Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act
Bill: H.R.1574 | Sponsor: Rep. Johnson, Henry C. "Hank," Jr. (D-GA)
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
Berta Caceres Human Rights in Honduras Act
This bill prohibits U.S. assistance to the police or military of Honduras. The Department of the Treasury shall instruct U.S. representatives of multilateral development banks to vote against providing loans to the Honduran police or military.
The prohibition shall be lifted if the Department of State certifies to Congress that various conditions have been met, including that the Honduran government has (1) pursued all legal avenues to reach verdicts in specified crimes, such as the killings of indigenous land-rights activist Berta Caceres and of 100 small-farmer activists in the Aguan Valley; (2) investigated and prosecuted members of the military and police who have violated human rights; and (3) taken effective steps to establish the rule of law.

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 Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Berta Caceres Human Rights in 
Honduras Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The Honduran military and 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 Julian 
        Aristides Gonzales and Alfredo Landaverde in 2009 and 2011, 
        respectively, with the subsequent knowledge of top police and, 
        evidently, high-ranking government officials. The Times 
        suggested in a subsequent article that the revelations were 
        being manipulated by the President of Honduras for his own 
        corrupt purposes. Both cases remain in impunity.
            (3) Individuals in the military and police with documented 
        records of having committed gross human rights abuses with 
        impunity continue to serve in, and be appointed and reappointed 
        to high positions with state security forces. Former Army 
        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 trafficking. He was 
        reappointed to his position by President Juan Orlando Hernandez 
        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. In January 2021, United 
        States Federal prosecutors filed new motions with the 
        Department of Justice in the Southern District of New York that 
        implicate senior military, police, political, and business 
        figures in laundering money, bribery, and murder, including 
        former head of National Police, Juan Carlos ``El Tigre'' 
        Bonilla Valladares.
            (5) International human rights bodies have reported that 
        the Honduran military and police commit human rights abuses, 
        including killings, with impunity. The Associated Press has 
        documented death squad activity by police. Human Rights Watch 
        has reported: ``The use of lethal force by the national police 
        is a chronic problem.''. The United Nations Working Group on 
        Business and Human Rights stated in 2019 that ``numerous 
        evictions, seeking to allow business to operate, have been 
        conducted with the excessive use of force by police and 
        military . . . resulting in the loss of life and grave injury 
        to people''.
            (6) The Department of State's 2019 Human Rights Report for 
        Honduras reported: ``Civilian authorities at times did not 
        maintain effective control over the security forces.''. It 
        summarized: ``Significant human rights issues included: 
        unlawful or arbitrary killings, including extrajudicial 
        killings; torture; harsh and life-threatening prison 
        conditions; arbitrary arrest or detention.''. In 2020, Human 
        Rights Watch reported that ``Security forces committed abuses 
        while enforcing a nationwide COVID-19 lockdown that President 
        Juan Orlando Hernandez imposed in March.''.
            (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 
        restructuring, retirements, or disabilities. Only approximately 
        100 cases of alleged criminal activity have been forwarded to 
        the Public Ministry for prosecution. Few of those are being 
        prosecuted. The actions and results of the police cleanup 
        commission have not been independently verified, moreover, and 
        its directors include Julian Pacheco Tinoco, the Minister of 
        Security, named as a drug trafficker, and Vilma Morales, one of 
        the top two negotiators for the leader of the 2009 coup. Long-
        lasting, fundamental reform of the police still needs to be 
        enacted. UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights 
        defenders determined that, ``progress (on police clean up) is 
        diminished by the involvement of the armed forces in carrying 
        out police functions and maintaining public order since 2011''. 
        In its report for 2020, Human Rights Watch concludes: ``Efforts 
        to reform public-security institutions have stalled. Marred by 
        corruption and abuse, the judiciary and police remain largely 
        ineffective. Impunity for human rights abuses, violent crime, 
        and corruption remains the norm''.
            (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 
        participated in cocaine trafficking. Julian Pacheco Tinoco, the 
        Minister of Security, reappointed in December 2018, has been 
        twice named in United States Federal court as overseeing drug 
        trafficking. United States Federal prosecutors have released 
        documents implicating Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez 
        in a drug trafficking and money laundering conspiracy with his 
        brother Juan Antonio Hernandez. In October 2019, Tony Hernandez 
        was convicted of drug conspiracy in United States Federal 
        Court.
            (9) Human rights organizations have documented that the 
        Fifteenth Battalion of the Honduran Armed Forces allegedly 
        participated with police and private security forces in some of 
        the killings of over 100 small-farmer, agrarian reform 
        activists in the Aguan Valley beginning in 2010. In 2015, Human 
        Rights Watch confirmed that the killings of Aguan farmers were 
        met with no consequences. 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 Aguan 
        (MUCA), and Silmer Dionisio George, another MUCA member, were 
        assassinated, with impunity. Local human rights organizations 
        report a chronic problem with witness intimidation coupled with 
        reports that the identity of witnesses is leaked by police 
        investigators. Violence, threats, and criminalization of 
        agrarian reform advocates in the region continues.
            (10) Further examples abound of human rights abuses by the 
        military: in July 2013 members of the Armed Forces shot and 
        killed Tomas Garcia, 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 reportedly 
        tortured and killed Amado Maradiaga Quiroz and tortured his 
        son, Milton Noe Maradiaga Varela. The case remains in impunity. 
        In an emblematic case, on December 27, 2015, the Honduran Navy 
        reportedly killed Joel Palacios Lino and Elvis Armando Garcia, 
        two Garifuna 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, 
        underscoring that egregious human rights are committed by state 
        security forces. On June 20, 2019, Eblin Noe Corea, a 17-year-
        old student leader was killed by the military while 
        participating in a protest with the Platform in Defense of 
        Health and Education. On April 24, 2020, state security forces 
        beat three brothers in Omoa, Cortes, shooting two of them and 
        killing one after they were arbitrarily detained for selling 
        bread. A member of the Army assigned to the Maya Chorti Task 
        Force, is accused of the killing.
            (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 constitution and with disastrous results, including 
        the killings of a 15-year-old boy, Ebed Yanes, in 2012 and a 
        student, Erlin Misael Carias Moncada, in 2014, after they had 
        passed unarmed through checkpoints, 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'', reports Human Rights Watch. The Military 
        Police now count 9 battalions and plan 2 additional battalions.
            (12) During the crisis that erupted following the highly 
        contested November 2017 Presidential election, massive protests 
        against electoral fraud and the constitutionality of disputed 
        re-election campaign of President Juan Orlando Hernandez 
        emerged throughout the country. The United Nations and the 
        Committee of Families of the Detained and Disappeared in 
        Honduras (COFADEH) have documented that in response, Honduran 
        state security forces killed at least 23 people, many of them 
        protesters and bystanders; one additional person remains 
        forcibly disappeared by state security forces. The great 
        majority of the victims, according to the UN and COFADEH 
        reports, were killed by the Military Police. All these cases 
        remain in impunity. In addition, 3 people accused of crimes 
        while protesting were imprisoned for 2 years while awaiting 
        trial under dire, life-threatening conditions; 3 years later 
        they continue to be subjected to criminal proceedings 
        characterized by procedural delays and obstruction of 
        fundamental rights including the right to work. A fourth 
        remains in exile.
            (13) The Military Police continue to commit serious human 
        rights abuses. On November 30, 2017, Daniel Isaac Varela, age 
        12, was wounded by members of the military police in 
        Comayaguela during a post-election demonstration while he was 
        purchasing candy with friends and the military opened fire. On 
        December 3, 2017, Manuel de Jesus Bautista Salvador disappeared 
        while held in detention by the Military Police in Cofradia, 
        Cortes, and his whereabouts remain unknown. In response to the 
        COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of Honduras declared a state 
        of emergency in March 2020 authorizing a militarized lockdown 
        and suspension of constitutional guarantees resulting in an 
        ``alarming increase'' in human rights violations by state 
        security forces, including attacks on human rights defenders, 
        journalists, and citizens protesting for food. COFADEH reports 
        that with militarization of the country, there has been a 
        reactivation of death squads resulting in 17 forced 
        disappearances in 2020.
            (14) The Honduran judicial system has been widely 
        documented to be rife with corruption. Judges, prosecutors, and 
        other officials are interconnected with organized crime and 
        drug traffickers, contributing to near-complete impunity.
            (15) The Department of State in its 2019 Human Rights 
        Report for Honduras reports that ``there were several reports 
        that the government or its agents committed arbitrary or 
        unlawful killings''. It noted that ``Impunity remained a 
        serious problem, with significant delays in some prosecutions 
        and sources alleging corruption in judicial proceedings.''.
            (16) Overall, the judicial system remains ineffective and 
        corrupt. The IACHR report for 2019 states, ``The lack of access 
        to justice has created a situation of structural impunity that 
        has the effect of perpetuating and, in certain cases, favoring 
        the repetition of serious human rights violations.''.
            (17) Summarizing the situation, Human Rights Watch reported 
        for 2019 that ``Judges face interference from the executive 
        branch and others, including private actors with connections in 
        government.''. It concludes: ``Efforts to reform public-
        security institutions have stalled. Marred by corruption and 
        abuse, the judiciary and police remain largely ineffective. 
        Impunity for crimes and human rights abuses is the norm.''.
            (18) The March 2, 2016, assassination of prominent Lenca 
        Indigenous and environmental activist Berta Caceres, world-
        renowned recipient of the 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize for 
        her work defending Indigenous land rights against a 
        hydroelectric dam project, illustrates the human rights crisis 
        in Honduras, and the deep complicity of the Honduran 
        government. Caceres, the leader of COPINH, the Council of 
        Indigenous and Popular Organizations of Honduras, had reported 
        to authorities 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) In December 2019, seven men were convicted in the 
        killing of Caceres. One of them was an active duty officer in 
        the military at the time of his arrest and two others are 
        former military. Prosecution of the intellectual authors is 
        still pending. Evidence made public in the trial indicates the 
        participation of several executives and directors of DESA 
        Corporation, the dam construction company, in the murder 
        scheme. However, only the president of DESA, a former military 
        officer has been charged. Though charged in March 2018, his 
        trial has yet to begin due to unreasonable delays initiated by 
        defense lawyers and permitted by the judiciary. The convictions 
        raise serious questions about the role of the Honduran military 
        in her assassination, including higher ranks in the chain of 
        command within the military as well as the identity of the 
        intellectual authors of the assassination. Evidence in the 
        documents in the case file indicate that members of the 
        Honduran elite were responsible for ordering Caceres's 
        assassination, and remain in impunity. Evidence also indicates 
        possible involvement of individuals of higher 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. Caceres'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, environmental defenders, and 
        critics of the government remain 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 Felix Molina was 
        shot multiple times in the legs hours after he had posted 
        information potentially linking Caceres's killing to a top 
        government 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 
        reporting on the repression by security forces of a protest 
        marking the one-year anniversary of the disputed 2017 elections 
        when he was fired upon by members of the police assigned to the 
        National Penitentiary. He survived the attack but suffered 
        extensive injuries to his right arm. Both cases remain in 
        impunity. Four journalists were killed in 2020.
            (23) United States agencies allocated approximately $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 ASSISTANCE EXTENDED TO 
              REPUBLIC OF HONDURAS 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 RESTRICTIONS.

    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 Representatives 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 Caceres;
                    (B) the killings of over 100 small-farmer activists 
                in the Aguan 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;
                    (D) the May 3, 2016, armed attack on journalist 
                Felix Molina, and the November 26, 2018, shooting of 
                journalist Geovanny Sierra;
                    (E) the July 18, 2020, forced disappearances of 4 
                Garifuna community leaders from Triunfo de la Cruz who 
                were taken from their homes by heavily armed men 
                wearing bulletproof vests and police uniforms; and
                    (F) the December 26, 2020, killing of indigenous 
                Lenca leader Felix Vasques in La Paz, and the December 
                28, 2020, killing of indigenous Tolupan leader Adan 
                Mejia in Yoro;
            (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 policing, 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 government, 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.
                                 <all>