{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://ellison.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/reps-ellison-and-johnson-call-for-accountability-for-human-rights-abuses", "Reps. Ellison and Johnson Call for Accountability for Human Rights Abuses in Honduras", "2016-12-08", "2016", "2016-12", "Democrat", "House", "MN", "Keith Ellison", "E000288", "ellison.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON\u2013 Reps. Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Hank Johnson (D-GA), along with 27 Members of the House, sent a letter today to Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Treasury Jacob Lew expressing growing concern about human rights violations in Honduras. This letter coincides with the nine-month anniversary of Berta C\u00e1ceres\u2019s tragic murder.\nThe full text of the letter appears below, and the signed letter can be viewed here.\nDear Secretary Kerry and Secretary Lew:\nWe write to follow up on our letter of\u00a0March\u00a017,\u00a02016, signed by\u00a062 Members of Congress,\u00a0in which we expressed our\u00a0concerns regarding the murder\u00a0of Berta C\u00e1ceres -- the\u00a0internationally-renowned Honduran Indigenous rights advocate-- and regarding human rights and U.S. policy\u00a0in Honduras\u00a0more generally.\u00a0Since that\u00a0time,\u00a0our fears have only increased.\nWe are concerned that the Government of Honduras continues to unduly limit access to the investigation into the murder of Ms. C\u00e1ceras\u00a0and\u00a0shooting of Gustavo Castro,\u00a0a key witness who was shot along with Ms.\u00a0C\u00e1ceres.\u00a0Under Honduran law, victims and their families have the right\u00a0to actively participate in the prosecution of the case;\u00a0however, Ms.\u00a0C\u00e1ceres\u2019s investigative file remains\u00a0secret seven months later. This significantly constrains the family\u2019s legally guaranteed involvement in the case and limits its ability to advocate\u00a0for\u00a0a speedy prosecution of those implicated.\nWe are also alarmed that Honduran authorities were careless in handling the case file, as the file was allowed off government property and subsequently stolen. This raises further questions about the ability of Honduran authorities to manage Ms. C\u00e1ceres\u2019s case and impartially prosecute the case.\u00a0\nWe were pleased to learn that five\u00a0suspects were arrested in connection with Ms. C\u00e1ceres\u2019s murder in\u00a0May 2016 and a\u00a0sixth suspect was arrested in\u00a0September.\u00a0Those arrested include: a current employee of the hydroelectric dam development company DESA, the builder of the dam that\u00a0Ms.\u00a0C\u00e1ceres\u00a0and the Lenca\u00a0Indigenous\u00a0communities in Rio Blanco actively opposed;\u00a0an\u00a0active duty major in the Honduran military; and two former\u00a0members of the Honduran military, one of whom was also a former employee of DESA.\u00a0\nConcerns remain that authorities have not brought into custody those that allegedly masterminded Ms. C\u00e1ceres\u2019s murder, and authorities also did not seize relevant evidence during\u00a0searches of DESA headquarters.\u00a0On June 21st, the\u00a0Guardian\u00a0reported that a former soldier in a U.S.-funded Special Forces unit\u00a0recounted he had seen\u00a0Ms. C\u00e1ceres\u2019s name on a\u00a0death list allegedly belonging to the Honduran military. This, along with the identities of those previously arrested, suggests the involvement of high-ranking Honduran military figures in Ms. C\u00e1ceres\u2019s\u00a0assassination.\u00a0\u00a0\nWe welcome the November 14, 2016, announcement of the creation of the International Expert Advisory Panel (GAIPE), which was formed at the request of the C\u00e1ceres family with the support of COPINH and multiple civil society organizations. We hope that GAIPE can contribute to an impartial and independent examination of the pending criminal investigation. However, the GAIPE does not have access to information beyond that available to the family. In our March 2016 letter,\u00a0we\u00a0requested your assistance in\u00a0pressuring the Honduran government to\u00a0support an Inter-American Commission on Human Rights\u00a0(IACHR) -led independent\u00a0international investigation\u00a0of Ms. C\u00e1ceres\u2019s case. Despite offers of assistance from the IACHR, the Government of Honduras has not\u00a0allowed such an investigation to proceed nor has\u00a0the\u00a0State Department taken a clear\u00a0and public\u00a0position in\u00a0support\u00a0of an independent IACHR investigation.\u00a0We ask that you do\u00a0so immediately.\u00a0\nFurthermore,\u00a0violence against\u00a0rights activists continues.\u00a0COPINH activist Nelson\u00a0Garc\u00eda was killed in March 2016 and threats have forced his\u00a0family to flee Honduras.\u00a0In October 2016, Tom\u00e1s\u00a0G\u00f3mez Membre\u00f1o,\u00a0Ms.\u00a0C\u00e1ceres's\u00a0successor as the general coordinator of COPINH, and Alexander\u00a0Garc\u00eda,\u00a0a local\u00a0COPINH leader in\u00a0Llano Grande,\u00a0survived assassination attempts. Most recently, on\u00a0October 18, 2016, four masked men gunned down\u00a0two land reform advocates from the cooperative MUCA\u00a0in the\u00a0Agu\u00e1n\u00a0Valley -- an area where\u00a0over 150 land\u00a0rights advocates have been killed since 2009.\u00a0MUCA members are protected by the IACHR,\u00a0as was Ms. C\u00e1ceres, but\u00a0the Honduran government has not yet complied with the commission\u2019s protection order.\u00a0\nFinally, American taxpayer money should not be given to a government facing accusations of operating outside the rule of law and collaborating in targeted assassinations. We request\u00a0that the U.S. government immediately suspend all police and military aid to Honduras until these mounting human rights concerns are addressed. We were\u00a0disturbed\u00a0to learn that on September 30, 2016, the Department of State certified the\u00a0Honduran government had complied with\u00a0the human rights conditions placed on aid in the FY2016 Appropriations Act, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The Act's\u00a0requirements\u00a0for\u00a0aid included the protection of human rights defenders and other political activists, prosecution of security forces who have committed human rights abuses, and the removal of the military from internal policing. Violations of these and other threshold requirements for aid have not been adequately addressed.\u00a0We ask\u00a0for the Department of State to reconsider immediately its decision. In addition, we reiterate the concerns expressed in our March 2016 letter regarding the termination of the Agua\u00a0Zarca\u00a0dam and reconsideration of U.S. support for loans from multilateral development banks to Honduras.\u00a0\nIt is our hope that Ms.\u00a0C\u00e1ceres's\u00a0death will lead to greater justice for the Honduran people. We appreciate your assistance in the realization of that goal and the consideration of the above requests.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://ellison.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/reps-ellison-and-johnson-call-for-accountability-for-human-rights-abuses"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.879575964063406, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}