Honduras: Smears Put Activists at Risk

(New York) – Honduran government officials should publicly repudiate recent criticism of two leaders of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), Human Rights Watch said today. The officials should protect the right to speak out about human rights abuses and to express opinions and concerns about the country’s upcoming elections.

On a November 5, 2013 episode of the Honduran television talk show “Frente a Frente,” the host, Renato Álvarez, read from what he said was a leaked diplomatic cable sent by Honduras’s ambassador to the United States, Jorge Ramos Hernández Alcerro, to President Porfirio Lobo. The alleged cable contained negative comments about the leaders’ participation in a panel discussion in Washington. The Lobo administration has neither affirmed nor denied the authenticity of the cable.

“If the cable is real, it would show a cynical disregard by a senior Honduran official for the rights and welfare of community leaders in a country afflicted by political violence,” said Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “Whatever its provenance, the government should unequivocally repudiate the views the cable expresses and emphasize that the right to free expression includes criticizing the electoral process and human rights conditions, whether it be in Honduras or before members and staff of the US Congress.”

On the program, Álvarez said that the alleged cable provided analysis of an October 29 panel discussion in Washington co-sponsored by a United States congressional caucus about the upcoming elections in Honduras and El Salvador. The Honduran elections are scheduled for November 24.

Among the panelists were the coordinators of two Honduran NGOs: Bertha Oliva of the Committee of the Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH), a human rights group, and Victor Fernandez of the Broad Movement for Dignity and Justice (MADJ), an organization dedicated to fighting corruption.

(2013-11-09/hrw)