TFHO1: HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION POST-COUP UPDATE 5

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 TEGUCIGALPA 000687

SIPDIS

STATE FOR WHA/CEN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/28/2019
TAGS: PHUM PGOV SOCI DS SNAR HO
SUBJECT: TFHO1: HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION POST-COUP UPDATE 5

REF: TEGUCIGALPA 605 AND PREVIOUS

Classified By: Ambassador Hugo Llorens for reasons 1.4 (b and d).


1. (C) Summary: The Honduran human rights situation continues
to be difficult as tensions rise in the prolonged
political uncertainty. Another aggravating factor has been
the presence of President Manuel "Mel" Zelaya and the First
Lady Xiomara Castro de Zelaya on opposite sides of the
Honduran-Nicaraguan border. Honduran security forces have
become more aggressive while confronting hostile groups
and/or protesters, leading to more violence. An American
Citizen filming the June 26 melee at the stadium was
assaulted by Honduran National Police (HNP) officers and
had her camera taken. HNP began a policy of breaking up
roadblocks on July 30, and on that same day a confrontation
between police and protesters resulted in a violent clash
in Tegucigalpa. Post will continue to monitor the
situation and verify all accusations of human rights
violations. End Summary.

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BORDER TENSIONS REMAIN HIGH
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2. (C) The first family's presence along the
border of Honduras and GOH security forces measures to
prevent protesters from reaching President Zelaya in
Nicaragua continued to be a flashpoint for more violence in
Honduras. (Note: It has been reported that the First Lady
and her sons and daughters returned to Tegucigalpa last
night.
End Note) The curfew at the border is reported to be,
in-effect, 24 hours, which eliminates any freedom of travel
to and from the area. The human rights Center for the
Investigation and Promotion of Human Rights (CIPRODEH)
reported on July 28 that over 75 detained protesters were
being transported against their will from the border area
to either the city of Danli or Tegucigalpa.


3. (C) Those attempting to reach the border zone must get
past five checkpoints and three road blocks reporting
taking all day to do so. The human rights NGO CODEH has
issued a legal appeal to the Constitutional validity of the
curfew and has documented over 85 people who have been
detained along the border for breaking curfew.


4. (C) After leaving Tegucigalpa in the morning, the
Special Prosecutor for Human Rights (SPHR),German
Enamorado, reached the border zone at approximately 17:00
hours with six human rights lawyers on July 27. The group
was delayed negotiating each crossing of five checkpoints
and three road blocks in place from Tegucigalpa to Las
Manos along the Nicaraguan border. SPHR was investigating
the killing of Pedro Ezequiel, whose body was found on July
25 approximately 300 meters from where protesters had been
camping. Testimonies indicate that the crime did not occur
where the body was found as no one reporting hearing a
struggle. Three witnesses claim to have seen Ezequiel
taken into custody by HNP officers on July 24 and human
rights groups are currently analyzing footage from the 24th
to see if Ezequiel appears on video of the demonstrations.


5. (C) The six human rights lawyers met with approximately
40 protesters who claimed they had been living in the
mountains to avoid the security forces who had attempted to
force them to leave the area. They claimed that the
majority of protesters who were able to cross into
Nicaragua were being taken care of by Nicaraguan
humanitarian groups and only those trapped on the Honduran
side were suffering from intimidation and lack of water and
food. They estimated that there are approximately 500
protesters remaining in the border area on July 29.


6. (C) There are as-yet uncorroborated reports that a
pregnant woman was raped by members of security forces in
the El Paraiso Department the weekend of July 25-26 and
another women was detained and repeatedly terrorized with
threats of sexual abuse. Poloff is working to verify these
allegations and to get more information on the victims.

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VIOLENCE ERUPTS AFTER SOCCER MATCH

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7. (SBU) An example of the increasingly aggressive measures
Honduran security forces are taking was the violence that
erupted between police officers and youth spectators at the
stadium which claimed two Honduran lives and left 15
injured following a soccer match between cross-town rivals
on July 26. Preliminary news reports indicate that the two
deaths include one youth who was shot in the throat and
another who appeared to have been beaten to death by rival
supporters. Between two to six other victims are reported
to be in serious conditions, with at least two having also
been shot. Twenty-six cartridges of bullets for .45
caliber and 9 millimeter handguns have been recovered at
the crime scene. The HNP maintains that the melee began
after a passenger on a passing bus opened fire on officers
while leaving the stadium.


8. (C) Both teams' supporters have founded youth gangs
known as "barras bravas" associated with small-scale drug
pushing, misdemeanor crimes, and rival gang violence.
These groups have been a growing problem on game days for
the past two years. Much of the blame for the crime has
been placed either on the "barras" or the aggressive action
taken by the police against them. However, according to
their parents, both youths killed were not members of the
"barras" but rather university students enjoying the
football match. Congressman Emilio Cabrera, who is on a
Congressional Commission named to tackle the issue, told
Poloff on July 29 that the GOH response will be to mount
several cameras in and around the stadium as a deterrent
for bad behavior.

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AMCIT ASSAULTED BY POLICE
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9. (C) Tamar Maya Sharabi, an American citizen from New
York who resides and works in Honduras for the Agua Para el
Pueblo NGO, claims she was assaulted and had her camera
taken by HNP in Tegucigalpa on July 26. While filming the
violent clashes between police and youth at the stadium,
Sharabi claims she was stopped and then followed by a
policeman who was asking for her camera. While hurrying
away from him, she suddenly found herself surrounded by 15
policemen who proceeded to grab her, throw her on the
ground, hit her with a baton twice, and pull her hair until
she let go of her video camera.


10. (C) Sharabi claims there were few witnesses because she
was assaulted behind a police vehicle (identified as M1-14)
but that she was able to remember two names of her
attackers (Cadena and Gomez). After the incident, she
continued on to the Honduran Teaching Hospital with a
friend who promised to help her get her camera back. While
at the hospital, she contacted HNP official Mejia who
promised to advise the officer in charge at the stadium to
help her find her camera. Upon return to the stadium,
Sharabi recognized Officers Cadena and Gomez who fled the
scene immediately after she identified them. She offered
to try and identify some of the other policemen who assaulted
her but the official in charge told her that was not
necessary and that he did not know anything about her
camera.


11. (C) The following day July 27, Sharabi went to Police
post M1-14 that she had identified on the police car while
she was assaulted but received no assistance. She then
went to the Center for the Prevention, Treatment and
Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture (CPRTR) which assisted
her in filing a formal complaint with the Public Ministry
(MP). Poloff met with Sharabi for over an hour on July 28
at the Embassy and remains in contact.

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MILITARIZATION OF A COMMUNITY
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12. (U) According to Spanish lawyer and human rights
activist Enrique Santiago, the community of Guadalupe
Carney in Colon Department has been overtaken by the 15th
Battalion of the Honduran Armed Forces (HOAF). The
community was established in 2000 through land reform and

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has a history of violence between peasants and land-owners
with the military intervening at times. In August of 2008,
11 land-owners were killed by peasants stemming from the
land dispute. Santiago claims that the pro-Micheletti "El
Heraldo" newspaper reports on July 16th claiming that the
military had found armed terrorist cells is false and that
the community has been terrorized by security forces
aligned with "paramilitary" types because it is deemed as
anti-coup and pro-Zelaya.

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TRANSVESTITE KILLED
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13. (U) Vicky Hernandez Castillo's badly beaten body was
found on June 29 in San Pedro Sula after working the night
of the 28th as a sex worker. Human rights groups are
inferring that she was killed by security forces given that
the curfew was in effect. However, Castillo's death is
consistent with a trend of persecution and violence
directed towards transvestite sex workers documented by
American NGO Human Rights Watch whose recently released
report found that 17 had been killed since 2004.

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THE CURFEW
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14. (C) The veracity and application of the curfew is
questionable as it has been used mostly as a tool by the de
facto regime to prevent protests, limit civil liberties,
and control the resistance movement. As such it is
ratcheted up or down depending on the plans or protests of
the opposition to the de facto regime. Human rights groups
have filed an appeal to the curfew with the justice system
because according to Constitutional Article 187 taking
measures such as suspending civil liberties are only
permissible in cases of territorial invasion, grave
disturbances to peace, an epidemic or another calamity.

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POLICE BREAK UP ROAD BLOCKS
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15. (SBU) HNP instituted a new policy to break up
pro-Zelaya roadblocks on July 30, and following their first
action to carry out this policy, police and protesters
clashed violently. HNP reports that around 100 protesters
were arrested, including independent presidential candidate
and pro-Zelaya "Popular Bloc" leader Carlos H. Reyes, who
suffered a broken arm and other injuries in the melee (he
was soon afterwards released). In the clashes, teacher
Roger Vallejo was shot in the head and seriously wounded.
However, HNP maintain that they only utilized nonlethal
measures, i.e. rubber bullets and tear gas, to break up
the protests and claim Vallejo must have been shot by another
protester. C-Libre, a free press organization, claims that
several journalists covering the protests, including Karen
Mendez and Roger Guzman from TeleSUR, were beaten and had
their
cameras taken.


16. (SBU) While breaking up a separate protest in
Comayaguela (working class township in the metropolitan area
of Tegucigalpa),a protester allegedly stole a police
officer's
gun and then used it to shoot and wound a second officer.
HNP are expecting another day of large protests based on
reports that the First Lady has returned to Tegucigalpa.

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COMMENT
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17. (C) The human rights situation is slowly deteriorating
due to rising tensions and continued political
uncertainty. Security forces have become more forceful and
aggressive while dealing with protesters and perceived
hostile groups such as rowdy youth gangs. The de facto
regime has allowed its offices in charge of investigating
human rights abuses to weaken by sending away its lead
Special Prosecutor for Human Rights to a course in Chile.
The Commissioner of Human Rights has become an apologist

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for the coup. Post will continue to support civil society
groups in their defense of human rights and liaise with
other donor entities in Honduran to coordinate efforts to
support the human rights of all Hondurans.
LLORENS