US embassy cable - 05TEGUCIGALPA513

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