II 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 388 To suspend certain United States assistance for the Government of Honduras until corruption, impunity, and human rights violations are no longer systemic, and the perpetrators of these crimes are being brought to justice. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES FEBRUARY 23, 2021 Mr. MERKLEY (for himself, Mr. LEAHY, Mr. DURBIN, Mr. MARKEY, Mr. SANDERS, Ms. WARREN, Mr. WHITEHOUSE, and Mr. VAN HOLLEN) in- troduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Com- mittee on Foreign Relations A BILL To suspend certain United States assistance for the Govern- ment of Honduras until corruption, impunity, and human rights violations are no longer systemic, and the per- petrators of these crimes are being brought to justice. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 3 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 4 ‘‘Honduras Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Act of 5 2021’’. 6 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:57 Mar 20, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S388.IS S388 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 388 IS (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 1 this Act is as follows: 2 Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. Sec. 2. Police or military of the Republic of Honduras defined. Sec. 3. Findings. Sec. 4. Sense of Congress. Sec. 5. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Sec. 6. Imposition of sanctions with respect to the President of Honduras. Sec. 7. Prohibition on commercial export of covered defense articles and serv- ices and covered munitions items to the Honduran police or military. Sec. 8. Suspension and restrictions of security assistance extended to the Re- public of Honduras unless certain conditions are met. Sec. 9. Sunset. SEC. 2. POLICE OR MILITARY OF THE REPUBLIC OF HON- 3 DURAS DEFINED. 4 In this Act, the term ‘‘police or military of the Repub- 5 lic of Honduras’’ means— 6 (1) the Honduran National Police; 7 (2) the Honduran Armed Forces; 8 (3) the Military Police of Public Order of the 9 Republic of Honduras; or 10 (4) para-police or paramilitary elements, acting 11 under color of law or having received financing, 12 training, orders, intelligence, weapons, or other 13 forms of material assistance from the forces identi- 14 fied in paragraphs (1) through (3). 15 SEC. 3. FINDINGS. 16 Congress makes the following findings: 17 (1) Since the 2009 military coup, the Republic 18 of Honduras remains plagued by systemic corruption 19 and human rights violations, exemplified by— 20 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:57 Mar 20, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S388.IS S388 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 388 IS (A) widespread collusion among govern- 1 ment officials, state and private security forces, 2 organized crime, and members of the private 3 sector, including in the knowledge and perpetra- 4 tion of physical and legal threats, assassina- 5 tions, forced disappearances, and other abuses 6 against human rights and environmental de- 7 fenders, members of the political opposition, 8 journalists, and others; 9 (B) the excessive use of force by members 10 of the police or military of the Republic of Hon- 11 duras, particularly in the context of civil society 12 protests; 13 (C) the failure of the Government of Hon- 14 duras to protect the rights, interests, and phys- 15 ical security of indigenous peoples in land and 16 natural resources disputes, in contravention of 17 its obligations under the Honduran constitution 18 and under international treaties to which it is 19 a state party; and 20 (D) the failure of the Government of Hon- 21 duras to enforce the Honduran Labor Code in 22 violation of its obligations under International 23 Labor Organization Conventions, which the 24 Government of Honduras has ratified, guaran- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:57 Mar 20, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S388.IS S388 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 388 IS teeing freedom of association, the right to col- 1 lective bargaining, and other fundamental labor 2 protections. 3 (2) There is substantial evidence that President 4 of Honduras Juan Orlando Herna´ndez has engaged 5 in a pattern of criminal activity and use of the state 6 apparatus to protect and facilitate drug trafficking, 7 as exemplified by three high-profile corruption and 8 drug trafficking cases that were tried or are being 9 prosecuted in the United States District Court for 10 the Southern District of New York, in which the 11 President of Honduras was named as a co-con- 12 spirator, including the following: 13 (A) The October 2019 conviction of the 14 President of Honduras’s brother Juan Antonio 15 Herna´ndez, in which Federal prosecutors and 16 multiple witnesses testified that the President 17 of Honduras received $1,500,000 in drug pro- 18 ceeds that were funneled toward his successful 19 2013 presidential campaign, and that organized 20 crime had infiltrated the Honduran National 21 Police and National Party. 22 (B) The March 2020 indictment of 23 Geovanny Daniel Fuentes, a drug trafficker, in 24 which Federal prosecutors alleged that the 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:57 Mar 20, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S388.IS S388 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •S 388 IS President of Honduras accepted $25,000 in 1 bribes in exchange for protecting the defendant 2 from law enforcement intervention against his 3 cocaine trafficking activities and facilitated the 4 use of Honduran military personnel as security 5 for the defendant’s drug trafficking operations. 6 On February 5, 2021, Federal prosecutors filed 7 a court document stating that the President of 8 Honduras was under investigation in connection 9 with the case. 10 (C) The April 2020 indictment of former 11 National Director of Police Juan Carlos ‘‘El 12 Tigre’’ Bonilla, in which Federal prosecutors al- 13 leged that the President of Honduras accepted 14 bribes from drug traffickers, facilitated multi- 15 ton shipments of cocaine bound for the United 16 States, and entrusted the defendant with spe- 17 cial assignments, including murder. 18 (3) The President of Honduras has also dem- 19 onstrated a track record of contempt for the rule of 20 law, exhibited by— 21 (A) his support for the 2009 military coup, 22 repudiated as unlawful by the United Nations, 23 the Organization of American States, the Euro- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:57 Mar 20, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S388.IS S388 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •S 388 IS pean Union, and numerous foreign govern- 1 ments, while a member of Congress; 2 (B) his support for a 2012 congressional 3 measure, widely viewed as illegal, to replace 4 four Supreme Court justices while the leader of 5 Congress; and 6 (C) his 2017 candidacy for a second presi- 7 dential term, in violation of the Honduran con- 8 stitution’s longstanding prohibition on presi- 9 dential reelection, which in 2015 was nullified 10 in a ruling by the justices referred to in sub- 11 paragraph (B). 12 (4) In recent months, the executive and legisla- 13 tive branches of the Government of Honduras have 14 taken significant steps to entrench corruption, block 15 oversight by national prosecutors and international 16 investigators, and shield senior officials and parlia- 17 mentarians from criminal liability, including the fol- 18 lowing actions: 19 (A) On January 19, 2020, the Government 20 of Honduras announced the closing of the Mis- 21 sion of Support against Corruption and Impu- 22 nity in Honduras (MACCIH), the anti-corrup- 23 tion mechanism established in 2015 by the Or- 24 ganization of American States and the Govern- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:57 Mar 20, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S388.IS S388 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •S 388 IS ment of Honduras. MACCIH brought 14 cor- 1 ruption-related cases against dozens of high- 2 profile criminal defendants and oversaw the cre- 3 ation of an anti-corruption judicial circuit and 4 special prosecutor’s unit that was disbanded fol- 5 lowing the mission’s closure. 6 (B) On June 25, 2020, the Government of 7 Honduras enacted a new penal code that re- 8 duced prison terms for corruption-related 9 crimes, including embezzlement, illicit enrich- 10 ment, obstruction of justice, and fraud. The 11 measure is retroactive, benefitting Honduran 12 officials already convicted or facing prosecution. 13 (C) On October 16, 2019, the National 14 Congress of Honduras passed a law that re- 15 stored immunity to all parliamentarians for 16 crimes related to legislative activities and a law 17 that blocked the Attorney General’s office from 18 investigating cases involving the improper use 19 of state funds for up to 7 years. 20 (5) These recent measures follow a longer pat- 21 tern of congressional decrees of amnesty or immu- 22 nity for crimes perpetrated by authorities in Hon- 23 duras, including for those committed during the 24 2009 coup and its aftermath, those perpetrated by 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:57 Mar 20, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S388.IS S388 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 8 •S 388 IS state security forces, and those involving the misuse 1 of public funds by former and current legislators, 2 contributing to a climate of impunity. 3 (6) Space for civil society to operate in the Re- 4 public of Honduras remains severely constrained, 5 with rights activists and journalists subject to acute 6 levels of violence, surveillance, harassment, and in- 7 timidation. The Republic of Honduras ranks as the 8 deadliest country in the world for human rights and 9 environmental defenders on a per capita basis and 10 third in the number of assassinations, with 31 de- 11 fenders killed in 2019 and 204 defenders killed since 12 2009. 13 (7) The 2019 United States Department of 14 State Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, 15 international human rights bodies, and numerous 16 monitoring groups have reported that the Honduran 17 police and military commit human rights violations 18 with impunity, including unlawful killings, torture, 19 and the use of unnecessary force and lethal weapons 20 against protestors and civilian bystanders. Individ- 21 uals with documented records of human rights viola- 22 tions and links to drug trafficking continue to serve 23 in high-ranking positions within the Honduran police 24 and military, and few of the alleged cases of human 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:57 Mar 20, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S388.IS S388 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 9 •S 388 IS rights abuses perpetrated by police and military per- 1 sonnel are prosecuted or tried in court. 2 (8) The Office of the United Nations High 3 Commissioner for Human Rights and the Inter- 4 American Commission on Human Rights have docu- 5 mented the use of arbitrary detentions, forced dis- 6 appearances, and specious judicial proceedings to 7 criminalize indigenous and human rights activists, 8 environmental defenders, journalists, opposition poli- 9 ticians, and others, including— 10 (A) members of the Tocoa Municipal Com- 11 mittee for the Defense of Common and Public 12 Assets, who since September 2019 have been 13 detained pending trial following their protest of 14 an illegal mining concession affecting the 15 Guapinol and San Pedro rivers; 16 (B) four Afro-indigenous Garı´funa land de- 17 fenders, who on July 18, 2020, were abducted 18 from their homes and reportedly forced into un- 19 marked vehicles at gunpoint by armed men in 20 police uniforms without a warrant and remain 21 forcibly disappeared; and 22 (C) opposition lawmaker Marı´a Luisa 23 Borjas, who on July 21, 2020, was convicted of 24 defamation and sentenced to nearly three years 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:57 Mar 20, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S388.IS S388 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 10 •S 388 IS in prison for naming Ficohsa bank president 1 Camilo Atala as an intellectual author of the 2 2016 assassination of environmental and indige- 3 nous rights activist Berta Ca´ceres. 4 (9) The vilification and criminalization of civil 5 society actors and human rights defenders by Hon- 6 duran authorities has continued unabated under the 7 cover of COVID–19 pandemic response. On March 8 16, 2020, the Government of Honduras first notified 9 the Organization of American States of its deroga- 10 tion from treaty obligations under the American 11 Convention on Human Rights and has since sus- 12 pended nine constitutional guarantees, including the 13 rights to freedom of assembly and expression, the 14 latter of which was restored after international out- 15 cry. At least 34,000 citizens have been detained for 16 violating curfew and lockdown restrictions, and jour- 17 nalists and human rights defenders have been im- 18 peded in their efforts to report on and expose human 19 rights abuses during the pandemic. 20 SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 21 It is the sense of Congress that— 22 (1) systemic corruption, impunity, and human 23 rights violations by national government officials, 24 private citizens, and members of the police and mili- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:57 Mar 20, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S388.IS S388 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 11 •S 388 IS tary of the Republic of Honduras deplete public re- 1 sources and fuel widespread impoverishment, citizen 2 insecurity, and forced displacement; 3 (2) the President should impose sanctions on 4 President of Honduras Juan Orlando Herna´ndez for 5 acts of significant corruption and human rights vio- 6 lations and determine under the Foreign Narcotics 7 Kingpin Sanctions Regulations under part 598 of 8 title 31, Code of Federal Regulations, whether the 9 President of Honduras is a specially designated nar- 10 cotics trafficker; 11 (3) the President and Secretary of State should 12 seek to ensure that security assistance from the 13 United States and exports of munitions by United 14 States entities are not complicit in human rights 15 abuses perpetrated by the police and military of the 16 Government of Honduras, or misused to impede 17 peaceful protestors, human rights and environmental 18 defenders, and others from exercising the right to 19 freedom of expression, association, or assembly; 20 (4) the Government of Honduras should imme- 21 diately initiate discussions with the United Nations 22 to negotiate the mandate for a new, independent 23 mechanism to combat corruption and impunity with 24 VerDat [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]