|
Honduras Respect for Human Rights
The human rights situation deteriorated significantly
after the
return to civilian rule in 1982. Under the new civilian
president,
the military, under the command of General Gustavo
Álvarez
Martínez, initiated a campaign against leftists. This
campaign
allegedly led to the disappearance of more than 100
people. Small
insurgent groups also began operating during this period,
but the
overwhelming majority of political killings were carried
out by the
military, according to human rights observers. Although
this
violence paled in comparison to that in neighboring El
Salvador and
Guatemala, it marked a departure from the relatively
tranquil
Honduran political environment.
Beginning in 1985, political violence declined
significantly,
but did not completely disappear; a small number of
extrajudicial
killings continued to be reported annually for the balance
of the
1980s and early 1990s. In July 1988 and January 1989, the
InterAmerican Court of Human Rights (IACHR) held the Honduran
government
responsible for the 1982 disappearances of a student
activist,
Ángel Manfredo Velásquez, and a secondary school teacher
and union
activist, Saúl Godínez. The IACHR also determined that
Honduran
authorities were responsible for a deliberate kidnapping
campaign
of between 100 and 150 individuals believed to be tied to
subversive activities between 1981 and 1984.
In the early 1990s, as the political conflicts in El
Salvador
and Nicaragua abated, the Honduran public increasingly
began to
criticize the military for human rights violations. These
violations allegedly included a number of political and
other types
of extrajudicial killings. One case in particular that
ignited a
public outcry against the military was the July 1991 rape,
torture,
and murder of an eighteen-year old student, Riccy Mabel
Martínez,
by military personnel. Initially, the military did not
allow the
civilian courts to try the three suspects, but ultimately
the
military discharged the suspects from the military so as
to avoid
the precedent of military members being tried in civilian
courts.
After a long, drawn-out process, two of the suspects,
including a
former colonel, were convicted of the crime in July 1993,
marking
the first time that a high-ranking officer, even though no
longer
in the military, was prosecuted in the civilian courts.
Observers credit former United States Ambassador
Cresencio
Arcos with speaking out promptly on the case and urging
the
Honduran government to prosecute it through an open
judicial
process. In fact, the United States embassy increasingly
has been
viewed as a champion for human rights in Honduras, and its
annual
human rights reports are considerably more critical than
those
prepared in the 1980s.
Nevertheless, the military's disregard for civilian
authority is
demonstrated by the military's immunity from prosecution
for human
rights violations. In early 1993, after considerable
public
criticism of alleged military involvement in the January
1993
killing of a San Pedro Sula businessperson, the military
deployed
forces in both San Pedro Sula and in the capital. Rumors
abounded
about the true intention of the deployment, reportedly
made without
the knowledge of President Rafael Leonardo Callejas
Romero. Some
observers speculated that the armed forces chief, General
Luis
Alonso Discua, took the action to intimidate his opponents
and stem
a barrage of recent criticism against the military.
President
Callejas later announced that he had ordered the
deployment as one
of a series of actions to deter criminal violence.
Some critics maintain that President Callejas should
have been
more forceful with the military and attempted to assert
more
civilian control during his presidency, particularly when
the
military tried to impede the prosecution of the Riccy
Martínez
case. Some maintain that Callejas himself had close ties
with
General Discua, thus explaining why no strong civilian
action was
taken against the military. Other analysts, however,
maintain that
Callejas substantially improved civilian control over the
military
with the establishment of such commissions as the Ad Hoc
Commission
for Institutional Reform, which recommended the breakup of
the DIN
and the creation of a new Department of Criminal
Investigation
(Departamento de Investigación Criminal--DIC) within the
civilian
government.
Data as of December 1993
|
