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Frontline Report: Civil Society Essential To Institutional Strengthening In Honduras
Dec 11, 2016
An “on-the-ground” perspective from Honduras’ leading civil society organization working on matters of anti-corruption and citizen security
DECEMBER 2016
Honduras saw measurable advances in security and transparency in 2016, giving the country reasons for hope.
PUBLIC SECURITY:
- After peaking at 86.5 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2011, Honduras’ homicide rate decreased to under 60 per 100,000 in 2016. In the past year, crime victimization has also decreased from 20.5% to 16.4%.
- 17 drug-traffickers involved in organized crime were arrested and extradited to the United States in 2016. Five of these individuals were former police officers.
EDUCATION:
- Honduran schools met for 200 days for the fourth consecutive year after ten years of averaging only 120 days of school per year.
- A 2014 UNESCO study showed Honduran children’s mathematics scores improved by five places in Latin American standardized test rankings [i].
HEALTH:
- The Honduran government invited the United Nations to purchase medicines on its behalf, significantly reducing opportunities for corruption and ensuring more medicines are available in Honduran hospitals.
POLICE REFORM:
- 1,678 corrupt police officers have been removed from the Honduran National Police, including two-thirds of the highest-ranking officers.
As significant as these developments are, they have been overshadowed by emblematic cases of corruption and violence:
- Renowned environmental activist Berta Cáceres was murdered in March. While six arrests have been made in the case, the intellectual authors of the crime remain at large.
- The pilfering of hundreds of millions of dollars from the Honduran Social Security Institute has resulted in multiple arrests, but just one guilty sentence. The majority of suspects are still awaiting trial.
- The President’s push to run for re-election under a new Constitutional Amendment has raised questions about the legality of the move and the intentions of the party in power.
These emblematic cases illustrate a history of weakness in Honduran public institutions. International aid packages tend to respond to this weakness by overemphasizing the role that governments and international cooperation play in strengthening Honduran institutions. However, recent achievements in Honduras have largely been due to an increasingly active civil society that is working to strengthen Honduran institutions and transform Honduran society. The US should increase support for civil society’s work in these areas. In doing so, the benefit will be felt not only in Honduras, but also throughout the complex chain of commerce, drugs, and migrants that tie the two countries together.
CIVIL SOCIETY EFFORTS COMBAT CORRUPTION IN HONDURAS
- Civil society coalition Transformemos Honduras has led investigations into the Department of Education and the Department of Health since 2010, prompting significant improvements in the sectors’ transparency and effectiveness
- Civil society’s pressure, underscored by thousands of Hondurans taking to the streets to protest corruption, resulted in an independent, international oversight body that will investigate high-level cases of corruption
EDUCATION
A series of investigations dating back to 2011 revealed that 26% of public school teachers in Honduras were in fact “ghost teachers” who did nothing more than collect a paycheck [ii]. Because of Transformemos Honduras’s reports, support, and advocacy, the following year less than 1% of teachers on the payroll were missing from the classroom.
In addition, before 2013, children attending public schools were receiving fewer than 120 days of class a year (despite Honduran law requiring 200 days of class a year). This contributed to Honduras receiving the worst standardized test scores in Central America. Transformemos Honduras’s civil society coalition mobilized citizen volunteers to track school days across the country, and as a consequence, children have received at least 200 days of class for four consecutive years, and standardized tests scores in math and reading have improved by five places in Latin American rankings [iii].
HEALTH
In Honduras’ weak public health sector, investigation by civil society coalition Transformemos Honduras, alongside member organization Association for a More Just Society (ASJ, formerly known as AJS), revealed falsified medicine orders, ransacked medicine warehouses, and elites illegally peddling influence to win lucrative government contracts. Transformemos Honduras and ASJ recommended detailed improvements, and the department has responded with a marked increase in transparency and accountability.
- The health sector has adopted a fiduciary trust overseen by the United Nations Office for Project Services and monitored by ASJ to manage medicine purchasing. This trust increases transparency and social oversight and assures lower-cost and higher-quality medicine.
- Fifty-nine people, including the former minister of health, are facing criminal charges related to corruption in the public health sector.
- The government has increased its investment in medicines and health care equipment by 50%, allowing for greater coverage of care.
TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENT
Since 2013, the
Transparency International chapter in Honduras, the
Association for a More Just Society
(ASJ), has pressed the Honduran government to commit to a comprehensive audit of its most corruptible institutions. Immediately after his inauguration on January 28, 2014, President Hernandez signed a document committing his government to ASJ’s external evaluation and monitoring [iv]. Benchmark performance and transparency scores have already been delivered for the departments of Education, Security, Health, Infrastructure, and Property Registration, summarized below:
These scores represent the percentage of compliance with transparency and management standards laid out in Honduran law. In other words, the Infrastructure Sector was only complying with 25.7% of legislation regarding purchasing, human resources, access to information, and other indicators.
Each institution, in response to the benchmark score, has created a detailed plan for improvement under the supervision of ASJ, who tracks the institutions’ advancement along selected metrics. This public accountability has led to the removal of “ghost” employees, increased vigilance in purchasing and contracts, and improved data collection and management.
MACCIH
The MACCIH was born out of citizen outrage at the embezzlement of $200 million from Honduras’ Social Security Institute. Thousands of Hondurans marched in the streets demanding an independent, international investigative body similar to Guatemala’s lauded CICIG, and ASJ and other members of civil society offered detailed proposals for the institution. In April 2016, the Honduran government and the Organization of American States (OAS) responded with the “Support Mission against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras” or MACCIH.
Though still in its infancy, MACCIH shows promise in investigating and prosecuting corruption and pushing for institutional reforms [v]. It has partnered with ASJ to create independent anti-corruption courts, intended to insulate high-profile cases from political influence. In addition, in the past few months, MACCIH has successfully advocated for political campaign finance reform, and has offered support and expertise to initiatives such as the selection of judges and ongoing police purging and restructuring.
TOP-DOWN REFORM GENERATES A MORE TRUSTWORTHY HONDURAN POLICE
- The President of Honduras has appointed a seven-member Commission (including four civil society leaders) to purge and restructure the Honduran National Police Force
- In seven months, 1,678 officers, two-thirds of the 2,500 evaluated, have been removed from the force
- The Police Reform Commission has begun laying the groundwork for widespread institutional reform
On April 5, 2016, Honduran newspaper El Heraldo revealed that top-ranking generals of the Honduran National Police Force had planned the assassinations of two anti-drug officials in 2009 and 2011, financed by drug kingpin Wilter Blanco [vi]. Days later, the New York Times published the names of all 27 police officers involved, most of whom were still serving in active leadership roles in the police [vii]. The revelations sparked public outrage, and added fuel to the fire of civil society’s long-term advocacy for police reform.
In response to the public outcry, President Hernandez appointed seven individuals to a special commission for the purging and restructuring of the Honduran National Police force. Four of the seven are members of civil society, and all are volunteers. The Commission operates without a budget from the state but receives aid from international and local backers, including the US embassy and ASJ.
This is not the Honduran government’s first effort to clean up the National Police. Several police reforms have been attempted, but have been characterized by gross overspending and little
- Previous attempts to purge the police managed the removal of just 227 officers at a cost of $9.5 million.
- By contrast, with no additional budget from the state, the current Police Reform Commission has evaluated over 2,500 members of the force, including every high-ranking official, and has fired 1,678 for corruption or failure to meet institutional standards. Of those fired, 364 were high-ranking officials, including six of the nine police generals. Each officer has been removed in strict compliance with labor laws to avoid the potential of any officer suing to be reinstated.
NEXT STEPS
The firing of corrupt police is just the beginning of the Commission’s work. In addition to evaluating the remaining 9,000 entry-level officers, the reformers will begin to shift their focus towards creating a new and more transparent police force.
- The police force will be restructured, removing redundant or vague positions
- All remaining officers will be re-trained and recertified
- Over the next five years, the force will be doubled in size, bringing the number of police officers in line with standards recommended by the UN
- All new officers will be hired competitively and trained at revamped police academies
- Improved compensation will help incentivize high-quality applicants, and reduce the temptation for extortion and bribery
- The restructuring process will also address the administration of legal, financial, and human resources sectors within the police, implementing new structures of accountability
The continued implementation of police reforms in Honduras will require sustained political will, an increased budget, and substantial international mentoring and cooperation; however, advances to date give much reason for hope. In seven months, the Police Reform Commission has removed more high-ranking officers than 16 years of previous efforts, and have proposed reforms that, if implemented, will turn the National Police into a stable and trustworthy institution.
ALLIANCE FOR PROSPERITY ENCOURAGES INSTITUTIONAL STRENGTHENING
- $750 million in aid through the Alliance for Prosperity (A4P) could significantly reduce violence, corruption, and undocumented migration in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador
- Civil society’s involvement in the implementation of A4P will help ensure the effectiveness and transparency of aid to Honduras
The Alliance for Prosperity bill is a unique opportunity to incentivize change in key challenge areas in vulnerable Central American countries through targeted conditional aid. Last month, the US State Department certified that Honduras had demonstrated sufficient advances in meeting these conditions, citing examples such as the following:
- Combatting Corruption: Honduras’ Attorney General’s office convicted 19 former government officials of corruption in 2016, twice as many as the previous eight years combined.
- Strengthening Institutions: The government increased investment in the AG’s office by 25% from 2015 to 2016. In addition, a collaboration with MACCIH will create a “new, insulated court system with vetted personnel to prosecute public corruption cases.”
- Countering Criminal Activities: In the past year, Honduras has extradited to the United States 17 high-profile individuals involved in drug trafficking or organized crime. Investigative bodies have also seized millions of dollars in assets from major drug-traffickers and transnational gangs.
- Establishing Oversight Entity: The Honduran government created the A4P Consultative Council to encourage public participation in the execution of A4P programs, especially from civil society organizations. ASJ is a part of this council, which will help ensure that US funds reach the most vulnerable populations in Honduras in a transparent manner.
Measureable successes such as these are indications that further conditional aid can continue to strengthen Honduran public institutions, reducing violence and corruption. However, Honduran civil society will be key to the successful delivery of this aid.
A4P requires effective evaluation and monitoring mechanisms at both national and regional levels to ensure that its implementation is transparent, accountable, and responsive to the real needs of the population. This task is uniquely suited for nongovernmental organizations and civil society coalitions who have been supporting Honduran government institutions and holding them accountable for many years.
In the future, the US Congress and State Department should coordinate with civil society organizations, providing funds through A4P as well as incorporating them into government oversight. Worthy institutions include:
- The National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH), particularly their independent violence observatory
- The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA)’s Central American aid monitoring program
- Chapters of anti-corruption organization Transparency International in the three countries:
- Association for a More Just Society in Honduras
- Acción Ciudadana in Guatemala
- Fundación Nacional para el Desarrollo (FUNDE) in El Salvador
As a member of the A4P Consultative Council in Honduras, ASJ is well aware of the potential for transformation that this alliance offers. The $750 million represents more than aid to this region; with its potential to reduce crime and violence and revitalize economies, it is also an investment in a safer and more stable continent. For this investment to reap its full benefits, the US Congress should push the State Department to look beyond traditional partners within governments and international organizations and look to the local leaders who have been leading the charge on security and transparency for decades.
The Association for a More Just Society (Asociación para una Sociedad más Justa) is a Honduran NGO with more than 18 years of experience working on issues of violence and corruption in Honduras; ASJ is a leader in national Honduran coalitions, including the influential Alliance for Peace and Justice and Transformemos Honduras.
[ii] http://asjhonduras.com/ti-asj/resultados-secretaria-de-educacion-2/english-version/
[iv] http://asjhonduras.com/webhn/convenio-asj-ti/
[v] http://www.oas.org/es/sap/dsdme/maccih/new/reformas.asp
Dear Friend, When I started as Executive Director at ASJ-US last October, I had many questions. How do I print to the office printer? What’s that password? Where’s the office coffee pot? What’s that password again? With a little over six months on the job now, I’ve had a lot of these early questions answered (blessedly, I found the coffee pot right away). There is one question, though, that I’ve become fixated on: What might Honduras look like 25 years from now because of the work of ASJ? It’s a big question. Sometimes, my present feels so full that it’s hard enough to even imagine what’s for dinner. But with some effort and creativity, I can catch glimpses of what this future can look like.
Why Justice Matters To Me: Omar Hernández
Mario the Bus Driver
ASJ’ Work Building a Safe Home Brave Christians working for justice in Honduras.
In recent issues of Justicia, we have shared about the melodies that inspire us to continue working for justice and why our staff call Honduras home . In this issue, we want to share with you what it means for Hondurans to build a safe home. We often see many people leaving other countries and coming to the US, searching for a better life. Although immigration is a complex topic, we understand there are always push and pull factors that motivate people living anywhere to either leave or stay in their home countries. Extortion in Honduras is one of the most pressing push factors displacing people from their homes. Gangs have been the traditional perpetrators of this crime. It’s so common Hondurans have a colloquial name for it: the “war tax.” Typically, extortionists will force business owners like bus and taxi owners, produce vendors, restaurant owners, and other members of the community to pay them a recurring fee under the threat of committing acts of violence against them or people they love if they fail to pay. Over 200,000 Honduran households are forced to pay extortion fees every year. On my first visit to Honduras as Executive Director in January, I witnessed the tremendous beauty of the country and its people. I also learned about the challenges Hondurans face. These two realities–beauty and challenge–exist side by side. But what we hear most clearly every day at ASJ from our Honduran friends and partners is how much they love their home. Many Honduran immigrants will say they would have stayed if they had felt safe enough to stay–if they knew their businesses could thrive and they could raise their children in peace. Staying true to our mission of being brave Christians, ASJ has been investigating the topic of extortion and developing proposals for how to address it in Honduras. With our work, we aim to build a safer Honduras for people like Mario, whose story you will read in this issue. As Mario will tell you, there is no place like home, and we are honored to participate in this work of building a safe home alongside our Honduran brothers and sisters.
November 2023 through January 2024
Hi Friend, It’s hard to do justice to the view of the mountains surrounding the town of La Union. Words (and even pictures) don’t quite capture it. I had caught glimpses of its panoramic majesty during the steep uphill drive into the mountain range the evening before, but its full beauty only hit me the next day. The morning had started with some cows in the dark and a handful of men coaxing milk from grateful udders. After the jugs had all been filled, a new task presented itself. A group of cattle had broken out of their enclosure on the other side of town and would need to be driven back. I mounted my horse, looking more at ease in the well-worn saddle than I felt, and joined the procession through the town's streets to the pasture where the cattle belonged. When we rounded the corner, my breath caught in my chest. “Pasture,” it transpired, meant something different here than it did to my Midwest mind. Rather than flat grassland, we found ourselves on a gently sloping hillside with a soaring vista of the surrounding mountains dotted with lavish forests, coffee fields, and other grazing livestock. Thousands of feet of ancient elevation pulsing with beauty and life. I couldn’t stop staring.
English ASJ-US calls for the Honduran government to protect and promote a strong civil society. ASJ-US expresses concern over continuing and escalating intimidation against non-governmental organizations that advocate for effective and transparent governance. In particular, it calls attention to attacks against ASJ-Honduras following the release of Transparency International’s annual report on the perception of corruption, which disclosed the country's stagnation in the fight against corruption, lack of accountability and high impunity. For over twenty five years, ASJ-US has supported ASJ-Honduras’s work on behalf of the most vulnerable Hondurans. Inspired by the commitment of brave Hondurans to advocate for justice, ASJ-US has provided financial support, including the full funding for ASJ-Honduras’s offices that opened in 2020. ASJ-US will continue to stand beside ASJ-Honduras’s work identifying areas needing improved government accountability and solutions to bring about that accountability. The independent and non-partisan monitoring and advocacy provided by ASJ-Honduras and Transparency International are essential to protect the interests of the Honduran people. Attacks and restrictions on civil society organization stifle the robust dialogue and engagement of the Honduran people essential to ensure a transparent government that meets the needs of the electorate. ASJ-US calls on the Honduran government to work with ASJ-Honduras to address the public’s concerns about impunity and corruption identified in the Transparency International report. Español ASJ-US pide al gobierno hondureño que proteja y promueva una sociedad civil fuerte. ASJ-US expresa su preocupación por la continua y creciente intimidación contra las organizaciones no gubernamentales que abogan por una gobernanza eficaz y transparente. En particular, llama la atención sobre los ataques contra ASJ-Honduras tras la publicación del informe anual de Transparencia Internacional sobre la percepción de la corrupción, que reveló el estancamiento del país en la lucha anticorrupción, rendición de cuentas y alta impunidad. Durante más de veinticinco años, ASJ-US ha apoyado el trabajo de ASJ-Honduras a favor de los hondureños más vulnerables. Inspirados por el compromiso de los valientes hondureños quienes abogan por la justicia, ASJ-US ha proporcionado apoyo financiero, incluyendo el financiamiento completo de las oficinas de ASJ-Honduras que se abrieron en 2020. ASJ-US continuará al lado del trabajo de ASJ-Honduras identificando áreas que necesitan una mejor rendición de cuentas del gobierno y soluciones para lograr esa rendición de cuentas. El monitoreo independiente y no partidista y la incidencia que proporcionan ASJ-Honduras y Transparencia Internacional son esenciales para proteger los intereses del pueblo hondureño. Los ataques y las restricciones a las organizaciones de la sociedad civil ahogan el diálogo sólido y la participación del pueblo hondureño necesarios para garantizar un gobierno transparente que satisfaga las necesidades del electorado. ASJ-US hace un llamado al gobierno hondureño para que colabore con ASJ-Honduras a fin de abordar las preocupaciones de la población sobre la impunidad y la corrupción identificadas en el informe de Transparencia Internacional.
On January 30th, 2024, ASJ unexpectedly became the target of a ferocious attack by the Honduran government—an attack that is escalating and has put ASJ and our staff at risk. I am writing to ask you to raise your voice in prayer, support, and advocacy as we determine how to best respond to this situation while continuing to work for justice in Honduras. The Situation: ASJ has the honor of being the Honduran chapter of Transparency International (TI), which produces the most influential corruption index in the world. On Tuesday, January 30, ASJ held a press conference to share Honduras’ ranking in the index published by TI early that morning (Honduras' rank had stayed the same as the previous year--154th out of 180 countries). Government officials, furious that Honduras’ ranking had not improved, immediately began to threaten ASJ and our staff in the media. First, the president of Congress, in his opening session of the year, said that “there would be consequences” for ASJ’s report. An hour later, another high-level official warned that “ASJ’s days are numbered.” On Wednesday, the minister of transparency announced that government authorities “would definitely be taking legal action against ASJ.” This is certainly not the first time that ASJ has been attacked and threatened for speaking up and telling the truth. We know from long experience that doing justice makes those who abuse their power angry. But this is the first time these attacks are coming directly from the Honduran government, which has the power to use legal and physical force to intimidate and silence its critics and seems increasingly willing to do so. The government’s threats are a stark example of the threats to democracy that are increasing around the world. We are taking these threats seriously and doing everything we can to ensure that our justice work continues uninterrupted. My friend and co-director, Carlos Hernandez, reminds us often that “Truth has power.” At ASJ we are committed to telling the truth —through our investigations and our press conferences. It is how we carry out God’s call to do justice for those most vulnerable, and it is not negotiable. But we know we cannot do this alone, especially in these moments. Our staff is always encouraged and sustained by the knowledge that thousands of people around the world care about what happens in Honduras and walk alongside them as they do this difficult work. Here are three ways you can stand with us today: Pray for wisdom as we respond to this threat, for the safety of our staff, and for a path forward as we continue our work. Sign up for prayer alerts here . Support us financially as we increase security measures in Honduras to make sure our staff stays safe during this volatile time. Call your congressional representative to tell them what is happening and urge them to speak out against the attacks against ASJ and against the Honduran government's increasing disregard for democratic rule. You can enter your zip code here to find your representative's office phone number. Feel free to use this script as a guide: My name is [NAME], and I am a constituent from [CITY]. I’m calling to tell you about very concerning attacks on a civil society organization that I support in Honduras called the Association for a More Just Society. Simply for publishing an independent report on corruption in the country, they are now being threatened and attacked by the Honduran government. Please do all you can to speak out against this abuse of power and to support civil society—in Honduras and around the world. Thank you for standing with us!
“At its simplest, justice is the way God intended for things to be.” -Kyle Meyaard-Schaap
Association for a More Just Society - U.S. (ASJ-US)
PO Box 888631, Grand Rapids, MI 49588
| info@asj-us.org | 1 (800) 897-1135
ASJ (formerly known as AJS) changed our name in 2021 to reflect our partnership with Honduras and our Honduran roots. Learn more.
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