US embassy cable - 05TEGUCIGALPA482

UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 000482 
 
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 3, 2005 
 
 
1. On 3/2, the evening television newscast "Abriendo Brecha" on 
Channel 7 broadcast a statement by Aida Romero, Human Rights 
Attorney, who said she would ask the U.S. Embassy for the results 
of its investigation on summary executions, and she complained 
her office didn't have the assistance of a specialized 
investigation unit to carry out a more transparent investigation 
on those cases.  It also broadcast an editorial titled "Once 
again, Honduras held up to public scorn."  "The report of the 
State Department has put Honduras in the spotlight by regarding 
us as a country where death squads, which include members of the 
public security forces and paramilitary groups, are responsible 
of the death of many young people...  This kind of report may 
affect Honduras in many ways." 
 
"We believe that the Honduran government shouldn't limit itself 
to requesting a verbal clarification.  The Ministry of Foreign 
Affairs should work to prevent these suspicions regarded as a 
fact by the State Department to be legitimized within the 
international community." 
 
2. The Tegucigalpa-based liberal daily "La Tribuna" published an 
editorial entitled "Death Squads?"  "The authorities denied that 
Honduras has death squads executing young people as was pointed 
out by the latest State Department report on Human Rights." 
 
"To provide an accurate answer to those accusations, the right 
thing to do now would be to release a report by the police and 
the Public Ministry on the results of the investigations of all 
those cases regarded as extrajudicial executions.  If the police 
have investigated all these cases, the government should reveal 
their progress or their final results.  That would be the best 
answer to those `reckless' accusations." 
 
3. The Tegucigalpa-based moderate daily "El Heraldo" ran an 
editorial entitled "The ironies of human rights."  "The U.S., 
which has historically been one of the world's major human rights 
violators, has taken upon itself the evaluation of other 
countries' human rights performance.  It is more ironic that high- 
ranking Honduran officials, representing a government that a year 
ago submitted a U.S. petition against Cuba to the UNHCR, have 
said that the report condemning extrajudicial executions in 
Honduras is `reckless'." 
 
"The ironies don't end there.  The independent organizations 
which allegedly defend human rights in Honduras have agreed with 
the findings of the Bush administration, which has recently 
appointed former U.S. Ambassador to Honduras John D. Negroponte 
as intelligence chief, knowing he was one of the main supporters 
of human rights violations in Central America during the 1980s." 
 
"The respect for human rights is imperative, and the Honduran 
authorities should focus on it, but not necessarily as a result 
of the accusations of a country whose troops commit all kinds of 
abuses to the victims of their military occupation, disregarding 
any national or international laws." 
 
Palmer