SUSPICIOUS DEATHS OF SANTOS CORRALES AND WALTER

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TEGUCIGALPA 001295 SIPDIS STATE FOR WHA/CEN E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV KDEM PHUM HO SUBJECT: SUSPICIOUS DEATHS OF SANTOS CORRALES AND WALTER TROCHEZ REF: TEGUCIGALPA 661 ¶1. (U) Summary. Human rights groups allege that two recent deaths were tied to the political crisis. The Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CODEH) reported that on December 11, Santos Corrales Garcia was found decapitated in Talanga, however the Honduran FBI (DNIC) told an Embassy Employee on December 14 that Corrales had been shot. CODEH alleges Corrales had been killed for political reasons. Walter Trochez, a gay rights activist, was shot on December 13 in Tegucigalpa and died on the way to the hospital. The Center for the Investigation and Promotion of Human Rights (CIPRODEH) told Poloff they believed Trochez was killed for his anti-coup political activities. End Summary. December 11 death of Santos Corrales Garcia -------------- ¶2. (U) The Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras (CODEH) issued a press release on December 13 reporting that the decapitated body of Santos Corrales Garcia was found near Talanga (approximately 50 km from Tegucigalpa) on December 11. CODEH alleged Corrales had been previously detained by persons wearing uniforms of the Honduran FBI (DNIC) on December 5 and later released. CODEH also alleged that on the day of his death, Corrales was detained by persons in DNIC uniforms. The director of CODEH, Andres Pavon, told Poloff on December 14 that Corrales had been identified by family members and the ID card found in his pocket. ¶3. (U) Pavon said CODEH considered the killing to be related to the political crisis because members of the resistance movement in Talanga told him that the motive for Corrales' detention and murder was to obtain information about the location of a woman named Ada Marina Castillo; Castillo was reportedly in charge of a warehouse where water and other supplies were kept for the resistance movement. Pavon also said that "a friend of an employee" at the Department of Forensic Medicine told him the body showed signs of torture. ¶4. (U) Felix Maldonado, spokesman for the Honduran FBI (DNIC),told an Embassy employee on December 14 that Corrales Garcia had not been decapitated, but had been found dead with a gunshot wound to the head. Maldonado said the body had not been found in Talanga, but in Lepaterique, Department of Francisco Morazan. Maldonado also stated that there are no records indicating Corrales Garcia was ever detained by police. December 13 death of LGBT activist Walter Trochez -------------- -------------- ¶5. (U) Walter Trochez, an activist in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered persons (LGBT) community and an employee of "Casa Renacer," an HIV/AIDS support center in Tegucigalpa, was shot in Tegucigalpa on December 13 and died on the way to the hospital. Trochez was a vocal critic of the de facto regime and wrote widely about increased violence against the LGBT community since the coup d'etat. Trochez's father, Ricardo Trochez, is an American citizen and called Poloff on December 14; Poloff expressed condolences on behalf of the USG and told Trochez that we would follow the case closely. ¶6. (U) Sandra Artola, the director of Casa Renacer, told Poloff on December 14 that Trochez had been followed by unknown persons in the days leading up to his death and that she and Trochez had been vocal about witnessing the detention by police of Pedro Magdiel on July 25 near Las Manos prior to Magdiel's death (reftel). Artola told Poloff she believed the death of Trochez was politically motivated and that on December 14 she expressed concern about Trochez's death directly to Alfredo Landaverdes, an advisor to the de facto Minister of Security. ¶7. (U) Reina Rivera, the director of the Center for the Investigation and Promotion of Human Rights (CIPRODEH),told Poloff on December 14 that Trochez had been previously TEGUCIGALP 00001295 002 OF 002 kidnapped in Comayaguela on December 4 by unknown persons and that during the detention had been told that he would be killed. During the funeral of Trochez in Tegucigalpa on December 15, Poloff spoke with a doctor who stated he helped prepare the body and alleged that the body showed signs of torture and that Trochez's tongue had been cut out. ¶8. (U) Felix Maldonado, the spokesman for the DNIC, told Embassy employee on December 14 that police had no record indicating Trochez had ever been detained nor was there a pending arrest warrant. Maldonado also expressed concern about an increase in the number of cases in which perpetrators wore DNIC uniforms while committing a crime. COMMENT -------------- ¶9. (U) We have not yet been able to confirm the killings of Corrales and Trochez are politically motivated. However, both are troubling given their alleged ties to the anti-coup movement and in the case of Trochez, the harassment he had previously experienced. We will continue to monitor both cases closely. LLORENS