you. You might be
interested in exploring the moral justification for inflicting pain or
inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment in order to obtain critical
information that may save countless lives, or to elicit a confession for a
criminal act, or to punish someone to teach him a lesson outside of the
courtroom. Perhaps your paper might
focus on some of the methods of torture, like fear, extreme temperatures,
starvation, thirst, sleep deprivation, suffocation, or immersion in freezing
water. On the other hand, you might
choose to write about the people acting in an official capacity who
perpetrate such cruelty. There is a
lot to the subject of Torture by Authorities.
Scan other countries as well as this one. Draw comparisons between activity in
adjacent countries and/or regions.
Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper
resources that are available on-line. ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Honduras U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/honduras/
[accessed 22 July
2021] TORTURE AND OTHER
CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT The Committee of
Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH) reported 28 cases of
alleged torture by security forces through September, while the Public Ministry
received three such reports. The quasi-governmental National Committee for
the Prevention of Torture, Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment (CONAPREV)
received 210 complaints of the use of torture or cruel and inhuman treatment,
many related to the enforcement of the national curfew during the COVID-19
pandemic. COFADEH reported police beat and smeared a tear gas-covered cloth
on the face of an individual detained for violating the national curfew in
April in El Paraiso. PRISON AND DETENTION
CENTER CONDITIONS Prison conditions
were harsh and sometimes life-threatening due to pervasive gang-related
violence and the government’s failure to control criminal activity within the
prisons. Prisoners suffered from overcrowding, insufficient access to food
and water, violence, and alleged abuse by prison officials. ARREST PROCEDURES
AND TREATMENT OF DETAINEES Pretrial Detention:
Judicial inefficiency, corruption, and insufficient resources delayed
proceedings in the criminal justice system, and lengthy pretrial detention
was a serious problem. For crimes with minimum sentences of six years’
imprisonment, the law authorizes pretrial detention of up to two years. The
prosecution may request an additional six-month extension, but many detainees
remained in pretrial detention much longer, including for more time than the
maximum period of incarceration for their alleged crime. The law does not
authorize pretrial detention for crimes with a maximum sentence of five years
or less. The law mandates that authorities release detainees whose cases have
not yet come to trial and whose time in pretrial detention already exceeds
the maximum prison sentence for their alleged crime. Even so, many prisoners
remained in custody after completing their full sentences, and sometimes even
after an acquittal, because officials failed to process their releases
expeditiously. Freedom House
Country Report 2018 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/honduras/freedom-world/2018 [accessed 12 May
2020] F3. IS THERE PROTECTION FROM THE ILLEGITIMATE
USE OF PHYSICAL FORCE AND FREEDOM FROM WAR AND INSURGENCIES? In response to
widespread violence, the government has empowered the Military Police of Public
Order (PMOP) and other security forces to combat security threats, and these
units often employ excessive force when conducting security operations. Prisons are
overcrowded and underequipped, and many inmates are pretrial detainees.
Prison violence remains rampant due in large part to the presence of gangs. Human
Rights Watch World Report 2015 - Events of 2014 Human Rights Watch,
29 January 2015 www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/...
or www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/wr2015_web.pdf [accessed 18 March
2015] HONDURAS POLICE ABUSES AND
CORRUPTION
- The unlawful use of force by police is a chronic problem. According to a
report by the Observatory on Violence at the National Autonomous University of
Honduras, police killed 149 people between 2011 and 2012. Then-Commissioner
of the Preventative Police Alex Villanueva affirmed the report’s findings and
said there were likely many more killings by police that were never reported. USE OF MILITARY IN
PUBLIC SECURITY OPERATIONS - In August, soldiers detained Marco Medrano Lemus
close to his home in La Lima, Cortés. According to local press accounts, he
was found dead shortly thereafter and an autopsy showed signs he had been
tortured. Eight soldiers were arrested in relation to the incident, and
investigations were continuing at time of writing. ATTACKS ON
JOURNALISTS
- Journalists in Honduras continue to suffer threats, attacks, and killings.
Authorities consistently fail to investigate and prosecute these crimes. More
than 30 journalists have been murdered since 2009, according to the National
Human Rights Commission (CONADEH), though the motive in many of the cases has
not been determined. HUMAN RIGHTS
DEFENDERS
- Human rights defenders continue to be subject to violence, threats, and
killings. In May, José Guadalupe Ruelas, director
of international children’s charity, Casa Alianza,
which has criticized authorities for failing to protect children from
organized crime, was arbitrarily detained and violently beaten by military
police. He was released the next day after local human rights organizations
intervened on his behalf. Conclusions and
recommendations of the Committee against Torture U.N. Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment -- Doc. CAT/C/HND/CO/1
(2009) www1.umn.edu/humanrts/cat/observations/honduras2009.html [accessed 1 March
2013] Pretrial detention 14. While noting the
progress made by the State party since the adoption of the new Code of
Criminal Procedure in abolishing the obligatory pretrial detention and
establishing the “juez de ejecución”, whose mandate is to monitor the
legality of remand detention, the Committee is very concerned at reports of
frequent ill-treatment and torture, excessive use of force on arrest, as well
as acts of extortion by law enforcement officials and at the persistent high
numbers of detainees, both children and adults, in prolonged pretrial
detention. It further expresses concern at the various forms of derogations
from the general rule for the duration of pretrial detention. The Committee
regrets the lack of use, in practice, of alternatives to imprisonment (arts.
2, 11 and 16). The State party
should take effective measures to send a clear and unambiguous message to all
levels of the law enforcement hierarchy that torture, ill- treatment,
excessive use of force and extortion are unacceptable, and ensure that law
enforcement officials only use force when strictly necessary and to the
extent required for the performance of their duties. The State party should
further take appropriate measures to increase the number of “jueces de
ejecución”, to further reduce the duration of remand detention and
derogations thereof, as well as detention before charges are brought. The
Committee also urges the State party to implement alternatives to deprivation
of liberty, including probation, mediation, community service or suspended
sentences Impunity and absence
of prompt, thorough and impartial investigations 20. The Committee
notes with concern the existence of widespread impunity, acknowledged even by
the State party, as one of the main reasons for its failure to eradicate torture.
It is particularly concerned at the absence of an independent body to
investigate allegations of ill-treatment and torture. The Committee is
concerned at reports of several cases of serious allegations against members
of the National Police that remain at the investigation stage and for which
perpetrators have not effectively been brought to justice and at reports that
alleged perpetrators continue exercising their duties. Moreover, the
Committee is concerned at the killing of two environmentalists, whose
perpetrators escaped from prison after being sentenced, and at the absence of
any investigation or conviction of the instigators of the crime (arts. 12, 13
and 16). The Committee urges
the State party to take swift measures to counter impunity, including by: (a) Ensuring prompt,
thorough, impartial and effective investigations into all allegations of
torture and ill-treatment committed by law enforcement officials. In
particular, such investigations should not be undertaken by or under the
authority of the police, but by an independent body. In connection with prima
facie cases of torture and ill-treatment, the alleged suspect should as a
rule be subject to suspension or reassignment during the process of
investigation, especially if there is a risk that he or she might impede the
investigation; (b) Bringing the
perpetrators to justice and imposing appropriate sentences on those convicted
in order to eliminate impunity for law enforcement personnel who are
responsible for violations prohibited by the Convention; (c) Ensuring that an
investigation is lodged against the instigators of the murder of the two
environmentalists and that they are sentenced accordingly once identified.
Furthermore, the State party should thoroughly investigate the escape from prison
of the convicted perpetrators, ensure that they serve their sentence
according to their conviction and, in general, take measures to prevent
further escapes. Human Rights in
Honduras Human Rights Watch www.hrw.org/node/106214 [accessed 31 January
2013] www.hrw.org/world-report/2010/country-chapters/honduras [accessed 31
December 2017] Law enforcement
officials committed widespread human rights violations under the de facto
government that took power after the 2009 military coup. Impunity for
post-coup abuses remains a serious problem, despite the government’s
establishment of a truth commission in May 2010 to examine events surrounding
the coup, and efforts by prosecutors at the human rights unit in the attorney
general’s office to investigate abuses. Journalists, human
rights defenders, political activists, and transgender people face violence
and threats. Those responsible for these abuses are rarely held to account. AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL From an old article -- URL not available Article was
published sometime prior to 2015 BACKGROUND Levels of violent
crime remained high and continued to dominate the political agenda. Attempts
were made by the government to purge the police in response to allegations of
abuses and corruption, such as police involvement and complicity in killings,
such as those of two university students in 2011. HUMAN RIGHTS
DEFENDERS Human rights
defenders continued to be subjected to intimidation, physical attack and were
even killed because of their work. Campesino community leaders
and human rights defenders involved in representing campesino
communities in the context of the continuing land disputes in Bajo Aguán were subjected to
threats and attacks. In September, human
rights lawyer Antonio Trejo Cabrera died after being shot five times by
gunmen in the capital, Tegucigalpa. Antonio Trejo had been representing three
peasant co-operatives and had helped farmers to regain legal rights to land.
He had been scheduled to travel to the USA to take part in hearings at the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights about the ongoing land dispute. He
reported receiving death threats during the year. By the end of 2012 no one
had been held to account for his killing. Bertha Oliva and Nohemí Pérez of the Committee of Relatives of the
Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras,
COFADEH) received verbal threats in March and April. In February, Dina
Meza, also a COFADEH worker, received text and telephone threats, including
one which said, “We’ll burn your pussy with lime until you scream and the
whole squad will enjoy it... CAM”. The name of the group (CAM, Comando Álvarez Martinez)
refers to a general in the Honduran armed forces (1982-1984) who has been
linked by human rights groups to paramilitary death squads at a time of grave
human rights abuses. Search … AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL For current
articles:: Search Amnesty
International Website www.amnesty.org/en/search/?q=Honduras+torture&ref=&year=&lang=en&adv=1&sort=relevance [accessed 2 January 1, 2019] Scroll
Down ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor,
March 8, 2006 www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61732.htm [accessed 31 January
2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61732.htm [accessed 4 July
2019] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – Although the law
prohibits such practices, there were instances in which government officials
employed them, including police beatings and other abuse of detainees. On July 30, in Renaciedo juvenile correctional center, authorities
detained and allegedly beat Herlan Fabricio Ramirez Colindres, a
16-year-old gang member suspected of committing several violent crimes,
including the killing of DEA agent Michael Marke.
Authorities reportedly left Ramirez handcuffed for more than 24 hours. Human
rights activists protested the treatment of Ramirez and other minors held at
the same detention center. Regarding the cases
of those accused of the 1982 illegal detention and
torture of six students, on April 12, the case of retired Captain Billy
Fernando Joya Amendola was appealed to a higher
court, but the courts continued to deny appeals by the Public Ministry to
reinstate his arrest warrant. The Public Ministry's appeal of the dismissal
of charges in 2004 against retired Colonel Juan Evangelista Lopez Grijalba remained pending. At year's end Lopez Grijalba remained free on bail. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
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ARTICLES. Cite this
webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance
& Other Ill Treatment in the early years of the 21st Century-
Honduras", http://gvnet.com/torture/Honduras.htm, [accessed
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