MORE HONDURAN CONGRESSMEN ACCUSED OF CRIMINAL

UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 001757

SIPDIS

STATE FOR INL/LP, INR/B, AND WHA/CEN

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV KCRM KJUS HO
SUBJECT: MORE HONDURAN CONGRESSMEN ACCUSED OF CRIMINAL
ACTIVITY



1. (U) SUMMARY: The Honduran Public Ministry (PM) announced
last week that it has begun legal proceedings against two
more Honduran elected officials. On July 10, Attorney
General Roy Medina announced that his office will bring
charges against alternative National Party (PN) Congressman
Melvin Tomas Regalado for aiding the November 2002 escape of
a man sentenced to nine years in prison for armed robbery.
Similarly, Assistant Attorney General for the Environment,
Juan Francisco Gonzalez, said that Liberal Party (PL)
alternative Congressman Mauro Caballero was being
investigated for destruction of the environment in a
protected area. The PM plans to ask the Honduran Supreme
Court to lift each officials' immunity in order to prosecute
their cases. END SUMMARY

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Regalado Accused of Aiding Jail Break
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2. (U) The PM announced last week that it is beginning legal
proceedings against two more Honduran elected officials. In
the case of alternative PN Congressman Melvin Tomas Regalado,
Attorney General Roy Medina asked the Supreme Court to set
aside the congressman's immunity and issue a warrant for his
arrest. Regalado is accused of aiding the escape of Amilcar
Antonio Portillo, sentenced to nine years in prison for armed
robbery. According to the Public Ministry, Portillo walked
away from the Central Penitentiary on November 15, 2002 after
Regalado presented a letter to prison officials on National
Congress letterhead authorizing his release for the weekend.
An ex-director of the Preventative Special Services (the law
enforcement branch responsible for the prison system) and the
former head of the Central Penitentiary are already being
held without bail awaiting trial for their part in the escape.

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Caballero Accused of Damaging the Environment
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3. (U) On July 10, Assistant Attorney General for the
Environment, Juan Francisco Gonzalez, submitted a report to
Attorney General Medina recommending that the Public Ministry
ask the Supreme Court to lift the immunity of Liberal Party
(PL) alternative Congressman Mauro Caballero, and issue him a
court summons. Caballero is accused of deforesting an area
around a lagoon on his property in Villanueva, Cortes that
had been designated as a protected area. Following the
announcement, the local press published numerous photographs
of the area in question, complete with felled trees, a dried
up lagoon bed, and dead turtles. Juan Carlos Caballero, the
son of the accused, told local media that it is his family's
property and that they could do whatever they wanted with it.


4. (SBU) COMMENT: The legal proceedings against Regalado and
Caballero indicate that the PM has finally begun to move
against high-profile individuals, something that Post has
been urging for some time. These positive steps, coupled
with increased public pressure stemming from the recent
arrests of Central American Parliament Representative Cesar
Diaz and National Congress Deputy Armando Avila Panchame on
unrelated narcotrafficking charges, will help keep pressure
on lawmakers to keep their promise to repeal Honduras,s
immunity laws. It also demonstrates some progress on the
Maduro Administration's pledge to end impunity and apply the
criminal justice code more uniformly. END COMMENT
Palmer