MEDIA REACTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT, MARCH 7, 2005

UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 000513 SIPDIS FOR WHA/PDA, WHA/PPC, WHA/CEN, AND DRL/CRA FOR IIP/G/WHA AND IIP/T/ES EMBASSIES FOR PAOS, IOS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OIIP PHUM PREL KPAO HO SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT, MARCH 7, 2005 ¶1. Editorial in San Pedro Sula-based liberal daily "Tiempo" on 3/7, titled "The Magnificent." "Of course, we're not talking about the TV show "The A-Team" [known in Spanish as `Los Magnificos'] but about the serious accusation by Commissioner Maria Luisa Borjas, former director of Internal Affairs at the Ministry of Public Security, who was fired from her post to avoid investigations about death squads. She claims that there are about 20 groups -- one of them known as `Los Magnificos' -- which are responsible for executing young people who may be part of gangs." "The accusations by Commissioner Borjas, who should be commended by her tenacity and courage to face the high ranks of police, have been backed by the latest State Department report on human rights, which has confirmed some of her statements." "Minister of Public Security Oscar Alvarez said that Borjas had a `magnificent idea to get financial support from Scandinavian and other European countries for her own benefit'." "... The current `social cleansing,' which has surpassed the number of victims of the death squads from the 1980s, is unforgivable and unforgettable, and can be considered a form of governmental terrorism. It has been surprisingly coupled with a high degree of insensibility and a lack of solidarity from Honduran society, which has been unable to foresee the terrible consequences of a lack of social safety and the importance of moral values and human rights in building a peaceful society." Palmer