Members of both the Senate and the House of Representatives have introduced bills in the 2021 Congress which would suspend U.S. military and security aid to Honduras until human rights violations cease and those responsible are brought to justice. The U.S. bears significant responsibility for the human rights crisis in Honduras and it is far past time that the U.S. stops financing, training, and backing the Honduran government’s brutal repression against the Honduran people as they struggle for self-determination and justice.
See more about each bill below and ask your Senators and Representatives to become cosponsors.
Senate
The Honduras Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Act would:
- Suspend U.S. assistance to the Honduran military and police, including U.S. military/police training and equipment, until the Honduran military and police cease committing human rights violations and those responsible for human rights violations are brought to justice. It would also prohibit exports of U.S. munitions, including semiautomatic firearms, tear gas, tasers, and more, to the Honduran military and police.
- Direct President Biden to sanction and stop supporting Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who has been named as a co-conspirator by U.S. federal prosecutors in drug trafficking cases (yet is considered a U.S. ally and is still in power due to U.S. backing).
- Support the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Office in Honduras and the creation of a United Nations anti-corruption mission in Honduras with the ability to prosecute corruption cases against high-ranking government officials (a long-time demand of Honduran civil society).
Ask your Senator to co-sponsor this bill here!
House of Representatives
The Berta Caceres Human Rights in Honduras Act, H.R. 1574, would suspend all U.S. aid to the Honduran military and police forces and instruct the U.S. to vote no on all loans to Honduras from multi-lateral development banks until:
- Those responsible for human rights violations – including the assassination of Berta Caceres, the murder of over 100 small farmer activists in the Aguan region, the murder of 22 people during state repression of protests against electoral fraud in 2017, and numerous other cases – are brought to justice.
- Human rights violations by the military and police cease.
- The military is removed from domestic policing, in accordance with the Honduran Constitution.
- Human rights defenders and activists are able to operate freely.
E-mail your Representative to co-sponsor this bill here!
