HTF01: VIEWS OF RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY ABOUT THE COUP

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 TEGUCIGALPA 001123 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/06/2019 TAGS: PGOV PINR KDEM HO PHUM SUBJECT: HTF01: VIEWS OF RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY ABOUT THE COUP REF: A. TEGUCIGALPA 786 ¶B. TEGUCIGALPA 785 ¶C. TEGUCIGALPA 535 Classified By: Ambassador Hugo Llorens, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: This is the third in a series of cables regarding meetings held by Poloff and visiting DRL Deskoff October 13-20 to obtain a better understanding of the human rights situation in Honduras since the June 28 coup d'etat. On October 14, DRL Deskoff and Poloff met Monsignor Juan Jose Pineda, the Auxiliary Bishop of Tegucigalpa. Pineda said he was very concerned about human rights abuses committed by both sides in the political conflict. He also stated that the Church had not taken sides in relation to the coup d'etat, and that its comments about the situation had unfortunately been misunderstood and were being manipulated by elements on both sides of the conflict. He was disheartened by what he said was the socio-political damage done to the Roman Catholic Church in countries that are members of the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America (ALBA). In an October 19 meeting in San Pedro Sula, Maryknoll missionary priest Father Robert Coyne told DRL Deskoff and Poloff that in his parish, which is in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in San Pedro Sula, the vast majority of the parishioners are staunchly anti-coup. In La Ceiba, DRL Deskoff and Poloff met with representatives of the Evangelical Mennonite Church who said that during anti-coup protests in La Ceiba there were fewer confrontations with security forces than during the protests in Tegucigalpa. On October 14, DRL Deskoff and Poloff met Dr. Kurt Ver Beek of the ecumenical Christian non-governmental organization, Association for a More Just Society. Ver Beek thought that some human rights organizations had not reported objectively regarding human rights abuses. He did not believe that the de facto regime directly sanctioned human rights abuses, but rather failed to discourage or stop them. END SUMMARY. Catholic Church Hierarchy -------------- ¶2. (C) On October 14, DRL Deskoff and Poloff met with Monsignor Juan Jose Pineda, the Roman Catholic Auxiliary Bishop of Tegucigalpa and his assistant, the chancellor, Father Carlo Magno Nunez. Pineda said that historically, the relationship between the Church and Honduran Government had been respectful. Pineda said that the Catholic Church in Honduras had not taken political sides in the crisis following the June 28 coup d'etat, but its message had been manipulated and its July 4 communique had been misunderstood (ref C). Pineda told DRL Deskoff and Poloff that the anti-coup resistance movement wrongly interpreted the communique as supportive of the coup and the de facto regime headed by Roberto Michiletti. He vehemently underscored that the Church rejects the labeling of it as supportive of the coup d'etat. ¶3. (C) Pineda criticized Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and ALBA in seeking to destroy the Catholic Church in Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, and now attacking the Church in Honduras. Pineda told DRL Deskoff and Poloff that recent Cuban and Venezuelan television reports suggested that the Cardinal of Honduras, Oscar Andres Rodriguez, had raped members of religious orders. Pineda said that Cardinal Rodriguez had met in the USA, El Salvador, and elsewhere with Cuban and Venezuelan bishops to discuss these highly objectionable, false and personally insulting assertions. Pineda also expressed his office,s lack of confidence in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) given that its president, Luz Patricia Mejia, is Venezuelan and that during the IACHR August visit to Honduras, the delegation did not request to meet with Catholic Church representatives or Human Rights Ombudsman Ramon Custodio (ref A). Pineda believed that the IACHR mission to Honduras had not come with an impartial perspective, and therefore did not fairly characterize the human rights situation in its report. ¶4. (C) Pineda told DRL Deskoff and Poloff that both the de facto regime and the anti-coup resistance movement have committed human rights violations. With regard to abuses committed by the de facto regime, he mentioned the curfews and the decree suspending constitutional guarantees, and said that the Church had spoken with Micheletti to request that he modify the decree. While Pineda said he did not support the TEGUCIGALP 00001123 002 OF 003 de facto regime,s curfews and decrees limiting civil liberties, he told DRL deskoff and Poloff that the resistance movement had committed abuses against private property, including Church buildings, and used roadblocks to limit the public's freedom of movement. He vociferously condemned the poor treatment of the Church by what he believed to be elements of the anti-coup movement, including defamatory statements made questioning the reputation of the Church and its leaders. Pineda said that his office had stopped counting the number of death threats made against Cardinal Andres Rodriguez, and had documented anti-coup related polemics against the Cardinal that he characterized as defamation. Pineda told DRL Deskoff and Poloff that as of October 14 he had received 47 death threats and nine threats to burn down the Cardinal's home (Ref C). (Note: Pineda was not able to qualify whether these threats explicitly referenced the political crisis, but characterized the threats as a significant increase compared to threats lodged against the Church hierarchy before June 28. End Note.) A Catholic Missionary Priest -------------- ¶5. (SBU) On October 19, DRL Deskoff and Poloff met with Father Robert Coyne, a Catholic Maryknoll priest and American Citizen, in San Pedro Sula, Cortes Department. Coyne has worked for 17 years at Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in the violent and drug-trafficking infested Los Leones neighborhood, which also is the fiefdom of a gang called "Kings" (Poloff and DRL Deskoff heard gun shots fired near the church rectory during their meeting with Father Coyne). Coyne said the gang violence in the neighborhood of his parish had increased since June 28, but told DRL Deskoff and Poloff that the Los Leones neighborhood always lives under "constant stress and depression" from gang-related violence. Two female parish assistants at the meeting said that they had not observed the security forces commit any specific killings or beatings in the neighborhood during the curfews, but that the curfews had substantially impaired parishioners, abilities to go to work, get paid, or buy food. Coyne said the neighborhood had been impacted by the curfews imposed by the de facto regime, but that in reality the Los Leones community lived under a self-imposed curfew due to gang related crime in the neighborhood. He said that corrupt police officers have been involved in much of the gang-related activity over the past few years. ¶6. (SBU) Coyne described his parish of approximately 70,000 as mostly inhabited by factory workers, most of whom opposed the coup d'etat. Coyne told DRL Deskoff and Poloff that his parish's "peace and social justice committee" had conducted a legal review of the events of June 28 and concluded that the events were undemocratic and constituted a coup d'etat. Coyne stated that many members of his parish community participated in anti-coup protests, that from his perspective, most of the protestors were peaceful and that any violent behavior was conducted by "infiltrators." Evangelical Mennonite Church -------------- ¶7. (SBU) DRL Deskoff and Poloff met Ondina Murillo and Elva Almendarez of the Peace and Justice Project of the Evangelical Mennonite Church on October 16 in La Ceiba, Atlantida Department. The Evangelical Mennonite Church comprises approximately 100 congregations and 15,000 members throughout Honduras. Murillo told DRL Deskoff and Poloff that her organization, whose activities include working with gang youth, documented an increased lack of respect for human rights since the June 28 coup d'etat, including various limitations on freedom of movement and of expression. Murillo described political protests in La Ceiba as less volatile compared to reports she had seen of protests in Tegucigalpa. She attributed this to a smaller police presence in La Ceiba and the fact that many anti-coup protestors from La Ceiba had traveled to Tegucigalpa to participate in large anti-coup protests there. She recalled almost daily marches in La Ceiba, mostly in July and August. Murillo believed that regarding the La Ceiba protests, she had not seen the police use tear gas, and that the police engaged in repressive actions after protestors threw rocks and made disparaging comments about security forces. ¶8. (SBU) Murillo told DRL Deskoff and Poloff that she was TEGUCIGALP 00001123 003 OF 003 concerned about the possibility of widespread voter absenteeism in the upcoming November presidential elections. She stated that various members of her church and the anti-coup resistance movement planned to stay away from the polls to protest the coup d'etat. Murillo also commented that she perceived a lack of confidence in the electoral system among the members of the Evangelical Mennonite church. She also said that some persons analyzing the current political situation, believe that the resistance movement is evolving into a political party. She opined that a large element of the resistance movement may not actually be fighting for Zelaya,s restoration, but rather for the holding of a constituent assembly because it offers an opportunity to empower historically excluded groups. Her church supports a constituent assembly. Ecumenical Christian NGO -------------- ¶9. (U) DRL Deskoff and Poloff on October 14 met Dr. Kurt Ver Beek, an American citizen board member of the Tegucigalpa-based Christian non-governmental organization (NGO) "Association for a More Just Society," (ASJ). His organization advocates for land rights and labor rights and has various crime victim advocacy programs (ref B). He said that ASJ views the removal of President Manuel Zelaya Rosales on June 28 as a coup d'etat, and the current crisis as an opportunity for Honduras to make drastic public policy changes. Ver Beek told DRL Deskoff and Poloff that he believed many of the human rights organizations operating in Honduras were overly politicized, which might taint their objectivity and accuracy in reporting human rights abuses since the June 28 coup d'etat. He opined that ASJ did not believe there was evidence that the de facto regime had directly sanctioned human rights abuses, but rather that the regime was doing a terrible job addressing or correcting these abuses. Ver Beek told DRL Deskoff and Poloff that other complicating factors were the high level of impunity combined with excessively long duty hours, which resulted in security forces using disproportionate force against civilians. Comment -------------- ¶10. (C) In the case of the Catholic Church, although the official line of the Office of the Archdiocese of Tegucigalpa is that the Church does not support either side of the political crisis, the Cardinal has made it clear in private discussions with us that he sees the events of June 28 as a democratic succession. The variety of opinions among different churches, and even between the Catholic Church hierarchy and its grassroots elements, reflects the polarization in Honduran society. LLORENS