I 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2716 
To suspend certain United States assistance for the Government of Honduras 
until corruption, impunity, and human rights violations are no longer 
systemic, and the perpetrators of these crimes are being brought to 
justice. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 21, 2021 
Ms. SCHAKOWSKY (for herself, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Mr. CASTRO of 
Texas, Mr. GARCI´A of Illinois, Ms. KAPTUR, Ms. OMAR, Mr. BLU-
MENAUER, Mr. CICILLINE, Mr. COHEN, Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois, 
Mr. ESPAILLAT, Mr. GRIJALVA, Ms. JAYAPAL, Mr. LOWENTHAL, Mr. 
MCGOVERN, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Ms. NORTON, Mr. PANETTA, Mr. 
POCAN, Ms. PORTER, Mr. RASKIN, Mr. RUSH, Ms. TLAIB, Mr. VARGAS, 
Mr. WELCH, Ms. SCANLON, and Ms. PRESSLEY) introduced the following 
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in ad-
dition to the Committees on the Judiciary, and 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 com-
mittee concerned 
A BILL 
To suspend certain United States assistance for the Govern-
ment of Honduras until corruption, impunity, and human 
rights violations are no longer systemic, and the per-
petrators of these crimes are being 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; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Honduras Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Act of 
2021’’. 
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 
this Act is as follows: 
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
Sec. 2. Police or military of the Republic of Honduras defined. 
Sec. 3. Findings. 
Sec. 4. Sense of Congress. 
Sec. 5. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. 
Sec. 6. Imposition of sanctions with respect to the president of Honduras. 
Sec. 7. Prohibition on commercial export of covered defense articles and serv-
ices and covered munitions items to the Honduran police or 
military. 
Sec. 8. Suspension and restrictions of security assistance extended to the Re-
public of Honduras unless certain conditions are met. 
Sec. 9. Sunset. 
SEC. 2. POLICE OR MILITARY OF THE REPUBLIC OF HON-
DURAS DEFINED. 
In this Act, the term ‘‘police or military of the Repub-
lic of Honduras’’ means— 
(1) the Honduran National Police; 
(2) the Honduran Armed Forces; 
(3) the Military Police of Public Order of the 
Republic of Honduras; or 
(4) para-police or paramilitary elements, acting 
under color of law or having received financing, 
training, orders, intelligence, weapons, or other 
forms of material assistance from the forces identi-
fied in paragraphs (1) through (3). 
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SEC. 3. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) Since the 2009 military coup, the Republic 
of Honduras remains plagued by systemic corruption 
and human rights violations, exemplified by— 
(A) widespread collusion among govern-
ment officials, state and private security forces, 
organized crime, and members of the private 
sector, including in the knowledge and perpetra-
tion of physical and legal threats, assassina-
tions, forced disappearances, and other abuses 
against human rights and environmental de-
fenders, members of the political opposition, 
journalists, and others; 
(B) the excessive use of force by members 
of the police or military of the Republic of Hon-
duras, particularly in the context of civil society 
protests; 
(C) the failure of the Government of Hon-
duras to protect the rights, interests, and phys-
ical security of indigenous peoples in land and 
natural resources disputes, in contravention of 
its obligations under the Honduran constitution 
and under international treaties to which it is 
a state party; and 
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(D) the failure of the Government of Hon-
duras to enforce the Honduran Labor Code in 
violation of its obligations under International 
Labor Organization Conventions, which the 
Government of Honduras has ratified, guaran-
teeing freedom of association, the right to col-
lective bargaining, and other fundamental labor 
protections. 
(2) There is substantial evidence that President 
of Honduras Juan Orlando Herna´ndez has engaged 
in a pattern of criminal activity and use of the state 
apparatus to protect and facilitate drug trafficking, 
as exemplified by three high-profile corruption and 
drug trafficking cases that were tried or are being 
prosecuted in the United States District Court for 
the Southern District of New York, in which the 
President of Honduras was named as a co-con-
spirator, including the following: 
(A) The October 2019 conviction of the 
President of Honduras’s brother Juan Antonio 
Herna´ndez, in which Federal prosecutors and 
multiple witnesses testified that the President 
of Honduras received $1,500,000 in drug pro-
ceeds that were funneled toward his successful 
2013 presidential campaign, and that organized 
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crime had infiltrated the Honduran National 
Police and National Party. 
(B) The March 2020 indictment of 
Geovanny Daniel Fuentes, a drug trafficker, in 
which Federal prosecutors alleged that the 
President of Honduras accepted $25,000 in 
bribes in exchange for protecting the defendant 
from law enforcement intervention against his 
cocaine trafficking activities and facilitated the 
use of Honduran military personnel as security 
for the defendant’s drug trafficking operations. 
On February 5, 2021, Federal prosecutors filed 
a court document stating that the President of 
Honduras was under investigation in connection 
with the case. 
(C) The April 2020 indictment of former 
National Director of Police Juan Carlos ‘‘El 
Tigre’’ Bonilla, in which Federal prosecutors al-
leged that the President of Honduras accepted 
bribes from drug traffickers, facilitated multi- 
ton shipments of cocaine bound for the United 
States, and entrusted the defendant with spe-
cial assignments, including murder. 
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(3) The President of Honduras has also dem-
onstrated a track record of contempt for the rule of 
law, exhibited by— 
(A) his support for the 2009 military coup, 
repudiated as unlawful by the United Nations, 
the Organization of American States, the Euro-
pean Union, and numerous foreign govern-
ments, while a member of Congress; 
(B) his support for a 2012 congressional 
measure, widely viewed as illegal, to replace 
four Supreme Court justices while the leader of 
Congress; and 
(C) his 2017 candidacy for a second presi-
dential term, in violation of the Honduran con-
stitution’s longstanding prohibition on presi-
dential reelection, which in 2015 was nullified 
in a ruling by the justices referred to in sub-
paragraph (B). 
(4) In recent months, the executive and legisla-
tive branches of the Government of Honduras have 
taken significant steps to entrench corruption, block 
oversight by national prosecutors and international 
investigators, and shield senior officials and parlia-
mentarians from criminal liability, including the fol-
lowing actions: 
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