From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: Honduras: "Violence Threatens Us All"
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 01:42:10 GMT

/** reg.honduras: 70.0 **/
** Topic: Bulletin COFADEH 6-7/92 **
** Written  8:00 pm  Nov 19, 1992 by ravila in cdp:reg.honduras **
ARTICLES FROM "DESAPARECIDOS", THE NEWSLETTER OF THE COMMITTEE OF
THE FAMILIES OF THE DETAINED/DISAPPEARED IN HONDURAS (COFADEH), 
JUNE - JULY ISSUE, 1992
 
EDITORIAL
 
VIOLENCE THREATENS US ALL
 
Worried by all the successive acts of violence in every part of the
country, the Committee of the Families of the Detained and
Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH) on July third held it's unfailing
vigil, number 28,  during the administration of the National Party,
which now appears more aggressive than ever all types of measures,
but incapable of solving problems.
 
We admit our ignorance in reading the "macroeconomic indicators" of
which the technocrats of the departments of Economy and Treasury
speak, but we don't need to be highly educated to understand that
the rise in the cost of petroleum and the liberalization of the
price of the dollar makes less possible the right to eat and to
lead a dignified life.
 
The obligatory obedience to the will of the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund means in practice, the propagation of
violence in its different forms, economical, delinquent  and
political, similar to what was lived through in the recent past
when ordered directly by the Pentagon, the CIA and the Southern
Command of the United States. 
 
The difference is that yesterday the orders were directly to the
military, as opposed to now when the civilian authorities have
assumed the obligatory obedience.
 
The economic aggression of which we suffer in our houses, in our
kitchens: there  we curse  and beat our chests; the political
violence that many homes suffer who have lost a loved one,
assassinated by gunmen associated with the Armed Forces even though
not punished by this government; and the common violence and
delinquency which threaten us all in the streets.
 
According to the analysis made by psychologists, Hondurans are now
more anxious, fearful and distrustful than before the economic
adjustment; those of us that can put walls around our houses, we
acquire ferocious dogs, we are surrounded by a familiar hostile
environment; and scarcely five percent of us leave the house to
enjoy ourselves on the weekends.
 
According to the national police, efficient in taking death
statistics, but ruinous in protecting life, in only the first half
of 1992 more than 1062 persons have died, 95 percent of them in a
violent form; knifed, beaten or shot.
 
There exist threats everywhere,in the dark highway, on the
sidewalks, on the urban bus, in the General Barracks of the FSP
(Forces of Public Security), in the National University itself,
school of terror where those who are disciples of the fascist APROH
(Honduran Association for the Progress of Honduras) study,  of
those that want to be president in order to demonstrate
presumptuously their vaunted power.
 
We believe the means of guaranteeing  the security of citizens are
disconnected, while  the army and the police order the searches of
bags in the public ways to look for arms, in the armories they sell
them by the ton and in the toy stores and in the battalions
children and youth are enraptured in the art of killing, Rambo
style.  On one side they combat violence and on the other the
stimulate it.
 
The trampling of the security and integrity of people doesn't stop,
notwithstanding the rhetorical declarations of the military chiefs
and Attorney General of Honduras itself.  The illegal detention
continue every day, also the forced recruitment, the torture and
the beatings.
 
We declare another time our goal in this government of obtaining a
credible report of the 143 disappeared persons, in whose forced
disappearance the military, the Liberal and National parties have
equal responsibility.  We are certain that the day of Truth, all
will be condemned by the generations that are to come.
 
Finally, we condemn the government of the United States who through
the Supreme Court seeks to violate the sovereignty of our country
and equally condemn  the Hondurans that were incapable of speaking
with patriotic clarity in front of this arrogant and despicable
announcement.
 
With poster, handkerchiefs and murals, we always repeat of the acts
and the actors; we won't forget nor pardon.
WITH THE ASSASSINATION OF A HONDURAN THE AMNESTY WAS VIOLATED
 
The government of President Rafael Callejas should be marked as a
violator of the amnesty decrees in effect since August of 1991.
These decrees permit the return to the country of all those
countrymen who are political refugees in whatever state of the
planet.
 
THE BREAKING OF THE DECREES AND THE RESUMPTION OF VIOLENCE AGAINST
LIFE BEGINS WITH THE CRUEL ASSASSINATION OF THE YOUNG HONDURAN,
JUAN HUMBERTO SANCHEZ IN THE TOWNSHIP OF SANTO DOMINGO,
COLOMONCAGUA, INTIBUCA, ON JUNE ELEVENTH, 1992. 
 
The victim returned to his mother, Maria Dominga Sanchez and his
stepfather Juan Jose Vigil, July 9th, with the purpose of taking up
residence and reinitiating his life in Santo Domingo, after having
stayed several years in El Salvador where he belonged to the FMLN.
 
The facts indicate that Juan Humberto Sanchez, bachelor, 26 years
of age, accused of being a guerilla by informers linked to the
intelligence services of the army, was captured on July 10th and
freed a day later, by orders of the official in charge of military
base of the 10th Battalion of Infantry with headquarters in
Colomoncagua, also second  lieutenant of the Infantry, Angel
Belizario Hernandez.
 
The same day of he was freed, in the hours of the night he was
kidnapped in the house of his parents by a group of men equipped
for special operations and after several days during which he was
classified as disappeared by our Committee, was found dead,
floating in the waters of the Rio Negro, next to Santo Domingo. 
 
The cadaver was found nude, with his head shaved and covered with
his own shirt, a bullet in the front and another in the left leg,
his genitals cut off as well as his right ear, his feet tied up and
his hands behind his back in the position known as the "iguana" in
military jargon.
 
THE FAMILY OF JUAN HUMBERTO HOLD RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ASSASSINATION
THE MILITARY OFFICIALS ASSIGNED TO COLOMONCAGUA, THE INFORMERS
PURIFICACION HERNANCEZ, ADAN VIGIL RAMOS, LORENZO MARQUEZ, JOSE
MARTIR AND CLEMENTE SANCHEZ, AS WELL AS THE MAYOR VICENTE
HERNANDEA, FOR HAVING GIVEN THE ORDER TO CAPTURE THE VICTIM.
 
The reaction of the Armed Forces, after completing investigations
in conjunction with the Attorney General of the State and 
considering impossible the construction of a version favorable to
their hidden purposes, was to classify a victim as an  FMLN
messenger in Honduras, as a delinquent who only learned to shoot a
gun.  They exculpated his death.
 
The case remains open, the judge of Colomoncagua appears to
continue the investigation in spite of the pressures by the
military that he close the case as a "homicide by an unknown
person.". COFADEH continues to denounce the case, accompanied by
the families and studying with them the way to criminally indict
those responsible.
 
We will offer new details about this case in our next issue.
 BLAS SALAZAR CONTINUES TORTURING
 
In the archives of the disappeared in Honduras the actions of Juan
Blas Salazar figure as torturer. He is presently delegated to the
Forces of Public Security (FSP) in Mosquitia.
 
According to the denunciation of Ermenegildo Orellana Rodriguez,
dated July 15th, Blas Salazar ordered his subordinates to torture
Ermenegildo Orellana Rodriguez with the hood until he'd confess to
the death of a citizen of that sector.
 
Don Ermenegildo disclosed that during three days and nights he was
kept with his hands handcuffed behind his back in a bare yard. open
to sun and rain, with the purpose that he would confess to  being
the killer of Isaac Somarriba, whose body appeared close to the
post of the FSP.
 
Because of the criminal image that goes with him, Salazar was sent
by his superiors to the jungle of La Mosquitia, far from the city
where public opinion was against his presence.
 
From far away, one could think that he had time to repent of his
misdeeds, but he continues doing them, demonstrating with them that
"the dog that eats eggs will always do so even if you hit his
nose". 
 
 
TORTURES AGAIN
 
It turns out to be difficult to accept that  the Public Security
Forces (FSP)  still continues applying physical and psychological
torture in its more brutal forms, as a technique to get confessions
from persons with whom they don't follow judicial procedures that
conform to the law.
 
While the National Security State held sway in Honduras, with a
defined strategy against insurgents that included the humiliation
and the physical elimination  of the opposition to the regime. The
hood or immersion in cold water were the least that one could hope
for a detained person.
 
A denunciation of brutal oppression for common or political reasons
turns out to be contradictory and more disgraceful than ever, after
the elections in Nicaragua, the political and military annihilation
of the "contra", the peace process negotiated between the 
government and the Salvadoran guerrillas, accompanied by the
collapse of the countries of Eastern Europe,  
 
It doesn't satisfy the FSP nor the DNI (National Investigation
agency) with having enjoyed total impunity for a decade in which
they operated with the expert ruffians of clandestine groups, but
as if not to lose practice,  they continue to act against the
security and integrity of people.
 
MAY 19TH,  IN THE TOWNSHIP OF QUEBRADAS DE LEJOS, STATE OF
INTIBUCA, AGENTS OF THE DNI, FORCIBLY SEARCHED (ALLANAMIENTO)
WITHOUT JUDICIAL ORDER THE DOMICILE OF ARNALDA GUEVARA, GILBERTO
RAMOS, RAMIRO RAMOS AND MIGUEL RAMOS GUEVARA, WHO WERE DETAINED AND
LATER TORTURED AT THE PETITION OF BODYGUARD CIRLIO GARCIA.
 
According to the denunciation presented to this Committee, June 2,
the second lieutenant Carlos Eduardo Vasquez Jiminson and two
agents  whose names they didn't determine, moved the detainee to
their basement cell in the city of La Esperanza, where during six
days,  they applied to them, the traditional "hood" this time
smeared with human feces.
 
Moreover, the denunciation indicates the application of non
specified drugs by means of intravenous injections, as well as the
classic "iguana" (tied with feet and hands over the back), bruising
blows and death threats.
 
To complete the violations, before and during their captivity, the
affected indicated that the official Vasquez Jiminson took from
them the quantity of 1600 lempiras in cash, a .38 pistol and a
vehicle with all of its documents in order.
 
Until this date, even though having been freed on the grounds of a
lack of evidence on the part of the accuser, the affected haven't
recovered anything they lost and rather  fear reprisals from the
head of the Fourth Command of the FSP, Colonel Margarito Amaya and
the rest of the abusers of this sector.
 
In order that the Commander General of the police, Brigadier
General Guillermo Paredes Hernandez, take note of what his
subordinates do we gave him copies of the former and following
cases.
 
MAY 30TH AT 12 MIDNIGHT THE ALREADY CITED OFFICIAL VASQUEZ JIMINSON
AND THE AGENTS, CELEO ANIBAL REYES AND HENRY NOLASCO ZELAYA
FORCIBLY DETAINED THE YOUNG PEOPLE GERSON ADOLFO FLORES, GODOFREDO
VELASQUEZ AND MIGUEL BARAHONA, IN A DEMONSTRATION OF THE PURE ABUSE
OF AUTHORITY  STAGED AT THE EXIT OF THE PARADISE SOCIAL CENTER OF
LA ESPERANZA.
 
After an hour of illegal detention in the police post of that city,
the young men were let go without  even so much as being given an
apology.  Certainly the officials  wanted to make the accustomed
"business transaction"  of a fine without receipt, the well
identified crime of extortion.
 
Another case that we include in this number is the detention
followed by torture of Hector Manuel Roaseles, Ivan Fajardo Reyes,
Gustavo Amilcar Canales, Angel Emilio Martinez, BlasRamon Romero
Ochoa and Ada Isabel Castro Zepeda, May 30th in Tegulcigalpa.  
 
The detention of these six persons linked to a politically
dissident organization with activity at the national level was
denounced to COFADEH by Mrs. Relda Daisy Espinoza.  Because we know
what these cases mean, COFADEH acted quickly.
 
The heads of legal assistance of this Committee proceeded as is
indicated by law, interceding with an appeal of personal exhibition
in favor of the detained and against the legal proceedings of the
head of the police post of the Belon neighborhood, Mayor Reyes and
unidentified agents of the CIA.  They only let the woman free.
 
It wasn't until June 2nd, when the rest of the detained were freed
by the persistence of COFADEH, the interceded with  a second appeal
of collective habeas corpus and COFADEH was present almost all the
time during the detention.
 
In the testimonies that  we are in the possession of, the victims
of this violation detail that they were interrogated by Honduran
police and agents  of the Central Intelligence Agency of the United
States, who accused the group of participating in terrorist
acclivities... the CIA?  What is the CIA doing here?
 
In their captivity, the detained were not only interrogated about
their supposed activities against the State,  but were tortured
with the traditional hood with lime, beaten with irons covered with
special sponge to give internal beatings without visible marks and
spent long periods with their nude bodies in the "iguana" position
(hands and feet behind).
 
The experience stated was similar for all as to that which occurred
in the decade of the 80's, characterized by political intolerance
and terror by the state.  
 
The only difference is that now the captors don't accuse their
victims of terrorism or subversion, but of delinquency.  In this
case they said that  they were dealing with a band of delinquents.
 
IN THIS CHRONICLE OF VIOLATIONS ALSO STANDS OUT THE DISAPPEARANCE
OF THE CITIZEN RIGOBERTO CANELAS, WHO WAS KIDNAPPED MAY 30TH IN HIS
HOME LOCATED IN THE DISTRICT  LAS TORRES OF TEGUCIGALPA,  BY FOUR
AGENTS OF THE PUBLIC SECURITY FORCE (FSP).
 
His sister, Melly Maria Ayala Canelas, made the denunciation to
this Committee and disclosed that a friend of his relative accused
him before the police of having robbed a pistol.
 
The detained was imprisoned in the cells of the post of the
neighborhood of Belen in the Honduran capital and was later moved
to the DNI of Juticalpa, Olancho, where he was seen for the last
time June 5th by the executing official of a Habeas Corpus on his
behalf, lawyer Sara Amelia Corrales.
 
According to the police officer responsible for his security, the
detained escaped from the cell in Juticalpa June 6th in the hours
of midday.  To his familia members this could be the well known
scheme that hides the assassination of Rigoberto Canelas, a type of
de facto application of the "escape law".
 
In this tragic summary of violations we also include our worry for
the young Luis Arturo Bogran, who is afraid after the FSP completed
a lightening operation of reviewing personal documents in the
district of Comayaguela, June 22nd.
 
"After they reviewed my documents, I continued to sit on the
sidewalk of my house waiting for my cousin Cristina Bogran, who was
out shopping at the grocery store.  When she came, I joined her and
began to go into the house.  Then, an agent yelled at me, "hey you,
where do you think you are going?" and followed me to the door of
the house and there I explained to him that I had already shown my
documents and he threatened me that at any moment he was going to
hit me".
This example permits the deduction of similar trampling on the free
circulation and its integrity those citizens suffer who in the
public ways are made to stand with their hands up and searched by
police and soldier, who with the pretext of controlling delinquency
militarize society.  A type of public torture.
 
In addition, it's important to add to this theme, that in the
Central Penitentiary of Tegucigalpa, according to diverse
denunciations, torture continues alive in the so called "punishment
cells" for the prisoners.
 
The women, Victorina Martinez and Maria Pastora Meraz denounced to
this Committee June 12th that their relatives Gemercindo Meraz and
Martin Lopez,  along with 17 other defendants, were undergoing to
torture in cell 24, without food or contact with their families.
 
The denunciation was validated June 26th before the Attorney
General of Honduras by the ex-defendant Alfonso Hernandez Guifarro,
who held the director  of the Central Penitentiary, where torture
is the order of the day, Ricardo Estrada Iglesias responsible of
tolerating and stimulating a gang that  traffics arms and drugs
inside the principal penal center of the country.
 
A day later Hernandez Guifarro survived a criminal attack against
him, of which he held responsible, armed men linked to Estrada
Iglesias.  In an apparent reaction, the first criminal judge
directed a lightening operation in the early morning of June 28th,
confiscating a large quantity of arms, drugs and liquors.
 
Meanwhile, the ex-prisoner denounced death threats from inside the
Mario Catarino Rivas Hospital of San Pedro Sula where he was
operated on for two bullet holes and from where he was practically
expelled before the time needed for his recuperation.
 
HE HELD  THE AUTHORITIES OF THE HOSPITAL RESPONSIBLE FOR LEAVING
HIM SCARED AND HE ASKED FOR PROTECTION FROM COLONEL JULIO CESAR
CHAVEZ, HEAD OF THE REGIONAL COMMAND OF THE FSP IN THAT CITY.  BUT
THIS OFFICIAL ALSO OBLIGED HIM TO SIGN A DOCUMENT EXONERATING  THE
POLICE OF ALL RESPONSIBILITY IF SOMETHING HAPPENED TO HIM.  "WE
CAN'T BE TAKING CARE OF DELINQUENTS"; HE ASSERTS THAT THE COLONEL
SAID.
 
As a margin note to the 8Vix0s}ELU
A)denouncer is that he
completed his term in the central penitentiary for the crime of
homicide, the dates which  he revealed confirm this in practice. 
The central penitentiary is  disordered, there is no regard to it's
internal order,  influence has a price and one doesn't see a
determined attitude in face of this reality, from the minister of
{CorInterior nor from the Attorney General.
 
FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF THE ASSASSINATION OF MARCO TULIO
 
July 22nd was one year since the still unpunished  assassination in
San Pedro Sula of the son of the president of COFADEH, Marco Tulio
Lopez Hernandez, a young person who believed in justice, a worker
for peace.
 
Even though the person responsible, Julio Cesar Gardad,  confessed
to his assassination, he continues in the San Pedro Penal Center
without receiving an condemnatory verdict.
 
On the occasion of this first anniversary, COFADEH demands the
concretization of the police investigations, the  speeding up  of
the judicial  procedures and rapid justice for him or the others
responsible.
 
In a letter made public we condemn the conduct of the supposed
defenders of human rights who are pressuring for exonerating of
guilt the government of Rafael Callejas in this assassination.
 
With the document we express our eternal signs of solidarity and
accompaniment to the end for our fellow worker Liduvina Hernandez,
who in addition to the loss of Marco Tulio, carries with her the
pain without end of the disappearance of Enrique Lopez, and  a
interminable chain of problems from these acts.
 
 
SHE ALSO DEMANDS JUSTICE
 
Berta Julia Trinida Enriquez asks justice for the assassination of
her youngest son Ramon Antonio Briceno, shot dead June 2nd, 1990 in
the district Los Llanos of Tegucigalpa.
 
Briceno was a student of Economy and activist of the University
Reform Front (FRU); at the moment of his death he was the president
of the Union of Workers of the Central Bank (SITRABANTRAL).
 
Some days before his assassination there appeared on the walls of
the facilities of Economy in the University graffiti with the
message threatening:  "Briceno you are a dead man", of which Martin
Berlioz, activists of the rightist FUUD took responsibility.
 
Stemming from the denunciation of Dona Julia, Berlioz was captured
at the end of June of this year under suspicion of having
participated in the assassination of the university student.  Six
days afterward, he was allowed to go free for "lack of merit".
 
For the mother of the victim the judge of the  first court of
criminals of Tegucigalpa acted with lightness and bad faith, since
Berlioz is a person who should be investigated deeply.
 
"Ramon was my youngest son, my sustainer, he  filled my life, for
him I demand justice"
 
OTHER ARTICLES IN THE BULLETIN:
*EDUARDO ANIBAL BLANCO
*TONY, CAME AND WENT
*SALE OF ILLEGAL MEDICINES
*OTHER FORMS OF SPEAKING
*EDUCATION, OUR RESPONSIBILITY
*ASSASSINATIONS IN SAN PEDRO SULA
*SKELETONS
*THE BLOOD RUNS
*TROJES, INHERITED VIOLENCE
*OUR PARTY WITH THE JOURNALISTS
*THE "NEW UNIVERSITY" OF RAMOS SOTO
 
COFADEH, Apartado Postal 1243; Tegulcigalpa, D.C., Honduras
Telephone: 37-9800
 
 

** End of text from cdp:reg.honduras **
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