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

A delegation of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IAHCR) was in Honduras in 1-5 December, officially for the purpose of observing the general human rights situation in the country.

It was also sounding out both the government and local human rights organisations as to the state of the rule of law in the country, which has one of the highest homicide rates anywhere in the world (90.4 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2012 on the latest [2014] figures from the United Nations [UN] Office on Drugs and Crime). The reports presented by local human rights groups make for grim reading. On some accounts, impunity for criminal cases has reached 96%, while for human rights trials the rate is higher again, at 98%. In the three-year period from 2010 to 2013, 27,272 homicides were reported in Honduras, while there were only 1,009 court convictions, on estimates by the likes of the Centro de Investigación y Promoción de Derechos Humanos (CIPRODEH). Making the point that “this information is backed up by the OAS (Organization of American States) and the United Nations”, Wilfredo Mendez, director of CIPRODEH suggested that the figures raise valid questions as to whether the justice system has failed totally in the country.

The IAHCR delegation visited several cities including the capital Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, as well as Tocoa in the Bajo Aguán Valley, site of long-running conflicts between peasant farmers and large landowners. Bertha Oliva, of the Comité de Familiares de Detenidos–Desaparecidos en Honduras (Cofadeh), warned that the government led by President Juan Orlando Hernández was seeking to use the IAHCR as a mere PR exercise, alleging that “those unpunished in the past are the same ones talking of fighting against impunity today”.

There previously have been calls for the installation of an international justice commission akin to the UN-sponsored International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (Cicig), established in 2007 as an independent international body designed to support the Public Prosecutor's Office, the National Civil Police and other State institutions in the investigation of crimes committed by members of illegal security forces and clandestine security structures and, in a more general sense, help to disband such groups. Cicig assists with investigations and criminal prosecutions in a small number of complex cases, as well as implementing steps—in accordance with its mandate—aimed at strengthening judicial institutions so that they can continue to tackle these illegal groups in the future. It can also act as a complementary prosecutor, in accordance with Guatemala’s Code of Criminal Procedure.

New police chief

On 20 November Security Minister Arturo Corrales announced that President Hernández had appointed Félix Villanueva as the new national police (PNH) chief, replacing Ramón Antonio Sabillón, who has been appointed to the country’s diplomatic mission at the UN.

The change at the top of the PHN comes amid rumours of differences between Sabillón and Corrales over national security strategy. On local press reports, Sabillón was unhappy about the low level of support that the PNH receives from the government compared with that given to the military police. In announcing the changes during a speech at the national police academy, Corrales said that President Hernández had appointed Sabillón to a “foreign mission” as a reward for his years of service.

Sabillón was appointed PNH chief in December 2013 by former president Porfirio Lobo (2010-2014) after he was recommended for the post by Hernández, who at the time was the president-elect. The PNH has been subjected to a major purge since 2011 amid various corruption allegations, with officers implicated in cases of drug trafficking, murder, kidnapping and extortion. Villanueva, who was the deputy PNH chief in charge of criminal investigations, will now be tasked with continuing these efforts.

• Miss Honduras becomes a victim

On 19 November the bodies of Miss Honduras 2014, María José Alvarado, and her sister, Sofía Trinidad, were found near the mouth of the Aguagual River, in the Arada municipality, in the western department of Santa Bárbara. Two people were arrested in relation to the killings - Plutarco Antonio Ruiz Rodríguez, the boyfriend of Sofía Trinidad who has reportedly confessed to the murders, and Aris Maldonado Mejía. The two women were reported missing days earlier after they attended a birthday party in the city of Santa Bárbara, in the eponymous department. Ruiz Rodríguez and Maldonado were picked up in two municipalities in Santa Bárbara, San Vicente Centenario and Ceguaca.