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