I 
114TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5474 
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 
JUNE 14, 2016 
Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia (for himself, Mr. CONYERS, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. ELLI-
SON, Mr. SERRANO, and Ms. SCHAKOWSKY) 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 provi-
sions 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, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Berta Ca´ceres Human 
Rights in Honduras Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The 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 indicating that top officials of the Hon-
duran police ordered the killings of drug-crime inves-
tigators 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 top 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-
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 
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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 failed. 
(7) Human Rights Action documented 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 2000. 
Human Rights Watch confirms that the killings of 
Agua´n farmers were met with no consequences. 
(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-
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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 
the sand on a beach. 
(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. Since the creation of the Military Police ‘‘al-
legations of human rights abuses by the military 
have increased notably’’, reports Human Rights 
Watch. 
(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. 
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Rights, with protection by Honduran security being 
withdrawn the day of her death. 
(14) Five suspects have been arrested in the 
killing of Ca´ceres, one of whom is a current officer 
in the military and two others are retired military. 
These arrests raise serious questions about the role 
of the Honduran military in her assassination, in-
cluding the chain of command within the military as 
well as the identity of the true authors of the assas-
sination. 
(15) 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. 
(16) 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. 
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(17) 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. 
(18) The 2016 Appropriations Act allocates ap-
proximately $18,000,000 to the Honduran police 
and military, in addition to funding in the 2016 Na-
tional Defense Appropriations Act; the President’s 
funding request for fiscal year 2017 calls for an in-
crease in security funding for Honduras. 
(19) The Inter-American Development Bank in 
2012 lent $59,800,000 to the Honduran police, with 
the United States approval. 
SEC. 3. SUSPENSION AND RESTRICTIONS OF SECURITY AID 
EXTENDED TO REPUBLIC OF HONDURAS UN-
LESS CERTAIN CONDITIONS HAVE BEEN MET. 
(a) SUSPENSION
OF SECURITY ASSISTANCE.—No 
funds may be made available to the Republic of Honduras 
for the police and military, including funds for equipment 
and training. 
(b) LOANS FROM MULTILATERAL DEVELOPMENT 
BANKS.—The Department of the Treasury shall be in-
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structed to vote no on any and all loans to the Republic 
of Honduras for its police and military. 
SEC. 4. CONDITIONS FOR LIFTING SUSPENSIONS AND RE-
STRICTIONS. 
The provisions of this Act shall terminate on the date 
on which the Department of State determines and certifies 
to the appropriate congressional committees that the Gov-
ernment 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; 
(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; 
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(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 
(5) taken effective steps to fully establish the 
rule of a 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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