[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 388 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
<DOC>
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) introduced the
following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on
Foreign Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
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.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.
(a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Honduras Human
Rights and Anti-Corruption Act of 2021''.
(b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents for this Act is as
follows:
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 services and covered munitions items to
the Honduran police or military.
Sec. 8. Suspension and restrictions of security assistance extended to
the Republic of Honduras unless certain
conditions are met.
Sec. 9. Sunset.
SEC. 2. POLICE OR MILITARY OF THE REPUBLIC OF HONDURAS DEFINED.
In this Act, the term ``police or military of the Republic of
Honduras'' means--
(1) the Honduran National Police;
(2) the Honduran Armed Forces;
(3) the Military Police of Public Order of the Republic of
Honduras; or
(4) para-police or paramilitary elements, acting under
color of law or having received financing, training, orders,
intelligence, weapons, or other forms of material assistance
from the forces identified in paragraphs (1) through (3).
SEC. 3. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) Since the 2009 military coup, the Republic of Honduras
remains plagued by systemic corruption and human rights
violations, exemplified by--
(A) widespread collusion among government
officials, state and private security forces, organized
crime, and members of the private sector, including in
the knowledge and perpetration of physical and legal
threats, assassinations, forced disappearances, and
other abuses against human rights and environmental
defenders, members of the political opposition,
journalists, and others;
(B) the excessive use of force by members of the
police or military of the Republic of Honduras,
particularly in the context of civil society protests;
(C) the failure of the Government of Honduras to
protect the rights, interests, and physical security of
indigenous peoples in land and natural resources
disputes, in contravention of its obligations under the
Honduran constitution and under international treaties
to which it is a state party; and
(D) the failure of the Government of Honduras to
enforce the Honduran Labor Code in violation of its
obligations under International Labor Organization
Conventions, which the Government of Honduras has
ratified, guaranteeing freedom of association, the
right to collective bargaining, and other fundamental
labor protections.
(2) There is substantial evidence that President of
Honduras Juan Orlando Hernandez has engaged in a pattern of
criminal activity and use of the state apparatus to protect and
facilitate drug trafficking, as exemplified by three high-
profile corruption and drug trafficking cases that were tried
or are being prosecuted in the United States District Court for
the Southern District of New York, in which the President of
Honduras was named as a co-conspirator, including the
following:
(A) The October 2019 conviction of the President of
Honduras's brother Juan Antonio Hernandez, in which
Federal prosecutors and multiple witnesses testified
that the President of Honduras received $1,500,000 in
drug proceeds that were funneled toward his successful
2013 presidential campaign, and that organized crime
had infiltrated the Honduran National Police and
National Party.
(B) The March 2020 indictment of Geovanny Daniel
Fuentes, a drug trafficker, in which Federal
prosecutors alleged that the President of Honduras
accepted $25,000 in bribes in exchange for protecting
the defendant from law enforcement intervention against
his cocaine trafficking activities and facilitated the
use of Honduran military personnel as security for the
defendant's drug trafficking operations. On February 5,
2021, Federal prosecutors filed a court document
stating that the President of Honduras was under
investigation in connection with the case.
(C) The April 2020 indictment of former National
Director of Police Juan Carlos ``El Tigre'' Bonilla, in
which Federal prosecutors alleged that the President of
Honduras accepted bribes from drug traffickers,
facilitated multi-ton shipments of cocaine bound for
the United States, and entrusted the defendant with
special assignments, including murder.
(3) The President of Honduras has also demonstrated a track
record of contempt for the rule of law, exhibited by--
(A) his support for the 2009 military coup,
repudiated as unlawful by the United Nations, the
Organization of American States, the European Union,
and numerous foreign governments, while a member of
Congress;
(B) his support for a 2012 congressional measure,
widely viewed as illegal, to replace four Supreme Court
justices while the leader of Congress; and
(C) his 2017 candidacy for a second presidential
term, in violation of the Honduran constitution's
longstanding prohibition on presidential reelection,
which in 2015 was nullified in a ruling by the justices
referred to in subparagraph (B).
(4) In recent months, the executive and legislative
branches of the Government of Honduras have taken significant
steps to entrench corruption, block oversight by national
prosecutors and international investigators, and shield senior
officials and parliamentarians from criminal liability,
including the following actions:
(A) On January 19, 2020, the Government of Honduras
announced the closing of the Mission of Support against
Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (MACCIH), the anti-
corruption mechanism established in 2015 by the
Organization of American States and the Government of
Honduras. MACCIH brought 14 corruption-related cases
against dozens of high-profile criminal defendants and
oversaw the creation of an anti-corruption judicial
circuit and special prosecutor's unit that was
disbanded following the mission's closure.
(B) On June 25, 2020, the Government of Honduras
enacted a new penal code that reduced prison terms for
corruption-related crimes, including embezzlement,
illicit enrichment, obstruction of justice, and fraud.
The measure is retroactive, benefitting Honduran
officials already convicted or facing prosecution.
(C) On October 16, 2019, the National Congress of
Honduras passed a law that restored immunity to all
parliamentarians for crimes related to legislative
activities and a law that blocked the Attorney
General's office from investigating cases involving the
improper use of state funds for up to 7 years.
(5) These recent measures follow a longer pattern of
congressional decrees of amnesty or immunity for crimes
perpetrated by authorities in Honduras, including for those
committed during the 2009 coup and its aftermath, those
perpetrated by state security forces, and those involving the
misuse of public funds by former and current legislators,
contributing to a climate of impunity.
(6) Space for civil society to operate in the Republic of
Honduras remains severely constrained, with rights activists
and journalists subject to acute levels of violence,
surveillance, harassment, and intimidation. The Republic of
Honduras ranks as the deadliest country in the world for human
rights and environmental defenders on a per capita basis and
third in the number of assassinations, with 31 defenders killed
in 2019 and 204 defenders killed since 2009.
(7) The 2019 United States Department of State Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices, international human rights
bodies, and numerous monitoring groups have reported that the
Honduran police and military commit human rights violations
with impunity, including unlawful killings, torture, and the
use of unnecessary force and lethal weapons against protestors
and civilian bystanders. Individuals with documented records of
human rights violations and links to drug trafficking continue
to serve in high-ranking positions within the Honduran police
and military, and few of the alleged cases of human rights
abuses perpetrated by police and military personnel are
prosecuted or tried in court.
(8) The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Human Rights and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
have documented the use of arbitrary detentions, forced
disappearances, and specious judicial proceedings to
criminalize indigenous and human rights activists,
environmental defenders, journalists, opposition politicians,
and others, including--
(A) members of the Tocoa Municipal Committee for
the Defense of Common and Public Assets, who since
September 2019 have been detained pending trial
following their protest of an illegal mining concession
affecting the Guapinol and San Pedro rivers;
(B) four Afro-indigenous Garifuna land defenders,
who on July 18, 2020, were abducted from their homes
and reportedly forced into unmarked vehicles at
gunpoint by armed men in police uniforms without a
warrant and remain forcibly disappeared; and
(C) opposition lawmaker Maria Luisa Borjas, who on
July 21, 2020, was convicted of defamation and
sentenced to nearly three years in prison for naming
Ficohsa bank president Camilo Atala as an intellectual
author of the 2016 assassination of environmental and
indigenous rights activist Berta Caceres.
(9) The vilification and criminalization of civil society
actors and human rights defenders by Honduran authorities has
continued unabated under the cover of COVID-19 pandemic
response. On March 16, 2020, the Government of Honduras first
notified the Organization of American States of its derogation
from treaty obligations under the American Convention on Human
Rights and has since suspended nine constitutional guarantees,
including the rights to freedom of assembly and expression, the
latter of which was restored after international outcry. At
least 34,000 citizens have been detained for violating curfew
and lockdown restrictions, and journalists and human rights
defenders have been impeded in their efforts to report on and
expose human rights abuses during the pandemic.
SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) systemic corruption, impunity, and human rights
violations by national government officials, private citizens,
and members of the police and military of the Republic of
Honduras deplete public resources and fuel widespread
impoverishment, citizen insecurity, and forced displacement;
(2) the President should impose sanctions on President of
Honduras Juan Orlando Hernandez for acts of significant
corruption and human rights violations and determine under the
Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Sanctions Regulations under part 598
of title 31, Code of Federal Regulations, whether the President
of Honduras is a specially designated narcotics trafficker;
(3) the President and Secretary of State should seek to
ensure that security assistance from the United States and
exports of munitions by United States entities are not
complicit in human rights abuses perpetrated by the police and
military of the Government of Honduras, or misused to impede
peaceful protestors, human rights and environmental defenders,
and others from exercising the right to freedom of expression,
association, or assembly;
(4) the Government of Honduras should immediately initiate
discussions with the United Nations to negotiate the mandate
for a new, independent mechanism to combat corruption and
impunity with a mission comparable to that of MACCIH, equipped
with--
(A) the authority to initiate cases, in
coordination with the Specialized Prosecutor's Unit
against Networks of Corruption (UFERCO), against any
citizen of the Republic of Honduras, irrespective of
their office, rank, position, or title;
(B) the unimpeded authority to investigate,
including the authority to subpoena documents,
interview witnesses and suspects, and conduct
surveillance;
(C) the ability to propose laws, constitutional
amendments, and regulatory changes to the Attorney
General's office and other institutions within the
justice sector that are assured expeditious
consideration and debate by the National Congress; and
(D) the requirement to conduct regular and
transparent consultations with a broad range of civil
society members with the goal of promoting the
mandate's successful implementation;
(5) the Government of Honduras should continue to pursue
MACCIH's ongoing anti-corruption cases and adopt legal and
institutional reforms to strengthen judicial independence and
protect human rights recommended by MACCIH, the Office of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and UFERCO;
(6) the United States should support credible national and
international efforts to combat corruption and human rights
violations in the Republic of Honduras, including UFERCO, the
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights, and organizations working to defend human rights and
expose and prevent corruption, with the necessary resources for
holding private and government actors accountable under the law
and supporting independent monitoring by a free press and civil
society, provided that they demonstrate sufficient political
autonomy and willingness to prosecute high-level cases,
including against senior officials and legislators of the
Republic of Honduras; and
(7) the Secretary of State should develop, in consultation
with a broad range of representatives of civil society and
human rights organizations in Honduras, as appropriate,
comprehensive and specific guidelines to use United States
diplomacy and assistance to protect human rights and
environmental defenders in the Republic of Honduras from
physical, legal, or financial reprisals and threats, including
by government, police, and military officials or their
associates.
SEC. 5. OFFICE OF THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN
RIGHTS.
In addition to amounts otherwise appropriated for such purposes,
there is authorized to be appropriated $2,000,000 in voluntary
contributions to support the work of the Office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights in Honduras to monitor and document
human rights violations, issue public reports and recommendations, and
promote international human rights standards.
SEC. 6. IMPOSITION OF SANCTIONS WITH RESPECT TO THE PRESIDENT OF
HONDURAS.
(a) Imposition of Sanctions.--Not later than 180 days after the
date of the enactment of this Act, the President shall impose the
sanctions described in subsection (b) with respect to the President of
Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez.
(b) Sanctions Described.--The sanctions described in this
subsection are the following:
(1) Asset blocking.--The President shall exercise all of
the powers granted to the President under the International
Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) to the
extent necessary to block and prohibit all transactions in
property and interests in property of Juan Orlando Hernandez if
such property and interests in property are in the United
States, come within the United States, or are or come within
the possession or control of a United States person.
(2) Ineligibility for visas, admission, or parole.--
(A) Visas, admission, or parole.--Juan Orlando
Hernandez is--
(i) inadmissible to the United States;
(ii) ineligible to receive a visa or other
documentation to enter the United States; and
(iii) otherwise ineligible to be admitted
or paroled into the United States or to receive
any other benefit under the Immigration and
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.).
(B) Current visas revoked.--
(i) In general.--Juan Orlando Hernandez is
subject to revocation of any visa or other
entry documentation regardless of when the visa
or other entry documentation is or was issued.
(ii) Immediate effect.--A revocation under
clause (i) shall--
(I) take effect immediately; and
(II) cancel any other valid visa or
entry documentation that is in Juan
Orlando Hernandez's possession.
(c) Implementation; Penalties.--
(1) Implementation.--The President may exercise all
authorities provided under sections 203 and 205 of the
International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1702 and
1704) to the extent necessary to carry out this section.
(2) Penalties.--A person that violates, attempts to
violate, conspires to violate, or causes a violation of
subsection (b)(1), or any regulation, license, or order issued
to carry out that subsection, shall be subject to the penalties
set forth in subsections (b) and (c) of section 206 of the
International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1705) to
the same extent as a person that commits an unlawful act
described in subsection (a) of that section.
(d) Waiver.--The President may waive the application of sanctions
under this section if the President determines and certifies to the
appropriate congressional committees that such a waiver is important to
the national interest of the United States.
(e) Exceptions.--
(1) Exception to comply with international obligations and
for law enforcement activities.--Sanctions under subsection
(b)(2) shall not apply if admitting or paroling Juan Orlando
Hernandez into the United States is necessary--
(A) to permit the United States to comply with the
Agreement regarding the Headquarters of the United
Nations, signed at Lake Success June 26, 1947, and
entered into force November 21, 1947, between the
United Nations and the United States, or other
applicable international obligations; or
(B) to carry out or assist law enforcement activity
in the United States.
(2) Exception relating to the importation of goods.--
(A) In general.--The authorities and requirements
to impose sanctions authorized under this section shall
not include the authority or a requirement to impose
sanctions on the importation of goods.
(B) Good defined.--In this paragraph, the term
``good'' means any article, natural or manmade
substance, material, supply, or manufactured product,
including inspection and test equipment, and excluding
technical data.
(f) Termination of Sanctions.--The President may terminate the
application of sanctions under this section if the President determines
and reports to the appropriate congressional committees not later than
15 days before the termination takes effect that--
(1) credible information exists that Juan Orlando Hernandez
did not engage in the activity for which sanctions were
imposed;
(2) Juan Orlando Hernandez has been prosecuted
appropriately for the activity for which sanctions were
imposed; or
(3) Juan Orlando Hernandez has credibly demonstrated a
significant change in behavior, has paid an appropriate
consequence for the activity for which sanctions were imposed,
and has credibly committed to not engage in an activity for
which the sanctions were imposed in the future.
(g) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) Admission; admitted.--The terms ``admission'' and
``admitted'' have the meanings given those terms in section 101
of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101).
(2) Appropriate congressional committees.--The term
``appropriate congressional committees'' means--
(A) the Committee on Foreign Relations and the
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the
Senate; and
(B) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the
Committee on Financial Services of the House of
Representatives.
(3) United states person.--The term ``United States
person'' means--
(A) an individual who is a United States citizen or
an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence to
the United States;
(B) an entity organized under the laws of the
United States or any jurisdiction within the United
States, including a foreign branch of such an entity;
or
(C) any person in the United States.
SEC. 7. PROHIBITION ON COMMERCIAL EXPORT OF COVERED DEFENSE ARTICLES
AND SERVICES AND COVERED MUNITIONS ITEMS TO THE HONDURAN
POLICE OR MILITARY.
(a) In General.--Not later than 30 days after the date of the
enactment of this Act, the President shall prohibit the issuance of
licenses to export covered defense articles and services and covered
munitions items to the police or military of the Republic of Honduras.
(b) Termination.--The prohibition under subsection (a) shall
terminate on the date on which the President determines and reports to
the appropriate congressional committees that the police or military of
the Republic of Honduras have not engaged in gross violations during
the one-year period ending on the date of such determination.
(c) Waiver.--The prohibition under subsection (a) shall not apply
to the issuance of a license with respect to which the President
submits to the appropriate congressional committees a written
certification that the exports to be covered by such license are
important to the national interests and foreign policy goals of the
United States, including a description of the manner in which such
exports will promote such interests and goals.
(d) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) Appropriate congressional committees.--The term
``appropriate congressional committees'' means--
(A) the Committee on Foreign Relations and the
Committee on Appropriations of the Senate; and
(B) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the
Committee on Appropriations of the House of
Representatives.
(2) Covered defense articles and services.--The term
``covered defense articles and services'' means defense
articles and defense services designated by the President under
section 38(a)(1) of the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C.
2778(a)(1)).
(3) Covered munitions items.--The term ``covered munitions
items'' means tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, foam
rounds, bean bag rounds, pepper balls, water cannons,
handcuffs, shackles, stun guns, tasers, semi-automatic
firearms, and their associated munitions not included in the
definition under paragraph (2).
SEC. 8. SUSPENSION AND RESTRICTIONS OF SECURITY ASSISTANCE EXTENDED TO
THE REPUBLIC OF HONDURAS UNLESS CERTAIN CONDITIONS ARE
MET.
(a) Suspension of Security Assistance.--No assistance may be made
available for the police or military of the Republic of Honduras,
including assistance for equipment and training.
(b) Loans From Multilateral Development Banks and the United States
International Development Finance Corporation.--The Secretary of the
Treasury shall--
(1) instruct United States representatives at multilateral
development banks to use their voice and vote to oppose any
loans for the police or military of the Republic of Honduras;
and
(2) instruct the United States Executive Director of each
international financial institution and the Chief Executive
Officer of the United States International Development Finance
Corporation to promote human rights due diligence and risk
management in connection with any loan, grant, policy, or
strategy related to the Republic of Honduras, in accordance
with the criteria specified in subsection 7029(d) of the
Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
Appropriations Act, 2020 (division G of Public Law 116-94; 133
Stat. 2863) and accompanying report.
(c) Conditions for Lifting Suspensions and Restrictions.--The
provisions of this section shall terminate on the date on which the
Secretary of State determines and reports to the Committees on Foreign
Relations and Appropriations of the Senate and the Committees on
Foreign Affairs and Appropriations of the House of Representatives that
the Government of Honduras has--
(1) pursued all legal avenues to bring to trial and obtain
a verdict of all those who ordered, carried out, and covered
up--
(A) the March 2, 2016, murder of Berta Caceres;
(B) the killings of over 100 small-farmer activists
in the Aguan Valley;
(C) the killings of 22 people and forced
disappearance of 1 person by state security forces in
the context of the 2017 post-electoral crisis;
(D) the killings of at least 6 people by state
security forces in the context of anti-government
demonstrations between March and July of 2019;
(E) the killings of at least 21 journalists and
media workers between October 2016 and July 2020;
(F) the July 18, 2020, forced disappearances of 4
Garifuna community leaders from Triunfo de la Cruz; and
(G) the December 26, 2020, killing of indigenous
Lenca leader and environmental activist Felix Vasquez
at his home in La Paz, and the December 29, 2020,
killing of indigenous Tolupan leader and environmental
activist Adan Mejia in Yoro;
(2) investigated and successfully prosecuted members of
military and police forces who are credibly found to have
violated human rights and ensured that the military and police
cooperated in such cases, and that such violations have ceased;
(3) withdrawn the military from domestic policing and
ensured that all domestic police functions are separated from
the command and control of the Armed Forces of Honduras and are
instead directly responsible to civilian authority;
(4) established that it protects effectively the rights of
trade unionists, journalists, small farmers, human rights and
environmental defenders, indigenous and Afro-indigenous
community members and rights activists, women's and LGBTQI
rights activists, critics of the government, and other members
of civil society to operate without interference or repression;
and
(5) taken effective steps to establish the rule of law and
to guarantee a judicial system that is capable of
investigating, prosecuting, and bringing to justice members of
the police and military who have committed human rights abuses.
SEC. 9. SUNSET.
This Act shall terminate on the date that is 5 years after the date
of the enactment of this Act.
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