The body, known as the Mission of Support Against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (MACCIH, by its Spanish initials), will be comprised of international prosecutors, criminal investigators, and judges who will oversee a group of Honduran counterparts in high-profile corruption cases. Convictions in such cases are key to solving other challenges in Honduras, including persistent violence.
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Frontline Report: The Civil Society Movements Promoting Positive Change In Honduras
Apr 20, 2016
An “on-the-ground” perspective from Honduras’ leading civil society organization working on matters of anti-corruption and citizen security
THE CIVIL SOCIETY MOVEMENTS PROMOTING POSITIVE CHANGE IN HONDURAS
Early 2016 brought sweeping developments that will likely shape Honduras for many years to come — developments that will affect efforts to confront Honduras’ persistent challenges of violence and corruption, plus their byproduct: migration to the U.S.
Corruption is an obstinate problem in Honduras — one that has received significant international attention. Recent, major scandals include millions of dollars stolen from the Honduran Social Security Institute (a portion going to the ruling party’s election efforts). As a part of the worldwide FIFA scandal, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted a former Honduran president. A former vice-president faces extradition to the U.S. for laundering drug money, and a Congressional leader is facing charges for running a corrupt pharmaceutical company. Thousands of citizens have taken to the streets across the country to demand action, inciting government measures that include indictments in corruption cases and agreeing to the MACCIH (mentioned below).
This edition of the Honduras Frontline Report looks at how the international community, Honduran civil society, and the Honduran government have responded to these issues. It also explains some of the broader context surrounding the issues, including a newly-elected Supreme Court.
This is a hopeful moment for Honduras. Although ugly corruption scandals and partisan political fighting have dominated headlines, there is an even more powerful story coming out of Honduran civil society. Momentum is swelling among civil society groups, including the Association for a More Just Society (ASJ, formerly known as AJS), to reform a government and economy undermined by corruption and violence. For an example of this momentum, see the last article in this report, which focuses on unprecedented efforts by civil society to investigate strategic departments of the Honduran government and to hold those departments accountable to outlines for improvement.
There are encouraging signs of change on the part of the government. In addition to the initiatives laid out in this report, one particularly encouraging change is the country’s decline in homicides — a drop of 31 percent in three years. In the last two years, the Attorney General’s office has won 26 guilty verdicts in corruption cases — an amount equal to about half the entire cases won during the previous 19 years put together. The 11 extraditions of key drug traffickers to the U.S. is helping to dismantle organized crime. Civil society has specifically focused on these areas (homicide reduction, using extradition, and reaching guilty verdicts in corruption cases). These and other examples point to a Honduras that is headed for change.
The U.S. has recently increased its aid to Honduras, a step ASJ actively supported and a step in the right direction, as long as the aid incorporates rigorous accountability and transparency measures plus the input of Honduran civil society groups. Disengaging from Honduras now because of corruption and violence would be a major misstep [1]. This is exactly the time to be active in monitoring and supporting efforts by citizens and civil society to transform Honduras.
This Honduras Frontline Report provides information on the following important events relating to the fight against corruption and violence:
- Anti-Corruption Body Established Through Cooperation of OAS and Honduran Gov’t
- U.S.-Supported Alliance for Prosperity Depends on Civil Society Participation
- Strenuous Honduran Supreme Court Election Points to Challenges, Opportunities, and Optimism
- Anti-Corruption Investigations Spur Reforms Crucial for U.S. Assistance
ANTI-CORRUPTION BODY ESTABLISHED THROUGH COOPERATION OF OAS AND HONDURAN GOV’T
An important new agreement signed in January by Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández and the Organization of American States (OAS) established a new anti-corruption body to investigate corruption and audit the Honduran justice system
The MACCIH is strengthened by important powers that ASJ believes must be protected by the Honduran government in order for the MACCIH to have success. These powers include guaranteed access to any official document, confidentiality, and the freedom to select cases. Additionally, the government commits itself to resolving any obstacles the MACCIH encounters in carrying out its investigations. The MACCIH has the power to withdraw if the government ceases to collaborate.
Another encouraging component of the MACCIH is the individual who will head the mission as its spokesperson: Juan Federico Jimenez Mayor, a former Peruvian prime minister, minister of justice and human rights, and constitutional law expert who has advised widely in judicial and legal reform throughout Latin America [2].
It is important to note a few concerns. The Honduran body will not be able to act as co-plaintiff in judicial proceedings. Also, there are seven entities within the MACCIH that will audit security and justice institutions and propose reforms; these efforts can distract from the main goal of producing guilty sentences for acts of corruption, a key to winning the support of the Honduran population. Finally, the expressed power to interview any state or military official was removed from the final draft of the MACCIH’s mandate, weakening its investigative capacities.
While it is no panacea, the MACCIH merits support from the international community as it undertakes its difficult work. It is too early to tell if the MACCIH will achieve its stated goals, but it will provide a kind of international help and expertise that is unprecedented in Honduras. As such, ASJ — an organization that has been working against corruption in Honduras since 1998 — has high expectations for this show of support. ASJ will deliver 150 of its own investigative files from the past ten years to the MACCIH and will monitor the body’s progress. ASJ is committed to both providing all support possible for the mission’s success and pressuring the group to ensure the demands of the Honduran people are met.
U.S.-SUPPORTED ALLIANCE FOR PROSPERITY DEPENDS ON CIVIL SOCIETY PARTICIPATION
The omnibus appropriations bill for 2016 passed by the U.S. Congress in December contained a much needed $750 million slated for Central America in support of the Alliance for Prosperity in the Northern Triangle of Central America (APP). Of the funds, $98 million was designated for Honduras, which will also benefit from the $416 million slated for regional initiatives.
It is difficult to overstate the importance of involving Honduran nongovernmental groups in monitoring the effectiveness of this aid to Honduras. The U.S. aid increase to Central America is substantial: the $750 million for FY 2016 equals about half of all assistance to Central America from the U.S. and the Millennium Challenge Corporation in the last 10 years [3]. Through working with Honduran civil society to design and monitor projects, this new funding will have a significantly greater impact compared to the limited results of past U.S. efforts [4] Particularly important is collaborating with civil society on government accountability and anti-corruption efforts, to protect aid from being siphoned off [5].
ASJ will be part of a committee to oversee the Honduran government’s implementation and monitoring of the APP funding. According to the U.S. Congress, civil society organizations must be consulted in the design and evaluation of the activities of the plan, with 50 percent of the funding being contingent on this and other stipulations, including curtailing the use of the military in internal policing, increasing the capacity and independence of the Attorney General’s office, and effectively prosecuting corrupt officials [6]. To ensure the most effective use of U.S. taxpayer dollars and compliance with Congress’ conditions, the U.S. must consistently demand that the Honduran government heeds ASJ input and accountability efforts.
Partnering with ASJ is advantageous because ASJ has already achieved key anti-corruption wins in Honduras. ASJ uncovered 15,000 false teachers on the Ministry of Education’s payroll, which led to the resignation of a former secretary of education. ASJ uncovered irregularities in government medication purchases, which led to the arrest of the former vice president of congress. As mentioned later on in this document, ASJ is auditing the Honduran government to root out corruption in the government’s public contracts, human resource management, and transparency efforts.
The U.S. can be optimistic about the Alliance for Prosperity. ASJ applauds the U.S.’s increased commitment to Central America’s democracy, security, and economic development.
STRENUOUS HONDURAN SUPREME COURT ELECTION POINTS TO CHALLENGES, OPPORTUNITIES, AND OPTIMISM
An effective and principled Honduran Supreme Court is crucial to curbing corruption, and the court’s decisions have a domino effect that impacts many other issues, including violence [7]. Unfortunately, the Honduran Judicial Branch has defiantly rejected reforms to halt corruption and inefficiency in the courts. This is why ASJ dedicated extensive attention to the election of the new Honduran Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court selection process involved narrowing the field of 200 candidates in several rounds until 45 final candidates remained; from those 45 candidates, the Honduran Congress approved 15 justices for seven-year terms.
Civil society was one of six groups that nominated candidates and helped winnow them down. Thus, civil society leaders were not only observers but active participants who helped in trying to shape a qualified court.
During the months-long selection process for the justices, ASJ conducted a series of investigations into the candidates and built a merits ranking system in collaboration with the Due Process of Law Foundation [8,9]. These studies were shared through both traditional means and social media. This included a dedicated website — where other information about the candidates was also available, including how 24 of the final 98 candidates were flagged by the U.S. Embassy for possible connections to organized crime.
The final selection was a heated and messy process. Partisan fighting broke out, and the election dragged on for an unprecedented three weeks and six voting sessions. Opposition parties accused the traditional parties of trying to pass a flawed and non-representational court, while the traditional parties returned fire with accusations of obstructing a Constitutional process in exchange for bargaining power. The 15 justices who were finally selected are a mixed bag of qualified and unqualified individuals —including one from the U.S. Embassy’s watchlist.
Despite these negatives, there is still optimism about the new court. Without the efforts of ASJ and other civil society actors, the selection would almost certainly have been significantly worse. The process was an important exercise in civil society pushing back against powerful groups and greatly increasing transparency.
Another positive is that the new chief justice of the court takes up the gavel directly after leading the Attorney General’s staff of public prosecutors — an office that pursued significant cases against powerful drug traffickers. His first action was to investigate and release findings that a member of the Council of the Judiciary received an egregious $21 thousand annual travel allowance and that the Council had named 35 relatives to government positions near the end of the previous justices’ term [10, 11].
The court will be under heavy scrutiny and pressure to reform. This pressure will come from Honduran civil society (especially ASJ) and from the international community — including through the MACCIH and the Alliance for Prosperity (both mentioned in sections above).
For Honduran and international observers of the Honduran judicial system, ASJ recommends paying particular attention to the system’s efforts to overcome politicization and to resolve cases in a timely manner — an issue that depends on increasing the quantity and quality of judges and courts.
ANTI-CORRUPTION INVESTIGATIONS SPUR REFORMS CRUCIAL FOR U.S. ASSISTANCE
Corruption significantly undermines efforts to build a more secure and prosperous Honduras. Seeking to curb this corruption, a co-initiative from ASJ and Transparency International (TI) has generated a significant amount of attention inside and outside of Honduras with its monitoring of strategic areas of the Honduran government [12].
In October 2014, TI and ASJ (TI’s Honduran chapter), signed an agreement with Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández to open up the government’s books for ASJ and TI to scrutinize. This was a major development, the first time TI had ever signed an agreement with a national government that voluntarily consented to such an examination without other incentives. The agreement targets five government sectors: education, health, tax administration, infrastructure, and security; it specifically focuses on human resources and purchases/contracts — areas that are especially vulnerable to corruption [13].
The TI/ASJ team released the first reports from the agreement in November 2015. The reports focused on the departments of education and security, with each receiving failing grades of 31 percent and 28 percent, respectively, in their handling of purchases, contracts, and HR. Among the findings: secretive contract procedures, important files destroyed or missing, and staff hired despite failing aptitude tests.14 In response, the ministers of the Department of Education and the Department of Security each presented detailed improvement plans.
Such stinging scores were obviously not the intent of the government when it agreed to this oversight. Their continued cooperation indicates serious political will to bring about further transparency and accountability in the government.
Two more reports will be released this March, and follow-up reports every six months will ensure that ministers are held accountable for the improvements they promise.
In sum, reasons for hope. The MACCIH is bringing international attention to Honduras, and the Alliance for Prosperity is promising new international funds; this kind of outside accountability is timely and necessary.15 Additional resources must be safeguarded by substantial scrutiny and oversight, especially from Honduran civil society. As civil society gains strength in Honduras and takes on a crucial watchdog role, it fortifies participatory democracy, improves citizen security institutions, and loosens the grip of violence and corruption.
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.
ASJ projects include:
- Curbing homicides in vulnerable neighborhoods through offering support to community members and trustworthy police
- Investigations and advocacy in government security practices
- Managing a hotline and smartphone app for citizens to report corruption
- Defending land rights
- Legal assistance to poor Hondurans
- Investigative journalism
- Organizing citizen corruption reports in public education and health systems
- “An Open Letter to the US Congress: Increasing Aid to Honduras is Prudent and Opportune, if Properly Focused and Accountable — A Honduran Civil Society Perspective.”
- “Profile: Peruvian Prime Minister Juan Jimenez Mayor – BBC News.” BBC News. July 24, 2012. Accessed March 10, 2016.
- “U.S. Strategy for Engagement in Central America.”
- Korthuis, Aaron. “CARSI in Honduras.” Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. September 2014
- “An Open Letter to the US Congress: Increasing Aid to Honduras is Prudent and Opportune, if Properly Focused and Accountable — A Honduran Civil Society Perspective.”
- H.R.2029 – Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016.
- “Selección De Magistrados a La Corte Suprema De Honduras.” American Bar Association. January 21, 2016.
- Parsons, Katerina. “In Honduras’ Supreme Court Elections, Civil Society Shows Its Strength.” Justice in the Americas. February 19, 2016. Accessed March 10, 2016.
- Aberle, Niko. “#Judileaks: Ranking the Best and the Worst Honduran Supreme Court Candidates.” Justice in the Americas. February 09, 2016. Accessed March 10, 2016.
- “Piñata: Concejal Gastó 480 mil Lempiras en Viáticos y otro Nombró 15 parientes en cargos”. Proceso Digital. March 1, 2016. Accessed March 9, 2016.
- “Familiones, Aumentos Selectivos, y Festín de Bonos entre Concejales.” El Heraldo. March 1, 2016. Accessed March 11, 2016.
- Biden, Joseph R. “Joe Biden: A Plan for Central America.” The New York Times. January 29, 2015. Accessed March 10, 2016.
- “Big News: Honduran Government Agrees to ASJ Monitoring.” Big News: Honduran Government Agrees to ASJ Monitoring. Accessed March 10, 2016.
- “TI-ASJ Resultados.” Asociación Para Una Sociedad Más Justa. Accessed March 10, 2016.
- “An Open Letter to the US Congress: Increasing Aid to Honduras is Prudent and Opportune, if Properly Focused and Accountable — A Honduran Civil Society Perspective.”
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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