HONDURAS: ‘Faceless Judges’ Proposed in Narco-Military Scandal

By Thelma Mejía Reprint | | Print |

Thelma Mejia

TEGUCIGALPA, Jun 23 1998 (IPS) - The proposal by the Honduran government’s top anti-drugs official to create “faceless judges” to hear drug trafficking cases received the support of the Supreme Court.

Gladys Caballero, the president of the National Commission against Drug Trafficking and one of the country’s three vice- presidents, said it was time to “create faceless judges, because everything indicates that the tracks of narco-activity lead to important figures in this country.”

The Commission held an emergency meeting Monday to discuss a chain of murders committed in the northern town of Tocoa which revealed military and police involvement with drug traffickers.

Investigations by the office of the public prosecutor and police found that high-level army officers participated in the murders of seven alleged drug traffickers in Tocoa between Jun. 5 and 7.

Prominent ranchers and businessmen were also found to be involved in criminal activity in that area as well as along the Atlantic coast, one of the corridors used to smuggle drugs from South to North America.

One of the businessmen taken into custody, Juan Ramon Hernandez, revealed his close ties to police and military who had issued him documents that identified him as a “collaborator” in order to ensure him impunity.

“The events in Tocoa indicate that drug trafficking is well entrenched in this country, and that it is necessary to protect the judges who hear the cases, due to the risk that they could be murdered or intimidated in order to obstruct investigations,” said Caballero.

“We thus propose the creation of faceless judges,” she added, “because drugs put a lot of money in play, and judges can lose their lives if they decide to do justice.”

Caballero’s proposal was backed by the Supreme Court of Justice, whose president, Armando Avila, had already requested protection for the judges hearing the cases in Tocoa. He pointed out that other Latin American nations, like Peru, used “faceless judges.”

“We cannot wait any longer. Drug trafficking is no longer a question of confiscating drugs,” said Avila. “Bigger things are in play here, and we must create that figure for the good of the country, if we want upright and honest judges and real application of justice.”

The investigations in Tocoa implicated Colonel Wilfredo Leva, former sub-commandant of the La Ceiba military batallion, fugitive from justice, and dishonourably discharged over the weekend. Charges were also filed against two other officers.

Tocoa police chief Major Maria Luisa Borjas, in charge of the investigation, urged the armed forces to hand over Leva. “I think they know where he is,” she said.

The armed forces, which refuse to reveal Leva’s whereabouts, describe his crimes as “isolated” incidents.

But Leva, who has already served time for car theft, is part of the “Gang of 13” which includes other military officers implicated in robberies, drug trafficking and human rights violations, according to former members of the armed forces who testified before the office of the public prosecutor.

Human rights groups demanded this week that the armed forces intervene to identify and discharge the “narco-officers” who operated with Leva.

Parliament, meanwhile, announced that it would eliminate the autonomy that the armed forces have enjoyed for over three decades, arguing that “super-powers” must not be allowed to exist within the country.

Drug trafficking took firm hold in Honduras in the 1970s. The hottest narco-political scandal broke out in the mid-1980s, when a list of Honduran military personnel involved in drug trafficking was revealed in the United States.

Washington’s accusations against the members of the Honduran military were “forgotten” in exchange for Ramon Matta, a drug baron with ties to the Cali Cartel in Colombia, who was handed over by Tegucigalpa in 1987 and is currently serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison.