I 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1945 
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 28, 2019 
Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia (for himself, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. SERRANO, Ms. SCHA-
KOWSKY, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, Ms. MOORE, Mr. RASKIN, Mr. FOSTER, 
Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Ms. PINGREE, Ms. SPEIER, Ms. BONAMICI, Mr. PA-
NETTA, Mr. LOWENTHAL, Ms. OMAR, Mrs. DINGELL, Ms. ESHOO, Mr. 
RUSH, Mr. TONKO, Ms. LEE of California, Mr. LYNCH, Miss RICE of 
New York, Mr. KHANNA, Mr. GRIJALVA, Ms. LOFGREN, Mr. MCGOVERN, 
Ms. HAALAND, Mr. POCAN, Mr. CICILLINE, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Mr. 
DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. PALLONE, Ms. JAYAPAL, Mr. THOMP-
SON of Mississippi, Ms. JUDY CHU of California, Ms. NORTON, Mr. 
CLEAVER, Mr. HIMES, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Mr. LIPINSKI, Mr. BEYER, Mr. 
KIND, Mr. PAYNE, and Mr. TED LIEU of California) introduced the fol-
lowing 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 con-
cerned 
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. 
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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. Both cases re-
main in impunity. 
(3) Individuals in the police with documented 
records of having committed gross human rights 
abuses with impunity continue to serve in, and be 
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appointed and reappointed to high positions with the 
police. Former general in the Armed Forces Julian 
Pacheco Tinoco, the Minister of Security, was the 
highest ranking official in charge of the repression 
of protesters by the police following the November 
27, 2017, election, and has been twice named in 
United States Federal court as overseeing drug traf-
ficking. He was reappointed to his position by Presi-
dent Juan Orlando Herna´ndez in December 2018. 
(4) Other individuals who previously served in 
high-ranking positions and who are documented to 
have committed gross human rights abuses continue 
in impunity. 
(5) International human rights bodies have re-
ported that the Honduran military and police com-
mit human rights abuses, including killings, with im-
punity. The Associated Press has documented death 
squad activity by police. Human Rights Watch has 
reported: ‘‘The use of lethal force by the national po-
lice is a chronic problem.’’. In its report for 2018 it 
concluded that ‘‘Violent crime is rampant in Hon-
duras’’. It noted that: ‘‘Marred by corruption and 
abuse, the judiciary and police remain largely inef-
fective. Impunity for crime and human rights abuses 
is the norm.’’. 
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(6) The Department of State’s 2018 Human 
Rights Report for Honduras reported: ‘‘Civilian au-
thorities at times did not maintain effective control 
over the security forces.’’. It summarized: ‘‘The most 
significant human rights issues included alleged ar-
bitrary and unlawful killings; a complaint of torture; 
harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbi-
trary arrest or detention; unlawful interference with 
privacy; killings of and threats to media members,’’ 
and other issues. 
(7) Repeated efforts to clean up the Honduran 
police have largely failed. A recent commission 
charged with cleaning up the police reports that it 
has cleaned up over 5,000 members, but the great 
majority of those were separated for reasons of re-
structuring, retirements, or disabilities. Only ap-
proximately 100 cases of alleged criminal activity 
have been forwarded to the Public Ministry for pros-
ecution. Few of those are being prosecuted. The ac-
tions and results of the police cleanup commission 
have not been independently verified, moreover, and 
its directors include Julian Pacheco Tinoco, the Min-
ister of Security, named as a drug trafficker, and 
Vilma Morales, one of the top two negotiators for 
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the leader of the 2009 coup. Long-lasting, funda-
mental reform of the police still needs to be enacted. 
(8) Evidence indicates that topmost officials in 
charge of the police have been allegedly involved in 
drug trafficking. The National Director of the Police 
and his top two lieutenants have been documented 
by the Associated Press to have previously partici-
pated in cocaine trafficking. Julian Pacheco Tinoco, 
the Minister of Security, reappointed in December 
2018, has been twice named in United States Fed-
eral court as overseeing drug trafficking. 
(9) Rights Action has documented that the Fif-
teenth Battalion of the Honduran Armed Forces al-
legedly participated with police and private security 
forces in some of the killings of over 100 small-farm-
er activists in the Agua´n Valley beginning in 2010. 
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 security guard. Assassinations 
of key activists continue. In October 2016, Jose´ 
Angel 
Flores, 
the 
president 
of 
the 
Unified 
Campesino Movement of the Agua´n (MUCA), and 
Silmer Dionisio George, another MUCA member, 
were assassinated, with impunity. 
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(10) 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 in impunity. In an em-
blematic case, on December 27, 2015, the Honduran 
Navy reportedly killed Joel Palacios Lino and Elvis 
Armando Garcı´a, two Garı´funa Afro-Indigenous men 
who were engaged in digging a car out of the sand 
on a beach. Ten members of the Honduran military 
were convicted of the killing of these 2 men, under-
scoring that egregious human rights are committed 
by state security forces. 
(11) The current Government of Honduras has 
expanded the military’s reach into domestic policing, 
including the creation of a 4,300-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-
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points, and the January 2, 2017, killing of 17-year- 
old Edgardo Moreno Rodriquez. While one member 
of the armed forces was convicted and sentenced in 
the case of Yanes, the case of the United States- 
trained colonel who allegedly subsequently ordered a 
cover-up remains in impunity. Since the creation of 
the Military Police, ‘‘allegations of human rights 
abuses by the military have increased notably’’, re-
ports Human Rights Watch. The Military Police 
now count 9 battalions and plan 2 additional battal-
ions. 
(12) During the crisis that erupted following 
the highly contested November 2017 Presidential 
election, massive protests against electoral fraud and 
the disputed re-election campaign of President Juan 
Orlando Herna´ndez emerged throughout the coun-
try. The United Nations and the Committee of Fam-
ilies of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras 
(COFADEH) have documented that in response, 
Honduran state security forces killed at least 16 
people, many of them protesters and bystanders; one 
additional person remains forcibly disappeared by 
state security forces. The great majority of the vic-
tims, according to the UN and COFADEH reports, 
were killed by the Military Police. All these cases re-
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main in impunity. In addition, 3 people accused of 
crimes while protesting remain in prison awaiting 
trial under dire, life-threatening conditions and a 
fourth remains in exile. 
(13) The Military Police continue to commit se-
rious human rights abuses. On November 30, 2017, 
Daniel Isaac Varela, age 12, was wounded by mem-
bers of the military police in Comayagu¨ela during a 
post-election demonstration while he was purchasing 
candy with friends and the military opened fire. On 
December 3, 2017, Manuel de Jesu´s Bautista Sal-
vador disappeared while held in detention by the 
Military Police in Cofradı´a, Corte´s, and his where-
abouts remain unknown. 
(14) 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 impunity. 
(15) The Department of State in its 2018 
Human Rights Report for Honduras reports that 
‘‘Corruption and impunity remained serious prob-
lems within the security forces.’’. It noted that ‘‘Im-
punity existed in many cases . . . as evidenced by 
lengthy judicial processes, few convictions of per-
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petrators, and failures to prosecute intellectual au-
thors of crimes.’’. 
(16) Overall, the judicial system remains inef-
fective and corrupt. The Department of State re-
ported for 2017 that it was ‘‘often ineffective, and 
subject to intimidation, corruption, politicization and 
patronage . . . Powerful special interests, including 
organized crime groups, exercised influence on the 
outcome of some court proceedings.’’. 
(17) Summarizing the situation, Human Rights 
Watch reported for 2018 that ‘‘Judges face inter-
ference from the executive branch and others, in-
cluding private actors with connections in govern-
ment.’’. It concludes: ‘‘Efforts to reform the institu-
tions responsible for providing public security have 
made little progress. Married by corruption and 
abuse, the judiciary and police remain largely inef-
fective.’’. 
(18) 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 
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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. 
(19) As of November 2018, seven men have 
been convicted in the killing of Ca´ceres. One of them 
was an active duty officer in the military at the time 
of his arrest and two others are former military. A 
third former officer and the president of the DESA 
Corporation, the dam construction company, has 
been charged and is awaiting trial. The convictions 
raise serious questions about the role of the Hon-
duran military in her assassination, including the 
higher chain of command within the military as well 
as the identity of the intellectual authors of the as-
sassination. Evidence in the documents in the case 
file indicate that members of the Honduran elite 
were responsible for ordering Ca´ceres’s assassina-
tion, and remain in impunity. Evidence also indi-
cates possible involvement of individuals of higher 
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rank in the military, but there is no indication that 
prosecutors are investigating these individuals. 
(20) The Government of Honduras continues to 
unduly limit legally mandated access by Ms. 
Ca´ceres’s family to participation in the prosecution 
as permitted under Honduran law. 
(21) In this context of corruption and human 
rights abuses, trade unionists, journalists, lawyers, 
Afro-Indigenous 
activists, 
Indigenous 
activists, 
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. 
(22) Journalists continue to be attacked with 
impunity. On May 2, 2016, prominent opposition 
journalist Fe´lix Molina was shot multiple times in 
the legs hours after he had posted information po-
tentially linking Ca´ceres’s killing to a top govern-
ment official, members of an elite family, and one of 
the prosecutors in the case. Those who report on 
protests against the government are threatened and 
attacked by state security forces. On November 26, 
2018, journalist Geovanny Sierra from the UNETV 
opposition television station was in the process of re-
porting on the repression by security forces of a pro-
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test marking the one-year anniversary of the dis-
puted 2017 elections when he was fired upon by 
members of the police assigned to the National Peni-
tentiary. He survived the attack but suffered exten-
sive injuries to his right arm. Both cases remain in 
impunity. 
(23) United States agencies allocated approxi-
mately $39 million that Congress appropriated 
through the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017, 
to the Honduran police and military for fiscal year 
2017. 
(24) The Inter-American Development Bank 
lent $60,000,000 to the Honduran police between 
2012 and 2018, with United States approval. 
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 
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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 all those who ordered and 
carried out— 
(A) the March 2, 2016, murder of Berta 
Ca´ceres; 
(B) the killings of over 100 small-farmer 
activists in the Agua´n Valley; 
(C) the killings of 22 people and forced 
disappearance of 1 person by state security 
forces in the context of the 2017 postelectoral 
crisis; and 
(D) the May 3, 2016, armed attack on 
Fe´lix Molina, and the November 26, 2018, 
shooting of Geovanny Sierra. 
(2) investigated and successfully prosecuted 
members of military and police forces who are 
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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, the Indigenous, the Afro-Indigenous, 
small-farmers, LGBTI activists, critics of the gov-
ernment, and other civil society activists to operate 
without interference; and 
(5) taken effective steps to fully establish the 
rule of law and to guarantee a judicial system that 
is capable of investigating, prosecuting, and bringing 
to justice members of the police and military who 
have committed human rights abuses. 
Æ 
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