I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1299 
To suspend United States security assistance with Honduras until such time 
as human rights violations by Honduran security forces cease and their 
perpetrators are brought to justice. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 2, 2017 
Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia (for himself, Mr. CONYERS, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. 
SERRANO, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. ELLISON, Ms. LEE, Mrs. DAVIS of 
California, Ms. SPEIER, Ms. MOORE, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Mr. LIPINSKI, 
Mrs. DINGELL, Mr. POCAN, Ms. NORTON, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Ms. 
BONAMICI, Ms. DELAURO, Mr. GUTIE´RREZ, Mr. CICILLINE, Ms. PIN-
GREE, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Mr. RUSH, Mr. TONKO, and Mr. GRIJALVA) 
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on Financial Services, 
for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case 
for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the 
committee concerned 
A BILL 
To suspend United States security assistance with Honduras 
until such time as human rights violations by Honduran 
security forces cease and their perpetrators are brought 
to justice. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Berta Ca´ceres Human 
Rights in Honduras Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The Honduran police are widely established 
to be deeply corrupt and commit human rights 
abuses, including torture, rape, illegal detention, and 
murder, with impunity. 
(2) The New York Times revealed documents 
on April 15, 2016, indicating that top officials of the 
Honduran police ordered the killings of drug-crime 
investigators Julia´n Arı´stides Gonza´les and Alfredo 
Landaverde in 2009 and 2011, respectively, with the 
subsequent knowledge of top police and, evidently, 
high-ranking government officials. The Times sug-
gested in a subsequent article that the revelations 
were being manipulated by the President of Hon-
duras for his own corrupt purposes. 
(3) Individuals in the police with documented 
records of having committed gross human abuses 
with impunity continue to be appointed to high posi-
tions within the police. 
(4) International human rights bodies have re-
ported that the Honduran military and police com-
mit human rights abuses, including killings, with im-
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punity. The Associated Press has documented death 
squad activity by police. Human Rights Watch re-
ports: ‘‘The use of lethal force by the national police 
is a chronic problem. Investigations into the police 
abuses are marred by inefficiency and corruption, 
little information about them is made public; and 
impunity is the rule.’’. 
(5) The Department of State’s Honduran 
Human Rights Report for 2016 reports: ‘‘Impunity 
remains a serious problem, with prosecution in cases 
of military and police officials charged with human 
rights violations moving too slowly or remaining in-
conclusive.’’. 
(6) Repeated efforts to clean up the Honduran 
police have largely failed. A recent commission to 
clean up the police reports that it has separated a 
number of police. However, to date there has been 
minimal and only token progress in effectively pros-
ecuting members of the police involved in corruption 
and human rights abuses, and the reported separa-
tions have not been independently verified. More-
over, long-lasting, fundamental reform of the police 
still needs to be enacted. 
(7) Rights Action documented the Fifteenth 
Battalion of the Honduran Armed Forces allegedly 
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participated with police and private security forces 
in some of the killings of over 100 small-farmer ac-
tivists in the Agua´n Valley beginning in 2000. In 
2015, Human Rights Watch confirmed that the 
killings of Agua´n farmers were met with no con-
sequences. To date there has been one confirmed 
conviction of a private actor. Assassinations of key 
activists continue. In October 2016, Jose´ Angel Flo-
res, the president of the Unified Campesino Move-
ment of the Agua´n (MUCA), and Silmer Dionisio 
George, another MUCA member, were assassinated. 
(8) Further examples abound of human rights 
abuses by the military: in July 2013 members of the 
Armed Forces shot and killed Toma´s Garcı´a, a 
Lenca Indigenous activist, and injured his son while 
they were peacefully protesting a dam project; in 
May 2014, nine members of the Ninth Infantry re-
portedly tortured and killed Amado Maradiaga 
Quiroz and tortured his son, Milton Noe Maradiaga 
Varela. The cases remain unresolved. In a recent 
emblematic case, on December 27, 2015, the Hon-
duran Navy reportedly killed Joel Palacios Lino and 
Elvis Armando Garcı´a, two Garı´funa Afro-Indige-
nous men who were engaged in digging a car out of 
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the sand on a beach. The case remains in impunity 
over a year later. 
(9) The current Government of Honduras has 
expanded the military’s reach into domestic policing, 
including the creation of a 3,000-member Military 
Police in clear violation of the Honduran constitu-
tion and with disastrous results, including the 
killings of a 15-year-old boy, Ebed Yanes, in 2012 
and a student, Erlin Misael Carı´as Moncada, in 
2014, after they had passed unarmed through check-
points, and the January 2, 2017, killing of 17-year- 
old Edgardo Moreno Rodriquez. Since the creation 
of the Military Police ‘‘allegations of human rights 
abuses by the military have increased notably’’, re-
ports Human Rights Watch. In 2016 the creation of 
two new battalions of the Military Police was an-
nounced. 
(10) The Honduran judicial system has been 
widely documented to be rife with corruption. 
Judges, prosecutors and other officials are inter-
connected with organized crime and drug traffickers, 
contributing to near-complete immunity. 
(11) The Department of State in its 2015 
Human Rights Report for Honduras reports ‘‘cor-
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ruption, intimidation, and institutional weakness of 
the justice system leading to widespread impunity.’’. 
(12) Summarizing the situation, Human Rights 
Watch reports in 2016 that ‘‘Rampant crime and 
impunity for human rights abuses remain the norm 
in Honduras . . . Efforts to reform the institutions 
responsible for providing public security have made 
little progress. Marred by corruption and abuse, the 
judiciary and police remain largely ineffective.’’. 
(13) The March 2, 2016, assassination of 
prominent Lenca Indigenous and environmental ac-
tivist Berta Ca´ceres, world-renowned recipient of the 
2015 Goldman Environmental Prize for her work 
defending Indigenous land rights against a hydro-
electric dam project, illustrates the human rights cri-
sis in Honduras, and the deep complicity of the 
Honduran government. Ca´ceres, the leader of 
COPINH, the Council of Indigenous and Popular 
Organizations of Honduras, had reported to authori-
ties 33 threats previous to her killing, but none had 
been investigated, and the government had failed to 
provide adequate protection measures as mandated 
by the Inter-American Commission on Human 
Rights, with protection by Honduran security being 
withdrawn the day of her death. 
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(14) As of February 2017, eight suspects, four 
of whom have ties to the Honduran military, have 
been arrested in the killing of Ca´ceres, one of whom 
is a current officer in the military and three others 
are former military. These arrests raise serious 
questions about the role of the Honduran military in 
her assassination, including the chain of command 
within the military as well as the identity of the true 
authors of the assassination. 
(15) The Government of Honduras continues to 
unduly limit legally mandated access by Ms. Ca´ceres’ 
family to the case file. In late September 2016, the 
original case file was allowed to leave the Public 
Ministry and was stolen. 
(16) Despite calls from 62 Members of Con-
gress, members of the family of Berta Ca´ceres, 
COPINH, leaders of the European Union, the Vati-
can Pontifical Council on Peace and Justice, and 
many others, the Honduran government has not per-
mitted the Inter-American Commission on Human 
rights to conduct an independent investigation of the 
case. 
(17) In this context of corruption and human 
rights abuses, trade unionists, journalists, lawyers, 
Afro-Indigenous 
activists, 
Indigenous 
activists, 
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small-farmer activists, LGBTI activists, human 
rights defenders, and critics of the government re-
main at severe risk; and previous human rights 
abuses against them remain largely unpunished. 
(18) The May 2, 2016, shooting of prominent 
opposition journalist Fe´lix Molina illustrates the con-
tinued risk facing activists. Hours before he was 
shot, Molina had posted information potentially link-
ing Ca´ceres’s killing to a top government official, 
members of an elite family, and one of the prosecu-
tors in the case. 
(19) The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 
2016 allocated approximately $18,000,000 to the 
Honduran police and military, in addition to the Na-
tional Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 
2016 authorizing additional funding. The Adminis-
tration’s funding request for fiscal year 2017 also 
calls for an increase in security funding for Hon-
duras. 
(20) The Inter-American Development Bank in 
2012 lent $59,800,000 to the Honduran police, with 
United States approval. 
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SEC. 3. SUSPENSION AND RESTRICTIONS OF SECURITY AS-
SISTANCE EXTENDED TO REPUBLIC OF HON-
DURAS UNLESS CERTAIN CONDITIONS HAVE 
BEEN MET. 
(a) SUSPENSION
OF SECURITY ASSISTANCE.—No 
funds may be made available to provide assistance for the 
police or military of the Republic of Honduras, including 
assistance for equipment and training. 
(b) LOANS FROM MULTILATERAL DEVELOPMENT 
BANKS.—The Secretary of the Treasury shall instruct 
United States representatives at multilateral development 
banks to vote no on any loans for the police or military 
of the Republic of Honduras. 
SEC. 4. CONDITIONS FOR LIFTING SUSPENSIONS AND RE-
STRICTIONS. 
The provisions of this Act shall terminate on the date 
on which the Secretary of State determines and certifies 
to the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Rep-
resentatives and the Committee on Foreign Relations of 
the Senate that the Government of Honduras has— 
(1) pursued all legal avenues to bring to trial 
and obtain a verdict of those who ordered and car-
ried out— 
(A) the March 2, 2016, murder of Berta 
Ca´ceres; 
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(B) the killings of over 100 small-farmer 
activists in the Agua´n Valley; 
(C) the December 27, 2015, killings of 
Joel Palacios Lino and Elvis Armando Garcı´a; 
and 
(D) the May 3, 2016, armed attack on 
Fe´lix Molina; 
(2) investigated and successfully prosecuted 
members of military and police forces who are 
credibly found to have violated human rights, and 
ensured that the military and police cooperated in 
such cases, and that such violations have ceased; 
(3) withdrawn the military from domestic polic-
ing, in accordance with the Honduran Constitution, 
and ensured that all domestic police functions are 
separated from the command and control of the 
Armed Forces of Honduras and are instead directly 
responsible to civilian authority; 
(4) established that it protects effectively the 
rights of trade unionists, journalists, human rights 
defenders, Indigenous, Afro-Indigenous, small-farm-
er, and LGBTI activists, critics of the government, 
and other civil society activists to operate without in-
terference; and 
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