RIGHTS-HONDURAS: Crisis in Army Over Restoration of Civil Power

By Thelma Mejía Reprint | | Print |

Thelma Mejia

TEGUCIGALPA, Sep 23 1998 (IPS) - The Honduran army is in the grip of a grave crisis sparked by the planned elimination of the post of commander-in-chief of the armed forces and the transfer of its powers to a civilian authority.

Commander-in-chief of the armed forces Mario Hung, who since the initiative first arose has backed the elimination of his own post, admitted that there had been reports of conspiracy and selective purges.

“Over the weekend there was some friction with several officers who aspired to becoming the future leaders of the armed forces, something that will not happen now, because the new legislative reforms eliminate the office of commander-in-chief and control goes to a defence minister, who I presume will be a civilian,” said Hung.

Small cells of officers were formed to spy on and threaten each other, according to a report made public Tuesday by the local radio station HRN, most of which was confirmed by Hung.

The military chief, who phoned the radio station to refute allegations in the report that the armed forces had participated in financing the election campaign of the opposition National Party, conceded that “the changes brought about by Congress logically generate tension and doubts within” the armed forces.

“But I can state that everything is under control,” he stressed.

Last Friday, Honduras took the first step towards eliminating the “parallel government” that analysts say the armed forces have constituted for three decades.

President Carlos Flores last week sent the 128-member legislature a draft constitutional amendment, which was unanimously approved in the first vote Friday after intense pressure by the government overcame the National Party’s initial resistance.

The constitutional reforms are to be ratified by Congress in January, as stipulated by the constitution, and the government will then be in a position to name a civilian defence minister.

The president of Congress, Rafael Pineda Ponce, who urgently convened the legislators last Friday, even though it was a holiday, to approve the reforms, said “we have taken a historic step and rendered tribute to the fatherland.”

Attorney-General Edmundo Orellana remarked that “Hondurans are used to knocking on the doors of the barracks to resolve our problems. That is finished, which is good for democracy.”

If the reforms had not gone through this year, the country “would have lost its best opportunity to fully restore civil power and the subordination to us, the civilians, that the military must accept,” Flores said prior to the vote.

“It’s now or never,” the president asserted, challenging the National Party, which co-governed with the military from the 1960s to the mid-1980s – a period in which numerous human rights violations were committed.

A report released by the governmental Human Rights Commission in 1994 acknowledged that some 185 people were “disappeared” for political and ideological reasons in the mid-1980s by death squads – paramilitary groups largely made up of “off-duty” members of the armed forces.

The military, which opposed the constitutional reforms which they saw as reducing their power, ended up yielding on the matter due to the lack of popular and political support or backing by the business community.

Commander-in-chief Hung remarked Friday that “the armed forces must accept that times have changed, and that if we fail to adapt to global transformations we run the risk of disappearing like the dinosaurs”.

“We respect the decision by Congress and the executive branch, because while there may be some fissures within the armed forces, the chain of command remains vertical,” he added.

Hung admitted last week that there was some dissent at what he called “intermediate levels” of the armed forces. In fact, several officers demanded that he step down three months ago for yielding to the restoration of civil power over the military.

According to Hung, the unrest within the armed forces is due to what many officers see as excessive concessions to civil power, entailing the loss of the autonomy and privileges granted to the military by successive governments since the 1960s.

As of next year, military personnel will no longer enjoy immunity, and civil authorities will be able to supervise and audit the military budget and investigate military business ventures and reports of corruption.

But Hung underlined that “I have been clear that the reforms are in our interests and that I am still at the helm … which I will hand over next January when the executive branch designates its new defence minister.”

According to the constitution as it now stands, two-thirds of the votes in Congress are needed to interpellate the chief of the armed forces, while only a simple majority is needed to impeach the president.

But the function of the head of the armed forces will change with the reforms, after which it will be oriented toward guarding the national territory and sovereignty, and dealing with emergencies when summoned by the executive branch. The top military chief will also lose immunity.

Expert in military affairs Leticia Salmon told IPS that the reforms were sending a clear message to the international community that Honduras “wants to fully reestablish civil power.”

Salmon said that due to his authoritarian traits, Flores “does not want to be overshadowed, and he knows that the military, with the functions granted it by the constitution, was a kind of parallel government that at any moment could play a dirty trick on him. And for the welfare of the country, he decided to nip that danger in the bud.”

The power of the armed forces began to wane under president Carlos Reina (1994-98), when they lost key public posts, and compulsory military service was abolished. The start of the demilitarisation process led to two attempts on Reina’s life, in 1994 and 1995.

Everything indicates that Hung will be the last commander-in- chief of the armed forces, which troubles the officers who aspired to succeed him in January.

The military chief said that certain changes ordered in the past 24 hours were part of the measures to be taken to “demonstrate that I am at the helm”.

“I will see where I place these dissenting officers, to keep them close by,” he added.

Hung said the worst confrontations had taken place with General Efrain Gutierrez, who accused him of negotiating with civilian authorities “behind the army’s back.”

Last week Hung promised to designate Gutierrez military attache in Guatemala. But when the news was leaked, the military chief announced that the general “is no longer going to that country, because he is not a man I trust.”

The officers implicated in the conspiracy against Hung reportedly met at the office of the chief of the joint general staff in Tegucigalpa, where they severely reprimanded their chief and obtained a reduction of the sanctions he was planning to issue.

“I have explained to the officers that we have not lost anything,” said Hung, “that what has happened is for the best, because we were becoming isolated from changes in the world, and the armed forces must be visionaries and redefine the new role we must play in defending sovereignty and democracy.”

But “obviously a lot of people did not understand, and began to conspire against the top brass, forming cells to spy on each other,” he added. “And I, as the captain, cannot permit a shipwreck.”