{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://serrano.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/congressman-serrano-dem-members-urge-secretary-kerry-revoke-honduras-aid", "Congressman Serrano, Dem Members Urge Secretary Kerry to Revoke Honduras Aid Certification", "2016-12-16", "2016", "2016-12", "Democrat", "House", "NY", "Jos\u00e9 Serrano", "S000248", "serrano.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "The Bronx, NY \u2013 U.S. Congressman Jose Serrano today led 17 House Democrats in urging Secretary of State Kerry to revoke the certification that Honduras has met conditions placed by Congress in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016 in order to obtain U.S. funding.\nLast year, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016 enumerated several conditions\u2014including requiring Honduras to combat corruption, investigate and prosecute human rights violations, and improve transparency\u2014in order for Honduras to receive their full U.S. foreign aid allocation.\u00a0 The State Department was required to verify that these provisions were being met before disbursing the aid.\u00a0 Despite significant evidence to the contrary, this past September, the State Department certified that Honduras met the conditions placed on 50 percent of the aid appropriated for Honduras in Fiscal Year 2016.\nIn a letter to Secretary Kerry, the Congressmen wrote:\u201cWe believe the State Department was wrong to certify Honduras\u2019 compliance with these requirements.\u00a0 There is significant evidence that impunity, corruption, and human rights violations continue unabated in Honduras.\u00a0 For example, President Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez and his ruling National Party have admitted that they stole funds from the National Health Service and diverted those funds into their 2013 election campaign coffers; yet the Attorney General has not prosecuted them.\u00a0 H\u00e9ctor Iv\u00e1n Mej\u00eda, Director of Planning and Operations for the National Police (the third highest-ranking position), is documented to have committed gross violations of human rights and is still in office.\u00a0 Most recently, a captain in the Honduran Armed Forces and former DEA informant has charged that Samuel Reyes, the Minister of Defense, is a drug trafficker,\u201d the members of Congress wrote. We ask that you immediately revoke the certification of the 50 percent of funds allocated under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016 that are subject to compliance with human rights conditions. \u201cMore broadly, we ask that you rethink U.S. support for a government with such a long, established track record of human rights violations and concerted disrespect for the rule of law.\u201d\nFull text of the letter below and PDF attached.The Honorable John Kerry  \n\tSecretary of State  \n\tU.S. Department of State  \n\t2201 C Street, NW  \n\tWashington, D.C. 20520\nDear Secretary Kerry:\nWe are writing to express our concern regarding the grave human rights situation and continuing deterioration of the rule of law in Honduras.\u00a0 We are particularly concerned with the State Department\u2019s certification on September 30, 2016 that the government of Honduras has met conditions Congress placed on 50 percent of the aid to Honduras for Fiscal Year 2016, and ask that you revoke that certification.\nAs you are aware, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016 required the State Department to investigate and report on whether the Honduran central government is taking effective steps to \u201ccombat corruption, including investigating and prosecuting government officials credibly alleged to be corrupt,\u201d to implement policies to \u201cimprove transparency and strengthen public institutions\u201d including the independence of the judiciary, and to \u201cinvestigate and prosecute in the civilian justice system members of military and police forces who are credibly alleged to have violated human rights, and ensure that the military and police are cooperating in such cases.\u201d It also requires that the government take effective steps to create an accountable police force and to \u201ccurtail the role of the military in domestic policing.\u201d\u00a0 Absent these findings and a certification by the State Department, Congress required your agency to withhold 50 percent of the foreign aid funding for Honduras.\nWe believe the State Department was wrong to certify Honduras\u2019 compliance with these requirements.\u00a0 There is significant evidence that impunity, corruption, and human rights violations continue unabated in Honduras.\u00a0 For example, President Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez and his ruling National Party have admitted that they stole funds from the National Health Service and diverted those funds into their 2013 election campaign coffers; yet the Attorney General has not prosecuted them.\u00a0 H\u00e9ctor Iv\u00e1n Mej\u00eda, Director of Planning and Operations for the National Police (the third highest-ranking position), is documented to have committed gross violations of human rights and is still in office.\u00a0 Most recently, a captain in the Honduran Armed Forces and former DEA informant has charged that Samuel Reyes, the Minister of Defense, is a drug trafficker.\u00a0\nWhile an ostensible cleanup of the police is being enacted to much fanfare, the government\u2019s purging commission itself includes a leader of the 2009 coup.\u00a0 The commission reports that a few hundred allegedly corrupt members of the police have been separated, yet as of this writing not a single case has evidently been forwarded to the Public Ministry for prosecution.\u00a0\nJudicial independence also continues to be undermined, contributing to further impunity.\u00a0 In February 2016, a new Supreme Court was elected by the Honduran Congress in a process widely denounced as non-transparent and illegal. Last October, the government announced it would not restore four judges who were illegally deposed for publicly opposing the coup, although their reinstatement has been ordered by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. That same month, the Honduran Congress named judges to a new anti-corruption court in a process widely criticized by civil society as non-transparent and failing to incorporate the mandated input of civil society.\nThe military\u2019s role in domestic policing also continues to expand, in violation of the Honduran Constitution.\u00a0 In August 2016, the government announced the creation of two new additional battalions of the Military Police of Public Order (PMOP), which answers to a military command but performs domestic police functions.\u00a0 Human rights groups have documented multiple committed gross violations of human rights by the PMOP, with impunity.\u00a0 In another alarming example of the military\u2019s expansion in domestic policing, the important task force FUSINA combines multiple civilian and military agencies, including regular police, in a single body under military supervision.\u00a0\nIn addition to the previously mentioned requirements, we note that the 2016 Appropriations Act also mandated that the central government of Honduras create an \u201cautonomous, publicly accountable entity to provide oversight\u201d of the Plan of the Alliance for Prosperity of the Northern Triangle; implement policies guaranteeing the consultation of affected local communities and civil society groups, including Indigenous groups, in any activities of the plan; improve transparency; cooperate with commissions against impunity and regional human rights groups; and protect the right of the political opposition, journalists, trade unionists, human rights defenders and other civil society activists to operate without interference.\nNevertheless, no functioning oversight body for the plan has been enacted. In fact, a new \u201cLaw of Secrets\u201d sealing off government records has dramatically decreased transparency.\u00a0 Moreover, the assassination of Indigenous leader Berta C\u00e1ceres in March 2016 has highlighted the ongoing and illegal failure of the government to consult with Indigenous and Afro-Indigenous people on the construction of hydroelectric dams and other development projects.\u00a0 Moreover, the freedom of activists such as C\u00e1ceres to exercise basic civil liberties continues to be threatened, often fatally. President Hern\u00e1ndez himself has repeatedly and publicly charged human rights defenders with undermining the country. The government has still failed to implement an already-weak law designed to protect human rights defenders.\u00a0\nThe government has also failed to comply with an order of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights mandating protection of over 300 Hondurans. This illustrates the Honduran government\u2019s ongoing failure to cooperate with regional human rights groups, as Congress\u2019s conditions require. A new Support Mission Against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (MACCIH), formed by the Organization of American States in 2015, has reported that the Honduran government has failed to pass new legislation it has recommended, and that the government does not cooperate with it.\nFinally, we are concerned by a recent statement in which the Department of State declared that the United States does not oppose presidential reelection in Honduras, although the Honduran Constitution specifically bars reelection and even makes it a criminal act for a sitting president to advocate it.\u00a0 By issuing this statement just days after President Hern\u00e1ndez announced his candidacy for reelection, the State Department signals a disturbing lack of respect for the rule of law in Honduras, along with its support for an administration that has a long track record of undermining it.\nWe ask that you immediately revoke the certification of the 50 percent of funds allocated under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016 that are subject to compliance with human rights conditions. More broadly, we ask that you rethink U.S. support for a government with such a long, established track record of human rights violations and concerted disrespect for the rule of law.\nSincerely,\nMembers of Congress\n###\nCongressman Jos\u00e9 E. Serrano has represented The Bronx in Congress since 1990.", 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://serrano.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/congressman-serrano-dem-members-urge-secretary-kerry-revoke-honduras-aid"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.1964311599731445, "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"}