NEWSPAPER ARTICLE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90M00005R000100130005-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 16, 2012
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: June 3, 1988
• Content Type: MEMO

50X1 -HUM
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/16: CIA-RDP90M00005R000100130005-7
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/16: CIA-RDP90M00005R000100130005-7
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/16: CIA-RDP90M00005R000100130005-7
In Human Rights Court, Honduras
Is First to Face Death Squad Trial
By J A M ES LeMOYNE
Specoal to Inc Ncw York Tunes
Killings by Government death
squads in Honduras since 1980 are well
kilown to the Reagan Administration
and to the Central Intelligence Agency,
which trained Honduran soldiers who
then worked in the death squads, ac-
cording to several American officials
and a former member of a Honduran
death squad who said he was trained
by the C.I.A.
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, Jan. 18 ? In
the first case ever tried by the Inter-
American Court on Human
which a Government has been put on
trial. Honduras is being accused here
of maintaining army*.death squads that.
caused, the "disappearance" of civil-
ians suspected of being leftists.
Honduras denies the Charge, but two
key witnesses involved in the case have
been shot to death in Honduras in the
last two. weeks in what human rights
advocates assert is an effort by mem-
bers of the Honduran Army death
squads to silence their critics.
Despite that knowledge, the Reagan
Administration continues to contend
that Honduras has an acceptable
human rights record, continues to aid
the Honduran police and army and ap-
pears to have done nothing to assist the
trial under way here nor denounce the
killings of witnesses in Honduras.
"I have never seen a Case in which
the United States Government is so
deeply linked to the human rights
abuses of a Government as in Hon-
duras," Aryeh Neier, vice chairman of
the New York-based human rights
group, Americas Watch, said in an in-
terview.
"The killings of witnesses in this trial
is a direct threat to the integrity of the
Inter-American system, which the
United States has not in any way de-
fended."
The Inter-American Court on Human
Rights, which is hearing the case here
And is expected to reach a verdict
wilhin the next two months; is a judi-
cial.arm of the Organization of:Amer-
ican States; vihich islhe;leadirig inter-
American political organization of
which both the United States and Hon-
'duras are members.
? . Honduras has promised to fully and
Continued on Page A6, COlumn I
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/16 : CIA-RDP90M00005R000100130005-7
--Honduras Is First country Tried for Death
? ;
? Coln inued From Page Al
immediately comply with a new Cen-
(rat American peace ; treaty that de-
mands that Governments in the region
respect and defend human rights.
The lead witness in the trial here, Mi-
guel Angel Pavan, was shot to death
with a friend four daysago in the town
The case is a way I
to .condemn the ,I
disappearance of
civilians.
San Pedro Sula, a center of recent
death squad killings in Honduras.
Mr. Pavan was a prominent figure in
Honduras who headed the regional of-
fice of the Honduran Human Rights
Commission, the most outspoken
human rights group in the country and
the target of regular criticisms by
American and Honduran officials.
Two weeks ago, unknown assailants
also fatally shot Jose Isaias Vilorio, a
termer Honduran Army sergeant who
is believed to have been a death squad
member and who was to have testified
here today. The gunmen covered Mr.
V ilorio %kith a rebel banner after killing
him, a fan that Honduran officials say
indicates leftist rebels carried out the
murder.
Critics of the Government say, how-
ever, that the rebel banner was a crude
attempt by an army 'death *Squad to
shift the blame for the killing. The Hon-
duran guerrillas have not carried ont
such a killing before and. it seems un-
likely they 'would hoot -a witness in a
trial that is so damaging to the Govern-
ment and, indirectly, politically benefi-
cial to them.
The court case here? focuses on the
disappearances in Honduras from 1981
to 1982 of two Honduran civilians, Saul;
God inez and Manfred? ?Velasquez, as: ?
well as two Costa Ricans, Yolanda Solis,
and Francisco Fairen Garbi. The fa mi-;
lies of the four disappeared civilians
contend that army death squads cap-
tured and keft them, a charge the
Honduran Government denies.
But there appears to be considerable
circumstantial evidence that the four
were captured and killed by the Hondu-
ran military and the weight of evidence
in the trial here 'so far-appears-to be
strongly against the Government.
Solledfiy Terrcirism
While the case formally deals Only
with the four missing persons named in
-the trial, it is being treated by diplo-
mats and judges as of far greater sym-
bolic significance. In effect, the trial is -
the first public effort by the Organiza-
tion ofAmerican States to condemn the
activities of Government death squads
throughout Latin America.
The four people in the case here ap-
pear to -be among an estimated 140
and the American Embassy in 'Hon- ?
duras were well aware of the slitylogi.
Despite that fact, the Reagan Admin-
istration has annually asserted that the
Honduran Government is improving
its human rights performance. Despite,
recent killings in the last year. Secre-.
taritif:State?George P. Shultz tad Con-:
'gress tfiat'Hondurpilias an acceptable'
human. rights '...t*O.td,--Orie again ?
thereby : apprOlng,liew-..-police assist-
ance forHondtirits.7?--,-, ?7*.. ? ' ?
- ?? -"TN, ?
That Approval comes despite tile fact ?
that tintll .rp;-:enilkitleading bifida! in -
the Hondinitn..poli**is:?:44:40Sf.01-
cer wellkrtciyfziZtO-T?ajei-AirkritantEin-'.
bassy as the' forMei critriiriarider
army death squads,.according-to,three.
American officials iand two' Honditran
soldiers. ?
The army off icerinquestiOn
Col. Alexander ; Hernandez, who .has
denied the Charges ? against, Jim. But
American officials- arid41Oriauran mili-
tary sources said Mr:?Iiernandez for-
merly commanded the 316th Battalion,
an intelligence unit established by the
C.I.A. that ran several death Squads.
Despite such, acCas.atiOns Mr. -Her-
nandez has regularly been given top
jobs in .. the army ;and . was recently
promoted to lieutenant?colonel by
President Jos?zerina --Hoy? of Hon-
duras, who two. days,ago in Cotta- Rica
premised to uphold.; th4. new regional
peace treaty calling for full respect of
human rights. ? ?
civilians killed by army death squads
in Honduras from 1980 to the present.
Those 140 civilians are a small fraction
of the tens of thousands who have been
captured, tortured and killed without
trial by the armies of Brazil, Argenti-
na, Uruguay, Paraguay. Chile, Bolivia,
Peru, ;Colombia. El Salvador and
Guatemala, among other offenders, in
the wave of terrorism that has soiled
Latin America In the last two decades.
--A former Honduran Army sergeant,
Florencio Caballero, testified in earlier
proceedings in the trial here that he
was a member of an army death squad:
He then detailed his involvement in in-
terrogating civilians captured by army
death squads. He said the prisoners
were all killed.
Mr. Caballero said he was trained by
the C.I.A. to be an interrogator and he
has given-convincing ,details to back
that assertion, which American offi-
dais concede is true. Mr. Caballero
'Mid in an interview last year that he,
tiled to hide his death squad activities
from his C.I.A. advisers in Honduras,
but American officials say the C.I.A.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/16: CIA-RDP90M00005R000100130005-7
50X1 -HUM
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/16: CIA-RDP90M00005R000100130005-7
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/16: CIA-RDP90M00005R000100130005-7