US embassy cable - 03TEGUCIGALPA1757

UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 001757 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR INL/LP, INR/B, AND WHA/CEN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, KCRM, KJUS, HO 
SUBJECT: MORE HONDURAN CONGRESSMEN ACCUSED OF CRIMINAL 
ACTIVITY 
 
 
1. (U) SUMMARY:  The Honduran Public Ministry (PM) announced 
last week that it has begun legal proceedings against two 
more Honduran elected officials.  On July 10, Attorney 
General Roy Medina announced that his office will bring 
charges against alternative National Party (PN) Congressman 
Melvin Tomas Regalado for aiding the November 2002 escape of 
a man sentenced to nine years in prison for armed robbery. 
Similarly, Assistant Attorney General for the Environment, 
Juan Francisco Gonzalez, said that Liberal Party (PL) 
alternative Congressman Mauro Caballero was being 
investigated for destruction of the environment in a 
protected area.  The PM plans to ask the Honduran Supreme 
Court to lift each officials' immunity in order to prosecute 
their cases. END SUMMARY 
 
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Regalado Accused of Aiding Jail Break 
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2. (U) The PM announced last week that it is beginning legal 
proceedings against two more Honduran elected officials.  In 
the case of alternative PN Congressman Melvin Tomas Regalado, 
Attorney General Roy Medina asked the Supreme Court to set 
aside the congressman's immunity and issue a warrant for his 
arrest.  Regalado is accused of aiding the escape of Amilcar 
Antonio Portillo, sentenced to nine years in prison for armed 
robbery.  According to the Public Ministry, Portillo walked 
away from the Central Penitentiary on November 15, 2002 after 
Regalado presented a letter to prison officials on National 
Congress letterhead authorizing his release for the weekend. 
An ex-director of the Preventative Special Services (the law 
enforcement branch responsible for the prison system) and the 
former head of the Central Penitentiary are already being 
held without bail awaiting trial for their part in the escape. 
 
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Caballero Accused of Damaging the Environment 
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3. (U) On July 10, Assistant Attorney General for the 
Environment, Juan Francisco Gonzalez, submitted a report to 
Attorney General Medina recommending that the Public Ministry 
ask the Supreme Court to lift the immunity of Liberal Party 
(PL) alternative Congressman Mauro Caballero, and issue him a 
court summons.  Caballero is accused of deforesting an area 
around a lagoon on his property in Villanueva, Cortes that 
had been designated as a protected area.  Following the 
announcement, the local press published numerous photographs 
of the area in question, complete with felled trees, a dried 
up lagoon bed, and dead turtles.  Juan Carlos Caballero, the 
son of the accused, told local media that it is his family's 
property and that they could do whatever they wanted with it. 
 
4. (SBU) COMMENT:  The legal proceedings against Regalado and 
Caballero indicate that the PM has finally begun to move 
against high-profile individuals, something that Post has 
been urging for some time.  These positive steps, coupled 
with increased public pressure stemming from the recent 
arrests of Central American Parliament Representative Cesar 
Diaz and National Congress Deputy Armando Avila Panchame on 
unrelated narcotrafficking charges, will help keep pressure 
on lawmakers to keep their promise to repeal Honduras,s 
immunity laws.  It also demonstrates some progress on the 
Maduro Administration's pledge to end impunity and apply the 
criminal justice code more uniformly. END COMMENT 
Palmer