US embassy cable - 05TEGUCIGALPA1352

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TEGUCIGALPA 001352 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR WHA/CEN, WHA/EPSC, AND EB 
STATE PASS AID FOR LAC/CAM 
STATE PASS USTR 
TREASURY FOR DDOUGLASS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KJUS, ECON, PGOV, HO 
SUBJECT: CORRECTED COPY -- PROSECUTORIAL INDISCRETION? 
HONDURAN PRIVATE SECTOR VIEWS ON THE PROSECUTORS, OFFICE 
 
REF: A) TEGUCIGALPA 1349 
 
Corrected Copy:  Corrected for formatting 
 
1. (SBU) SUMMARY: In reftel, Post noted the growing pressure 
for a shake-up at the Public Ministry (home of the Attorney 
General and his staff of investigators and prosecuting 
attorneys).  Initially driven largely by the revelation that 
the USG had revoked Deputy Attorney General Yuri Melara's 
visa for corruption, there is now increasing clamor for the 
dismissal of the Attorney General and perhaps his lead 
prosecutors as well.  In reftel, Post expressed its concerns 
that these calls for mass dismissals might have been spurred 
by political and economic elites threatened by increasingly 
aggressive investigations of corruption and organized crime. 
In this cable we add the private sector's view that the 
prosecutors' office is indeed out of control, but that mass 
firings would likely be counterproductive.  End Summary. 
 
2. (SBU) EconChief recently discussed the burgeoning crisis 
at the Public Ministry (ref A) with three senior businessmen: 
 the president of a bank, the president of an import-export 
firm, and the government relations director of the major 
brewery in Honduras.  All were pleased at the attention 
finally being paid to a situation they view as increasingly 
intolerable.  According to the executives, the prosecutors 
are over-zealous, impatient, and insufficiently schooled in 
civil law.  They have, one businessman said, a mindset that 
any time a complaint is filed someone should go to jail.  Too 
often, he said, they fail to discriminate between cases with 
merit and cases that either lack merit or cannot be 
successfully prosecuted.  Others present echoed this 
sentiment, recounting tales of prosecutors arriving on scene 
with police in tow, demanding immediate payment of some 
alleged bill and threatening the accused with arrest if he or 
she fails to comply.  The businessmen saw actions like this 
as a clear violation of due process, since the accused is 
afforded little or no opportunity to present his version of 
the case. 
 
3. (SBU) This tendency is particularly problematic, the 
brewery executive noted, in civil and administrative cases, 
which by their nature are complex and often prolonged.  His 
firm, for example, is in the midst of a trademark dispute 
that has been ongoing since August 2004.  His firm, accused 
of infringement, successfully defended its right before the 
Ministry of Industry, but lost on appeal to the Intellectual 
Property Institute.  As is permitted in the law, the brewery 
then filed a civil court case appealing the Institute's 
decision.  That case is still pending before the courts and, 
until a verdict is rendered, the firm is permitted to 
continue marketing its product.  The accusing firm, however, 
allegedly refused to wait for the verdict and instead filed a 
complaint with the prosecutor's office.  The prosecutor 
arrived at the brewery on June 21 with police and 
representatives of the accusing firm, intending to seize the 
allegedly infringing product.  This violation of the due 
process and presumption of guilt shows, the executive said, 
that the prosecutors' office does not have the depth of 
knowledge needed in certain cases, and lacks the restraint to 
pick appropriate cases and do its homework before acting. 
 
4. (SBU) All present agreed, however, that firing the 
prosecutors would leave the public with the impression that 
the political and economic elites had conspired to stymie 
high-profile corruption and criminal investigations by 
muzzling the prosecutors' office.  The businessmen strongly 
support active enforcement of the law (After all, the brewery 
official said, "we distribute Coca-Cola, and what trademark 
needs more protection than Coke?").  But all concurred that 
the "young brats" (cipotes) in the prosecutors' office are 
running amok and need to be reined-in.  Though none 
specifically said he would like to see Attorney General 
Ovidio Navarro dismissed, all laid the blame at his door, 
agreeing that the prime cause of this problem is his lack of 
leadership at the Public Ministry.  The prosecutors' office, 
one said, has become "a circus." 
 
5. (SBU) Comment:  In our view, the looming shake-up at the 
Public Ministry is a complex and dangerous affair.  Clearly 
there is widespread disaffection for what are viewed as 
loose-cannons in the prosecutors' office, despite an equally 
widespread recognition that corruption is hobbling the 
economy and must be aggressively confronted.  The danger is 
that this growing sense that "something must be done" could 
be mis-appropriated by those who benefit from the current 
corrupt system and used as cover to eviscerate the 
prosecutors' office and send a strong message that while 
immunity may have been eliminated, impunity remains alive and 
well.  Post will continue to press the message with the GOH 
that, while stronger leadership and increased prosecutorial 
discretion might be called for at the Public Ministry, we 
would look unfavorably on any wholesale firings of lead 
prosecutors in an effort to halt corruption and criminal 
investigations.  End Comment. 
 
Palmer 
Palmer