US Aids Honduran Police Despite Death Squad Fears
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
March 23, 2013
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TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — The U.S. State Department, which spends
millions of taxpayer dollars a year on the Honduran National Police, has
assured
Congress that money only goes to specially vetted and trained units that
don't operate under the direct supervision of a police chief once accused of
extrajudicial killings and "social cleansing."
But The Associated Press has found that all police units are under the
control of Director General Juan Carlos Bonilla, nicknamed the "Tiger," who in
2002 was accused of three extrajudicial killings and links to 11 more
deaths and disappearances. He was tried on one killing and acquitted. The rest
of the cases were never fully investigated.
Honduran law prohibits any police unit from operating outside the command
of the director general, according to a top Honduran government security
official, who would only speak on condition of anonymity. He said that is
true in practice as well as on paper.
Celso Alvarado, a criminal law professor and consultant to the Honduran
Commission for Security and Justice Sector Reform, said the same.
"Every police officer in Honduras, regardless of their specific functions,
is under the hierarchy and obedience of the director general," he said.
The official line from Honduras, however, is that the money does not go to
Bonilla.
"The security programs that Honduras is implementing with the United
States are under control of the ministers of security and defense," said
Foreign
Minister Arturo Corrales, who negotiates the programs with the State
Department.
But the security official attributed the contradiction to the politics
necessary in a country in the grip of a security emergency.
With 91 murders per 100,000 people, the small Central American nation is
often called the most violent in the world. An estimated 40 percent of the
cocaine headed to the U.S. — and 87 percent of cocaine smuggling flights
from South America — pass through Honduras, according to the State
Department.
The allegations against Bonilla, along with other concerns about police
and military killings, prompted the U.S. Congress to freeze an estimated $30
million in Honduran aid last August. Most has been restored under
agreements with the U.S. Department of State over the monitoring of Honduran
operations receiving U.S. money.
The agreement doesn't specifically mention Bonilla, but Vermont Sen.
Patrick Leahy, who has led a Congressional group that has questioned human
rights violation in Honduras, said last week that he made his intentions
clear:
"No units under General Bonilla's control should receive U.S. assistance
without credible information refuting the serious allegations against him,"
Leahy said in an email to the AP.
That information so far has not been provided by the State Department, and
the AP's findings have prompted more questions.
"Senator Leahy has asked the State Department to clarify how they
differentiate between what they told the Congress and what is being said by
those
within Honduran police units under his authority," Leahy aide Tim Rieser
said Friday. "Sen. Leahy, like others, made clear early on his concerns about
Gen. Bonilla and the conduct of the Honduran police."
Dozens of U.S. Congressmen, Leahy chief among them, have been raising
concerns for many years about abuses of authority and human rights violations
by the Honduran police, a force of 14,000 officers that is considered among
the most corrupt in the world.
The AP reported on Sunday that two gang-related people detained by police
in January have disappeared, fueling long-standing accusations that the
Honduran police operate death squads and engage in "social cleansing." It
also found that in the last three years, Honduran prosecutors have received as
many as 150 formal complaints about death squad-style killings in the
capital of Tegucigalpa, and at least 50 more in the economic hub of San Pedro
Sula.
The country's National Autonomous University, citing police reports, has
counted 149 civilians killed by police in the last two years, including 25
members of the "18th Street" gang, one of the largest and most dangerous in
the country.
California Rep. Sam Farr sent the AP report to every member of Congress on
Friday, saying, "I share the concerns outlined in this article about the
continued lack of investigations into human rights violations at the hands
of Honduran law enforcement officials."
U.S. law, according to an amendment that bears Leahy's name, requires the
State Department to vet foreign security forces receiving U.S. aid to make
sure the recipients have not committed gross human rights violations. If
violations are found, the money is withheld. The State Department in a
report last August said Honduras met the provisions of the Foreign Operations
and Related Programs Act, which requires that the secretary of state provide
Congress proof that Honduras is protecting freedom of expression and
investigating and prosecuting all military and police personnel accused of
human
rights violations.
The department "has established a working group to examine thoroughly the
allegations against (Bonilla) to ensure compliance with the Leahy Law,"
the State Department report to Congress said. "While this review is ongoing,
we are carefully limiting assistance to those special Honduran law
enforcement units, staffed by Leahy-vetted Honduran personnel who receive
training,
guidance, and advice directly from U.S. law enforcement, and not under
Bonilla's direct supervision."
When asked by AP if the specially vetted Honduran police units working
with the U.S. Embassy still report to Bonilla, the Honduran security official
said: "Yes, that's how it works, because of personal loyalty and federal
law."
U.S. support goes to Honduran forces working with the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration on anti-narcotics operations, and anti-gang,
anti-kidnapping and border-security units, according to an embassy official
who was not
authorized to speak on the record.
On Monday, the State Department announced another $16.3 million in support
to Honduran police and prosecutors to battle violence and money laundering
and to improve border security. Some of the U.S. money will go to the Gang
Resistance Education and Training program under the director of community
policing, who also told the AP that he reports directly to Bonilla.
"I only report to the director general, all of the programs of the
Honduran police are directed personally by him," said Otoniel Castillo, a
police
sub-commissioner. "He has a personal and intense closeness to all projects
of international cooperation, especially because of his good relationship
with the U.S. Embassy."
Assistant Secretary of State William R. Brownfield, who appeared on Monday
with the country's vice president to announce the new funding, did not
answer questions.
"The United States undertakes stringent vetting procedures, as required by
U.S. law, to ensure U.S. assistance doesn't go to individuals or units in
the Honduran police and military if there is credible information they're
linked to human rights abuses," said William Ostick, a spokesperson in the
Western Hemisphere Affairs Bureau of the State Department. "We're in close
communication with the U.S. Congress and Senator Leahy on this issue.
Promoting human rights and the rule of law is, and will remain, central to our
engagement in Honduras."
___
Alberto Arce on Twitter: @alberarce
Katherine Corcoran on Twitter: @kathycorcoran
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