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TITLE: HONDURAS HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES, 1994
AUTHOR: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DATE: FEBRUARY 1995
HONDURAS
Honduras is a constitutional democracy with a President and a
unicameral Congress elected for 4-year terms, and an
independent judiciary headed by a Supreme Court of Justice
(CSJ). President Carlos Roberto Reina took office in January
as the fourth democratically elected president since the
reestablishment of democracy in 1982. Both major parties
(Liberal and Nationalist) have now assumed power from the other
after free elections.
The Honduran Armed Forces (HOAF) comprise the army, air force,
navy, and the National Police (Public Security Force--FUSEP) as
a fourth branch. The HOAF operates with considerable
institutional and legal autonomy, particularly in the realm of
internal security and military affairs. It controls the
police, the merchant marine, and the national telephone
company. In November the Congress passed legislation which
will remove the merchant marine from military control in 1995.
The Government established an Ad Hoc Commission on Police and
Judicial Reform in 1993, in response to credible allegations of
extrajudicial killings by members of the FUSEP, particularly its
Directorate of National Investigations (DNI). On January 6, it
established a new Public Ministry containing a new Directorate
of Criminal Investigations (DIC) to replace the DNI. The
Government formally dissolved the DNI in June, but the DIC is
still in the process of formation, leaving a gap in
investigative capability. Human rights organizations, including
the Government's National Commission for the Protection of Human
Rights (CONAPRODE), say there was a noticeable drop in reports
of abuses after the DNI was abolished. However, members of both
the armed forces and the FUSEP continued to commit human rights
abuses.
The economy is primarily based on agriculture, with a small but
growing light manufacturing sector. The armed forces also play
a sizable role in the national economy, controlling numerous
enterprises usually associated with the private sector,
including several insurance companies and one of the two cement
companies. Economic activity was plagued by a drought-induced
shortage of electricity, and real gross domestic product
declined by about 2 percent. Combined unemployment and
underemployment were approximately 58 percent, and the
Government estimated that 62 percent of all citizens live in
poverty.
The most widespread human rights abuses were arbitrary and
incommunicado detentions, and beatings and other abuse of
detainees, sometimes including torture. There was a small
number of extrajudicial killings. One major cause of human
rights problems is the impunity enjoyed by members of the
civilian and military elite, exacerbated by a weak,
underfunded, and sometimes corrupt judicial system. Prison
conditions remained deplorable. Other continuing human rights
problems were violence against women, discrimination against
indigenous peoples, and the inability of the judicial system to
provide prisoners awaiting trial with swift and impartial
justice. Almost no elected official, member of the business
elite, bureaucrat, politician, or anyone with perceived
influence or connections to the elite was tried, sentenced, or
significantly fined in 1994.
RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Section 1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including
Freedom from:
a. Political and Other Extrajudicial Killing
There were no reports of politically motivated killings, but
members of the security forces committed several extrajudicial
killings.
The crime rate surged in 1994, including a rise in the number
of homicides. It has become increasingly difficult to
differentiate between homicides that may have been extrajudicial
acts by government forces or agents and those which were common
crimes.
In March two FUSEP agents kidnaped, tortured, and stabbed to
death a 78-year-old evangelical pastor, Justo Irias Ordonez, in
Lepaguare, Olancho (located in a remote part of eastern
Honduras). Witnesses to the events claim the two agents went
to the home of Ordonez, beat him with rifle butts, tied his
hands, and took him to a place known as Pozo Malacate where
they sodomized and killed him. The FUSEP commander in
Juticalpa arrested the two agents and charged them with the
crime. At year's end, they were awaiting trial by civil court.
On November 7, the authorities suspended the Chief of Police in
La Ceiba and two of his subordinates pending an investigation
by the Attorney General's office into the alleged kidnaping and
murder of a vendor suspected of killing an 11-year-old boy
during an attempted burglary. Officials from the Committee for
the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras (CODEH), the Attorney
General's Office, and the police are working together on the
investigation, the first time this has ever occurred, according
to CODEH.
Credible allegations of extrajudicial killings by members of
the FUSEP, particularly its now defunct Directorate of National
Investigations, led to the creation of the new Public Ministry
to manage investigations of criminal cases. The new Ministry
is also responsible for investigating all cases of extrajudicial
killings, including those of past years. The Government
formally dissolved the DNI on June 11 and moved its functions
to the new civilian-controlled DIC. Human rights groups noted
a drop in the number of reports of human rights abuses since
the dissolution of the DNI. The Public Ministry is still in
the process of training and organizing its staff and recruiting
members for the new DIC. The attorneys and staff of the
Ministry will lack the capability to investigate adequately
current or past criminal cases until the DIC completes its
training in the spring of 1995.
The authorities undertook no further investigation or
prosecution of alleged extrajudicial killings committed in
previous years. These included the 1993 killings of Eduardo
Pina van Tuyl, Guillermo Agurcia Lefebvre, Lourdes Enamorado,
Roger David Torres Vallejos, Rigoberto Quezada Figueres,
Cleofes Colindres Canales, Juan Jose Menendez, Glenda Patricia
Solorzano Medina, and Jorge Alcides Medina Hernandez; the 1992
killings of Juan Humberto Sanchez, Rigoberto Borjas, Ramon
Castellon Baide, and Cayo Eng Lee; the 1991 murder of Manuel de
Jesus Guerra; and the 1990 killings of Francisco Javier Bonilla
Medina and Ramon Antonio Briceno.
The family of 18-year-old student Riccy Mabel Martinez, victim
of a July 13, 1991 rape and murder, appealed the original
verdict in the case (equivalent to second-degree murder), and
requested that the two military defendants be convicted of
first-degree murder (which would preclude any possibility of
pardon). The defendants filed a countersuit; at year's end,
both cases were pending before the Supreme Court of Appeals.
b. Disappearance
There were no reports of disappearances motivated by politics
or conducted by the security forces.
Local human rights groups and Amnesty International continued
to press, unsuccessfully, for an official accounting of the
184 claimed disappearances which occurred mainly during the
early 1980's under the tenure of former armed forces Commander
General Gustavo Alvarez Martinez.
In December 1993, Human Rights Commissioner Leo Valladares
presented a preliminary report on political disappearances
during the 1979-89 period. On November 9, a CSJ Commission
announced that all but 9 of the 184 missing persons cases
lacked the evidence required for proper legal proceedings.
(The nine cases referred to are those or persons who were
missing for some time but were later found alive.) The report
also noted that the survivors accused the current Minister of
Defense of involvement in the detention, torture, and
disappearance of four suspected leftists in 1988 (when he
commanded an infantry brigade), but offered no proof. The
Commission sent the nine cases warranting further action to the
Attorney General's office. All nine were reopened and at
year's end, preliminary investigations were under way. A full
investigation will be possible only when the DIC is trained and
in place.
On December 9, three forensic anthropologists who excavated a
grave site believed to contain a death squad victim from the
1980's were able to confirm the identity of the body buried at
that site since 1982 as that of Nelson Mackay Chavarria, a
Honduran citizen. Because of serious decomposition of the
body, the anthropologists could not determine the cause of
death or whether the victim had been tortured. Human Rights
Commissioner Valladares called for an immediate investigation
by the Attorney General's Office and an end to impunity for
those involved in the 184 disappearances during the 1980's.
The Attorney General began an investigation which will include
testimony by members of the security forces.
c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment
Although the Constitution prohibits torture, and police and
military authorities issued assurances throughout 1994 that the
practice had been stopped, credible charges of torture and
other abuse of detainees continue. Members of the police force
resort to abuses to obtain confessions and keep suspects in
jail. There were no reports of torture for political motives.
One case of alleged torture involved 27-year-old narcotics
suspect Fernando Flores Salgado. The Public Ministry reported
that a FUSEP agent arrested Salgado on August 11 in the airport
at Puerto Lempira and took him to a police station where,
during a search of his luggage, police found an AK-47 automatic
assault rifle. Salgado claimed he was beaten and a sack laced
with lime was placed over his head, causing burns. The
Ministry's report said the beatings continued on August 12 and,
when the officers and their commander failed to extract
information from Salgado about the seller of the AK-47, they
took him to a lake and repeatedly submerged him in the water.
On August 13, an assistant prosecutor from the Public Ministry
obtained Salgado's release. Attorney General Edmundo Orellana
presented charges against all three FUSEP agents for human
rights violations, torture, battery, and attempted homicide.
The courts in Puerto Lempira issued warrants, but none of the
three were arrested. Prosecutors at the Public Ministry stated
that FUSEP officials attempted to halt any investigation of the
three agents by filing charges of drug trafficking against the
assistant prosecutor who secured Salgado's release. Local
human rights groups say this is an attempt by the FUSEP to
discredit the charges and intimidate the investigators. The
FUSEP rearrested Salgado on October 15 and charged him with
terrorism because of the AK-47 found in his possession. In
late October, the FUSEP dropped all charges against Salgado and
the prosecutor; charges were also dropped against the FUSEP
agents.
On October 7, police arrested two juveniles in Tegucigalpa.
The juveniles charged that police held them in a cell with
adults and that both police and the other prisoners beat and
tortured them. Officials of Casa Alianza (an affiliate of
Covenant House in New York), which operates a refuge for street
children, obtained the release of both of them on October 10.
Following medical confirmation of the injuries to one of the
youths, Casa Alianza filed charges against the FUSEP for
violating the youth's rights, illegal detention, and torture.
It also requested a full investigation by the Attorney
General's office. Market vendors and a FUSEP regional
commander protested Casa Alianza's actions, asserting that the
organization provides refuge for juveniles who commit crimes.
Casa Alianza, in response, called on the national Human Rights
Commissioner to fulfill his obligation to protect children's
rights.
Amnesty International and Casa Alianza both received reports of
minors whom members of the police and the army subjected to
illegal arrest, ill-treatment, and sexual abuse. A street girl
in San Pedro Sula, 11-year-old Martha Maria Saire, charged that
two uniformed members of the military battalion based in Tamara
grabbed and raped her. Medical examinations confirmed she had
been sexually abused. On April 22, the authorities presented
the case to the first criminal district court. The Attorney
General's office issued arrest warrants for the soldiers, but
they are reportedly absent without leave.
Another case involved 16-year-old Mario Rene Enamorado Lara who
lives in Casa Alianza's transition home in Tegucigalpa. On
July 10, while on his way to the home in the company of other
children, eight uniformed members of the FUSEP's first squadron
stopped the group and accused Mario of having stolen a watch.
They arrested him without a warrant, took him to the squadron
headquarters, and placed him in detention in a cell with adult
detainees. He charged that three policemen severely punched
and kicked him during detention; adult male prisoners also beat
him while he was in the cell. The same afternoon, legal
counsel from Casa Alianza obtained his freedom, and an
independent doctor confirmed injuries to his body, face, and
head. Casa Alianza presented a formal complaint to the FUSEP
and to the Public Ministry. Lacking an investigative arm, the
Public Ministry had made no arrests by year's end.
In February police officers severely beat U.S. citizen Terry
George Clymire, whom they were in the process of arresting on
civil charges. The Prosecutor's office and the FUSEP Office of
Professional Responsibility (OPR) investigated the case, but
made no charges or arrests in the case. Charges against
Clymire were dropped.
The Office of Professional Responsibility investigates cases of
alleged torture and abuse; OPR officials recommend sanctions
for police agents found guilty of such mistreatment. However,
neither the FUSEP General Command nor the OPR is empowered to
punish wrongdoers; only the commander of the accused agent has
the authority to do so. During the past 12 months, OPR
investigated eight FUSEP agents for abusing and beating street
children in the Tegucigalpa area. The FUSEP dismissed all of
them, and the courts convicted three agents and gave them
30-day jail terms.
Prison conditions in Honduras are consistently deplorable.
Prisoners suffer from severe overcrowding, malnutrition, and a
lack of adequate sanitation. In the Central Penitentiary in
Tegucigalpa, there are 1,954 internees, of whom only 512 have
been convicted and are serving sentences. More often than not,
the mentally ill and those with tuberculosis and other
infectious diseases are thrown together in the same cells. A
new, larger detention facility in Tamara lacks water and power
and probably will not open until 1995. Prisoners with money
routinely buy private cells, decent food, and conjugal
visitation rights, while prisoners without money often lack the
most basic necessities as well as legal assistance.
d. Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile
The law states that the police may arrest a person only with a
court order, unless the arrest is made during the commission of
a crime, and that they must clearly inform the person of the
grounds for the arrest. (By law the FUSEP cannot investigate;
it only detains those suspected of committing a crime.) Police
must bring a detainee before a judge within 24 hours; the judge
then must issue an initial temporary holding order within 24
hours, release an initial decision within 6 days, and conduct a
preliminary investigation to decide whether there is sufficient
evidence to warrant further investigation. However, in
practice, the authorities do not routinely observe these
requirements of the law. While bail is legally available, it
is used primarily for what are ostensibly medical reasons.
Poor defendants, even when represented by a public defender,
are seldom able to take advantage of bail.
Under the 1984 Code of Criminal Procedures, a judge, the
police, public officials, or any citizen may initiate criminal
proceedings. Perhaps as many as 80 percent of the cases
reported to the police are never referred to the criminal
justice system but instead are settled administratively by the
police or by municipal courts, which are separate from the
regular judicial court system.
There were continued allegations that the FUSEP hired some
former members of the DNI, and that these and other security
force elements continued to practice arbitrary arrest and
detention in a substantial number of cases. Local human rights
monitoring organizations asserted, however, that this situation
improved markedly after the issuance of a report by the Ad Hoc
Commission on Police and Judicial Reform and the dissolution of
the DNI.
The Constitution prohibits the expatriation of a Honduran
citizen to another country; exile is not used as a means of
political control.
e. Denial of Fair Public Trial
Congress elects the nine Supreme Court justices and the
President confirms them. Their 4-year terms coincide with
those of the Congress and the President. The Supreme Court
appoints all the judges in the lower civilian courts. Some
headway was made in using a career system to depoliticize the
appointments process and to break the subcultures of corruption,
clientism, patronage, and influence peddling within the
judiciary. In midyear the Supreme Court ordered strict
adherence to the judicial career law, i.e., a merit-oriented
selection and retention process for judges and court officials,
commencing with second-instance judges.
However, both major political parties continue to resist the
recommendation by the Ad Hoc Commission that they agree to a
completely apolitical, independent judiciary. Members of
Congress representing powerful economic and political interests
continued to pressure the President and magistrates of the
Supreme Court to permit politicians to appoint judges and court
functionaries purely on political criteria and without regard
to professional and ethical qualifications. The judicial
system also still suffers from woefully inadequate funding.
Traditionally, the Honduran Armed Forces insisted that only its
courts-martial could try its members. However, in 1993
Congress passed a resolution restricting the jurisdiction of
the military court system to military crimes committed by
active duty personnel. Since then enlisted military personnel
accused of crimes against civilians have in fact been remanded
to the civilian judicial system. The military continued to
accept civilian court jurisdiction over its members, and the
Public Ministry assigned civilian prosecutors to each of the 11
military courts. It also began much publicized investigations
of human rights violations (past and present) by military
personnel and followed up on anonymous published accusations of
financial fraud by senior military officers.
An accused person has the right to a fair trial, which includes
the right to an initial hearing by a judge, to bail, to an
attorney provided by the state if necessary, and to appeal.
The number of public defenders was doubled from 51 to 104,
providing greater legal assistance to the poor.
Detention of criminal suspects pending trial averaged 18 months
and constituted a serious human rights problem. In an extreme
case, a mentally deficient, illiterate peasant spent 17 years
in jail after being acquitted, due to the failure by
responsible officials to process his release papers. A
significant number of defendants serve the maximum possible
sentence for the crime of which they are accused before their
trials are ever concluded or even begun. Of the 6,042
detainees making up the country's prison population in early
1994, 5,103, or 84 percent, had been neither sentenced nor
exonerated. These judicial weaknesses, along with the almost
total lack of thorough investigation of crimes and collection
of evidence, greatly undermine the right of citizens to a
speedy, fair public trial. In addition, some judicial
authorities in rural areas received anonymous threats.
The passage of the 1994 Public Ministry Law and subsequent
creation of the new ministry, with 76 public prosecutors
assigned nationally and twice that many planned for 1995, is
intended to strengthen the citizenry's ability to seek redress
from government abuses and to enjoy fair and public trials.
The Public Ministry's independence from the other branches of
the Government also is intended to reduce somewhat the
opportunities for the politically and economically powerful to
distort the judicial process with impunity. The widely
respected new Attorney General stressed the importance of
personnel selection for the Public Ministry, and indicated he
would refuse to employ former members of the DNI. In the short
time it has existed, even before becoming fully organized, the
Public Ministry began investigations of a number of court
officials on various corruption and malfeasance charges. As a
result, the authorities dismissed 38 court officials, including
10 Superior Court judges and 11 justices of the peace.
Despite the creation of the Public Ministry and the DIC, at
year's end the justice system still favored the rich and
politically influential and remained weak, underfunded,
marginally politicized, and generally inefficient. While the
Supreme Court made strides in both organization and
investigation of corrupt court officials, the underfunded
judiciary remained very vulnerable to influence and corruption.
f. Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or
Correspondence
The Constitution specifies that a person's home is inviolable
and that persons authorized by the State may enter only with
the owner's consent or with the authorization of a competent
authority. Entry may take place only between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.
or at any time in the event of an emergency or to prevent the
commission of a crime. However, as in previous years, there
were credible charges that police and armed forces personnel
failed at times to obtain the needed authorization before
entering a private home. Despite a new system of "duty judges"
and "duty prosecutors" to issue search orders, they appeared to
lack the discipline to make themselves available 24 hours per
day, 7 days a week. Coordination among the police, the court,
and the Public Ministry is improving. However, interagency
liaison problems still undermine the effectiveness of the
system.
Judges may authorize government monitoring of mail or
telephones for specific purposes, such as criminal
investigation or national security. However, the armed forces
reportedly continued to use its operation of the national
telephone company to monitor illegally telephone lines of
influential people in the Government, the military, and the
private sector without authorization from the appropriate
civilian judicial authority.
Section 2 Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
a. Freedom of Speech and Press
The Constitution provides for freedom of speech and press, and
the authorities largely respected these freedoms in practice.
The media, while often openly critical of the Government and
frequently willing to expose corruption, are themselves subject
to high levels of corruption and politicization. Serious
investigative journalism is still in its infancy. Journalists
are known to have requested bribes to kill stories. There
continued to be credible reports of intimidation by the
authorities, instances of self-censorship, and payoffs to
journalists.
The Government respects academic freedom and has not attempted
to curtail political expression on university campuses.
b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association
The Constitution provides for the right to peaceful assembly
for political, religious, or other purposes. The Government
does not generally require prior authorization or permits but
may ask for a permit to "guarantee public order." In most
cases, neither the Government nor the armed forces interfere in
the right of citizens to assemble. For example, when several
thousand Indians staged a protest march to the capital in July,
they were allowed to occupy the center of the city for several
days, withdrawing peacefully after meeting with the President
and other officials and winning concessions on their demands.
c. Freedom of Religion
The Constitution protects all forms of religious expression,
and the Government respects this right in practice. Numerous
foreign missionaries work and proselytize throughout the
country.
d. Freedom of Movement Within the Country, Foreign
Travel, Emigration, and Repatriation
Citizens enter and exit Honduras without arbitrary impediment,
and travel within the country's borders is freely permitted.
There were no known instances in which citizenship was revoked
for political reasons. Of the 250 Haitian refugees who arrived
in Honduras in November 1991, 45 remain.
Section 3 Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens
to Change Their Government
Citizens exercised the right to change their government through
democratic and peaceful means in the November 1993 elections.
International observers found the elections to be free and
fair. The national government is chosen by free, secret,
direct, and obligatory balloting every 4 years. Suffrage is
universal, but the clergy and serving members of the armed
forces are not permitted to vote. Any citizen born in Honduras
or abroad of Honduran parentage may hold office except for
members of the clergy and the armed forces. A new political
party may gain legal status by obtaining 20,000 signatures and
establishing party organizations in at least half the country's
18 departments.
There are no legal impediments to women and minorities
participating in government and politics, but in practice, the
proportion of women in political organizations and elected to
office is far lower than their overall representation in
society. However, for the first time voters elected a woman,
Guadalupe Jerezano, as one of the three vice presidents in the
1993 elections, and the losing opposition slate also had a
female vice presidential candidate. Women hold a Cabinet
ministry and Supreme Court position, as well as a number of
vice ministerial positions. Of the 128 Deputies in Congress,
14 are women and 5 are indigenous. There are few indigenous
persons in leadership positions in government or politics,
although the Honduran ambassador to the United Nations is a
member of the Garifuna indigenous group.
Section 4 Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations
of Human Rights
The Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras and
the Committee of the Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared
in Honduras (COFADEH) are the best known and most active local
nongovernmental human rights organizations. Prior to the
Government's establishment of the Office of the Human Rights
Commissioner, CODEH, with its network of offices throughout the
country, was often the only recourse available to victims of
abuses, particularly those living in rural areas. The
nongovernmental Center for the Investigation and Promotion of
Human Rights (CIPRODEH), established in 1991, offers basic
human rights courses, holds monthly seminars, carries out
research on issues affecting Hondurans, and serves as a source
of information on human rights. CIPRODEH continued its human
rights training of police officers and added training programs
for the military.
Two COFADEH staff members reported instances of harassment. On
March 4, Berta Oliva de Nativi, COFADEH coordinator, had a
telephone call interrupted by a male voice claiming to be a
colonel who threatened to kill her and her family. Ms. Nativi
believed the caller to be an ex-member of the notorious
military intelligence Battalion 3-16, created in the early
1980's but now dissolved. Such threats, made by telephone at
both her home and office, continued through March and the
beginning of April. Another member of COFADEH, Dina Meethabel
Meza Elvir, also received numerous threats and was harassed.
On March 15, Ms. Elvir reported that a man in a car followed
her for several miles and attempted to bump her vehicle. She
obtained the license plate number. On March 16, as she was
leaving her son's hospital in Comayaguela (a section of
Tegucigalpa), she was again followed by the same car. Ms.
Elvir presented her information to the criminal court and also
went to the Public Ministry, which initiated an investigation.
The owner of the car was apprehended but was released when Ms.
Elvir could not identify him. Both cases remain under
investigation; the Attorney General's office offered protection
to both women.
The Governmental Inter-institutional Commission on Human Rights
(CIDH), established in 1987 to respond to domestic and
international inquiries and to investigate human rights
violations, is largely ineffective, as it does not receive full
cooperation from military and civilian judicial authorities.
The Government provides the Human Rights Commissioner with
insufficient funds, leaving him dependent upon contributions
from international organizations such as the United Nations
Children's Fund. He has proposed that the Human Rights
Commissioner be elected by Congress, with its power derived
from the Constitution.
Government officials continued to meet and cooperate with
representatives of local and international human rights
organizations.
Section 5 Discrimination Based on Race, Sex, Religion,
Disability, Language, or Social Status
The Constitution bans discrimination based on race and sex.
Although it also bans discrimination on the basis of class, in
fact, both the military and the political and social elite
generally enjoy impunity before the legal system. Members of
the socioeconomic upper class are rarely arrested or jailed.
The Constitution provides for 2 years of compulsory military
service for male citizens between the ages of 18 and 30,
although only Hondurans from the middle and lower classes have
been forcibly recruited into the armed forces. In May, at
President Reina's initiative, and over the opposition of the
armed forces, Congress unanimously voted to abolish involuntary
military service. Although the measure, as a constitutional
amendment, will have to be approved again in 1995 in order to
become effective, the President ordered an immediate suspension
of forced recruitment. However, in late September, in the face
of strongly diminished armed forces levels, President Reina
ordered the resumption of compulsory military service. A draft
lottery was held on November 19 to fill 6,500 open positions in
the armed forces. Most upper-class youths continued to avoid
conscription, either as students or through their names being
left off the lottery eligibility lists.
Women
Women are represented in at least small numbers in most of the
professions, but cultural attitudes limit their career
opportunities. In theory, women have equal access to
educational opportunities, but family pressures often serve to
brake the ambitions of women intent on obtaining higher
education. The law requires women, who make up 51 percent of
the work force, to be paid equal wages for equal work, but
their jobs are often classified as less demanding than those of
men, as a justification for paying them lower salaries.
Violence against women remains widespread, and serious
weaknesses in the Penal Code severely impede efforts to combat
it. Visitacion Padilla, a women's human rights group, has
called for legislation to make violence against women a serious
crime. The majority of such violence takes place within the
family. The courts do not take action in domestic violence
cases unless the victim is badly battered and incapacitated for
more than 10 days. Except in the case of children age 12 or
under, rape is considered a private crime. Rape victims over
age 12 are therefore required to hire a private prosecutor, a
luxury few can afford. The penalties for rape are relatively
light, ranging from 3 to 9 years' imprisonment. There are no
shelters specifically maintained for battered women. Although
the law offers some redress, few women take advantage of the
legal process, believing that judges would be unwilling to
apply the law vigorously. Sexual harassment in the workplace
is also a problem, as graphically described in testimony to the
U.S. Senate in September by a 15-year-old female garment worker.
Some organizations have begun to offer assistance to women,
principally targeting those living in the rural sectors and
marginal neighborhoods of cities. The Honduran Federation of
Women's Associations, for example, provides home construction
and improvement loans, offers free legal assistance to women,
and lobbies the Government on women's causes. The human rights
group CIPRODEH began an education program to make women aware
of their rights under the law.
Children
The Government is committed to providing basic education and
health care to children, but is unable to prevent abuse of
street children (see Section 1.c.) and child workers (see
Section 6.d.). In Tegucigalpa, there are about 1,300 street
children, many of whom have been sexually molested; at least
10 percent are chronically addicted to glue sniffing. Over
75 percent of the street children find their way to the streets
because of severe family problems; 9 percent are abandoned.
Many of these children, when arrested, are housed with adults
and abused. Both the police and members of the general
population employ violence against street children. Casa
Alianza worked with the police to end abuse of children who are
arrested. However, vigilante violence and allegations of
police abuse continue to be a problem.
Indigenous People
The small community of indigenous people have little or no
ability to participate in decisions affecting their lands,
cultures, traditions, or the allocation of natural resources.
All indigenous land rights are communal, and the law prohibits
sale of such property either by individuals or the tribe.
Tribal lands are often poorly defined in documents dating from
the mid-19th century, and in most cases lack legal title based
on modern cadastral measurements. The Honduran Forestry
Development Corporation makes decisions regarding exploitation
of timber resources on indigenous lands, often over strenuous
tribal objection. Usurpation of indigenous lands by
nonindigenous farmers and cattle ranchers is common.
The courts commonly deny legal recourse to indigenous groups
and show bias in favor of the nonindigenous parties, who are
often people of means and influence. Failure to obtain legal
redress frequently provoked indigenous groups to attempt to
regain land through invasions and other tactics, which usually
provoked the authorities to retaliate forcefully. To focus
governmental and public attention on their needs, several
thousand Indians from all over the country marched to the
capital city of Tegucigalpa on July 12 to support complaints of
Indians from the Intibuca region about illegal logging.
President Reina and his Cabinet met with Indian representatives
and agreed to address the problem and to consider long-term
recommendations regarding the Indian situation. A
congressional committee drafted legislation to create a new
county composed exclusively of Indian communities, and the
Government promised to build schools and roads and to ensure
greater protection of the forests in which the Indians live.
However, on October 3, several thousand Indians of various
tribes made a followup march to Tegucigalpa to remind the
Government of its promises and to complain of increasing
problems with the armed forces in their areas.
People with Disabilities
There are no formal barriers to participation by disabled
persons in terms of employment, education, and health care, but
neither is there specific statutory protection for them. There
is no legislation that requires accessibility for disabled
persons to government buildings or services.
Section 6 Worker Rights
a. The Right of Association
Workers have the legal right to form and join labor unions, and
with the exception of some "parallel" unions formed by the
Government, the unions are independent of government and
political parties. Although only about 20 percent of the work
force is organized, trade unions exert considerable economic
and political influence. They frequently participate in public
rallies against government policies and make extensive use of
the media to advance their views. There are also three large
peasant associations directly affiliated with the trade
unions. The Constitution provides for the right to strike,
along with a wide range of other basic labor rights, which the
authorities honor in practice. The Civil Service Code,
however, stipulates that public workers do not have the right
to strike. (This does not include those working in state-owned
enterprises.) There were legal and illegal strikes during the
year by public and private schoolteachers, mail workers, banana
workers from Chiquita Brands, and workers in a dozen or more
foreign-owned maquiladora (in-bond processing) plants exporting
textiles to the United States.
A number of private firms have instituted "solidarity"
associations, which are essentially aimed at providing credit
and other services to workers and management who are members of
the association. Membership in these associations increased
slightly during the year. Organized labor, including the
American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial
Organizations and the International Confederation of Free Trade
Unions, strongly opposes these associations on the grounds that
they do not permit strikes, have inadequate grievance
procedures, and neutralize genuine and representative trade
unions.
The trade union movement maintains close ties with various
international trade union organizations.
b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively
The law protects workers' rights to organize and to bargain
collectively; collective bargaining agreements are the norm for
companies in which workers are organized. However, although
the Labor Code prohibits retribution by employers for trade
union activity, it is a common occurrence. Employers threaten
to close down unionized companies, harass their workers, and in
some cases fire them for trying to form a trade union.
Employers actually dismiss relatively few workers for union
activity once a union is recognized; these cases, however,
serve to discourage other workers from attempting to organize.
Workers in both unionized and nonunionized companies are under
the protection of the Labor Code, which gives them the right to
seek redress from the Ministry of Labor. Labor or civil courts
can require employers to rehire employees fired for union
activity, but such rulings are uncommon. Generally, however,
agreements between management and unions contain a clause
prohibiting retaliation against any worker who participated in
a strike or union activity.
The same labor regulations apply in export processing zones
(EPZ's) as in the rest of private industry. Unions are active
in the government-owned Puerto Cortes free trade zone (all
seven maquiladora companies there are unionized), but factory
owners have resisted efforts to organize the new privately
owned industrial parks. To date, none of the EPZ plants has
been organized. In the absence of a union and collective
bargaining, several of the EPZ plants have instituted
solidarity associations which to some extent exist as company
unions for the purpose of setting wages and negotiating working
conditions. Others use the minimum wage to set starting
salaries and adjust the wage scale by negotiating with common
groups of workers and individuals depending on skill, years of
employment, and other related criteria. Talks between unions
and EPZ plants continue.
In February an EPZ firm fired 4 female workers involved in
union organizing activities; in response, 5,000 workers took
over the Continental Industrial Park near El Progreso on
February 10, closing 8 factories. Five days later, workers
occupied five factories at the Galaxy Industrial Park for the
same reason. In June 6,000 workers took over the highway
leading to the Puerto Cortes industrial area, closing
6 factories that had fired several pregnant women in violation
of the Labor Code.
Labor leaders blame the Government for permitting management to
take such actions, and say this problem will continue until the
Ministry of Labor is reorganized to make it more efficient.
They criticize the Ministry for not enforcing the Labor Code,
for taking too long to make decisions, and for being timid and
indifferent to workers' needs. In the month-long strike
between Chiquita Brands and its union, for example, the
Ministry of Labor and four separate commissions named by the
President were unable to end the conflict.
The Labor Code clearly prohibits blacklisting; nevertheless,
there was credible evidence that informal blacklisting occurred
in the privately owned industrial parks. When unions are
formed, organizers must submit a list of initial members to the
Ministry of Labor as part of the process of obtaining official
recognition. Before official recognition is granted, however,
the Ministry must inform the company of the impending union
organization. Ministry officials have consistently been unable
to provide effective protection to workers. There are credible
reports that, particularly in the EPZ sector, some inspectors
have gone so far as to sell companies the names of employees
involved in forming a union, which some companies used to
dismiss union organizers before recognition was granted. There
is also credible evidence that military intelligence maintains
files on union activists.
c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor
The Constitution and the law prohibit forced or compulsory
labor. Although there were no official reports of such
practices, allegations of forced overtime in EPZ plants,
particularly for women, are credible.
d. Minimum Age for Employment of Children
The Constitution and the Labor Code prohibit the employment of
minors under the age of 16, except for children between the
ages of 14 to 16 who have the permission of their parents and
the Ministry of Labor. Employers legally hiring children under
the age of 16 must certify that the young person has finished
or is finishing his or her compulsory schooling. The legal age
for working without parental consent is 16. The Ministry of
Labor grants a number of these work permits to 14- and 15-year-
olds each year. It is common for 12- and 13-year-olds to
obtain these documents or to purchase forged permits which use
the Labor Ministry's letterhead.
The Ministry of Labor does not effectively enforce child labor
laws, and violations of the Labor Code occur frequently in
rural areas and in small companies. Many children work in
small family farms, as street vendors, or in small workshops to
supplement the family income. According to the Ministry of
Labor, human rights groups, and organizations for the
protection of children, the most significant child labor
problem is in the construction industry. A 15-year-old girl
also testified before a U.S. Senate subcommittee in September
that children below the legal employment age work in the
garment assembly sector.
e. Acceptable Conditions of Work
In December the Government decreed increases ranging from 15 to
33 percent in the minimum wage, the first since June 1993.
Daily pay rates vary by the sector of the economy affected and
geographical zones: the lowest minimum wage is $1.60 (14.95
lempiras) per day in the agriculture sector. The highest
minimum wage is in the mining sector at $2.79 (26 lempiras)
daily. Urban workers earn slightly more than those in the
countryside. The Constitution and the Labor Code stipulate
that all labor be fairly paid, but the Ministry of Labor lacks
the staff and other resources for effective enforcement. Even
after the third consecutive annual increase, the minimum wage
is considered insufficient to provide a decent standard of
living for a worker and family.
The law prescribes a maximum 8-hour day and a 44-hour workweek.
There is a requirement for at least one 24-hour rest period
every 8 days. The Labor Code provides for a paid vacation of
10 workdays after 1 year and 20 workdays after 4 years.
However, employers frequently ignore these regulations due to
the high level of unemployment and underemployment, and the
lack of effective enforcement by the Ministry of Labor.
The Ministry of Labor is responsible for enforcing national
health and safety laws, but does not do so effectively. There
is no provision for a worker to remove himself from a dangerous
work situation without jeopardy to continued employment.
Reliable reports indicate that there are still as many as
50 deaths per year resulting from serious health and safety
hazards facing Miskito Indian scuba divers employed in lobster
and conch harvesting off the Caribbean coast. Some complaints,
although fewer than in previous years, allege the failure of
foreign factory managers to comply with occupational health and
safety aspects of Labor Code regulations in factories located
in free zones and industrial parks.
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