Caribbean & Central America - June 2014 (ISSN 1741-4458)

The Honduran government led by President Juan Orlando Hernández suspects that the US is acting obstructively in tacit protest at the new shoot-down law.

“I feel that things need to be clear, Madam Ambassador, clear as water; either you are helping us, or you are going to continue helping us, but it is good to know with clarity”, President Hernández declared on 9 June at an police promotion ceremony attended by the US ambassador, Lisa Kubiske.

President Hernández’s complaints appeared to confirm earlier press reports that the US has used a legal manoeuvre to prevent Honduran air force F5 jets – donated by the US in the 80s – from travelling to the US- or anywhere else for that matter – for needed repairs.

The president noted that Honduras needs to recalibrate its aging fleet so as to be better able to tackle drug trafficking through the country. According to reports in the daily El Heraldo and the website www.defensa.com, the Israeli government had agreed to modernise the jets but baulked when the US trotted out a clause in the donation agreement preventing the jets from being removed from Honduras for maintenance.

Honduras recently acquired three radars from Israel to be used for anti drug trafficking efforts, with Hernández noting that the new equipment would allow Honduras to end its dependence on other ‘friends’ – i.e. the US – for surveillance. The US previously has suspended radar cooperation with Honduras over shoot-down incidents. The US government reportedly has made clear its discomfort with the new shoot-down law in place in Honduras since early this year, which some suggest may be in contravention of the 1944 Chicago convention on civil aviation.

Hernández was clear that he did not directly blame the local US embassy for the situation, hinting at differences between the Washington State Department and the Pentagon and US officials on the ground. Addressing Kubiske, the president stated: “I know that it’s not your case as you know the reality, I know that it's not the case of the head of SouthCom [John Kelly], who came recently and I cite him contextually; ‘It’s impressive the compromise and the results Honduras has achieved’ in the anti-drugs fight". Questioned by journalists afterwards for a response, Kubiske refused to comment.

IAPA welcomes new law

On 6 June the US-based Inter American Press Association (IAPA) issued a statement welcoming a new law for the protection of journalists in Honduras as “as step forward to end violence in the country”.

On 4 June the Honduran congress approved in a first debate a bill for the ‘Protection of Human Rights Defenders, Journalists, Social Communicators and Operators of Justice’. The bill was sent down by the Hernández executive via the Human Rights, Justice, Governance and Decentralization department, according to the IAPA statement.

The chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Claudio Paolillo stated that: “This step is relevant and a move forward to end violence in the country and we hope that the law becomes a true institution that has sufficient resources to effectively carry out its objectives and protect journalists, social communicators and other groups in situations of risk”.

• PEN International statement

To mark World Press Freedom Day on 3 May, PEN International issued a statement welcoming “the recent advances made by the Honduran government in addressing impunity for journalist murders, including convictions in the cases of the June/July 2013 killing of Globo TV news presenter Aníbal Barrow and the 15 May 2012 murder of HRN Radio director Ángel Alfredo Villatoro Rivera.” However, it noted that attacks on journalists continue with impunity. “In fact, of 38 journalists murdered in Honduras since 2003 – 32 of which have occurred since the coup d’état that ousted President José Manuel Zelaya in June 2009 – only 10 cases have been prosecuted and just four have resulted in a conviction, according to figures provided by the government during the hearing at the IACHR in March”, it said.