Citing the murder of Berta Caceres, six House Democrats this week proposed suspending all US security aid to Honduras.
The legislation would stop the flow of security assistance from Washington to the Central American country until “human rights violations by Honduran security forces cease and their perpetrators are brought to justice.” It is the first legislative proposal to withhold aid to Honduras since 2009, when the country’s elected populist president, Mel Zelaya, was overthrown in a military coup.
Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) sponsored the bill Monday morning alongside Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.), Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), Jose Serrano (D-N.Y.) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.). Speaking on “Democracy Now” on Tuesday morning, Johnson said: “It’s time for the United States to stop supporting these kinds of regimes.”
Johnson also cited allegations that violence is being perpetrated against activists with the help of “corrupt police and security forces and also the military units within Honduras.”
“This is an illegal regime that overthrew a duly elected president,” he said. “And since that time, this kind of violence has rained down on human rights defenders in Honduras.
In a March 8 letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) laid out some of the allegations of human rights abuses leveled against Honduran officials. McCollum named high-ranking army and national police officers, noting she received the information in February from academics and civil society.
Caceres had been killed five days earlier, in her bedroom, late at night by gunmen. The murder was witnessed by a Mexican journalist and activist who was then held by the Honduran government for a month.
Caceres’ daughter raised questions after the slaying about state involvement, accusing authorities of making prejudicial conclusions.
“Immediately after we heard that our mother was killed we went to the crime scene, and her body was still there,” Olivia Marcela Zuñiga told teleSUR. “Even before authorities analyzed the scene, Security Minister Julian Pacheco was already declaring publicly that they believed it was a crime of passion.”
Caceres had been known throughout the world for her environmental activism.
After the 2009 military coup–and over prolonged objections from other Latin American countries–the US supported new elections under the junta, preferring it to the restoration of the deposed Zelaya.
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton boasted about the deference she showed to the coup government as Secretary of State, in her book, “Hard Choices.” The passage was singled out for criticism by Caceres in 2014. It was removed from the paperback version of the book in 2015, as noted by Belen Fernandez.
Last year, Congress approved of almost $100 million in direct security assistance to Honduras, and up to $439.9 million in funding for regional programs that the country can benefit from.
It is already illegal for the US government to assist security units and organizations known to commit human rights abuses. Those rules were cited by 21 House Democrats last August, when they asked Secretary of State John Kerry to cut off security aid to Honduras. The six Democrats who back the cut-off legislation introduced this week all signed the letter.
