RIGHTS-HONDURAS: Courts Order Arrest of Former Armed Forces Chief

By Thelma Mejía Reprint | | Print |

Thelma Mejia

TEGUCIGALPA, May 4 1999 (IPS) - A Honduran court ordered Tuesday the arrest of former armed forces chief Gen. Mario Hung Pacheco (1994- 98) on charges of illegally authorising a private security agency allegedly linked to the drug trade.

Judge Roxana Morales ordered the arrest of Hung Pacheco, who also faces charges of human rights violations and extrajudicial executions committed in the 1980s, abuse of power, and usurpation of public functions.

Hung Pacheco stepped down as armed forces commander in late 1998, when a constitutional reform process replaced the post with that of defence minister.

In September 1997, Hung Pacheco authorised the creation of a private security company, Sepror. According to Judge Morales, by doing so, he usurped the functions of the ‘Junta de Traspaso’ – the special body verifying the transition of the police from the military to the civilian sphere.

The Junta de Traspaso, in charge of issuing permits for private security agencies, was thus bypassed by Hung Pacheco, who decided on his own to authorise Sepror.

According to the anti-drug prosecutors office and the police, Sepror has ties with organised crime and the drug trade. And officials with the Attorney-General’s Office say the company has also been involved in car theft, although such charges have not been proven.

The Attorney-General’s Office asked Morales to issue an arrest warrant for Hung Pacheco on charges of usurpation of functions and abuse of power.

Morales said Monday that the evidence against the general was “irrefutable…We hope he has a good defence, because these offences are only punishable by prison, and he could be facing a five or six year sentence.”

The former military chief has not yet commented on the accusations, and his whereabouts Tuesday were unknown. His attorneys, however, announced that they would appeal the accusation by the Attorney-General Office, which they said contained serious errors.

Hung Pacheco reportedly plans to make a bid to obtain parliamentary immunity by running for the legislature or the vice- presidency on the ticket of the governing Liberal Party’s Jaime Rosenthal, a prominent local banker.

This is the first time in 18 years that a court has ordered the arrest of a high-level military officer for abuse of power and usurpation of functions.

The last arrest warrants issued for officers were based on human rights violations, specifically forced disappearances. Thirteen of the officers facing such charges remain at large.

Hung Pacheco is also facing three lawsuits filed by the non- governmental Committee for the Defence of Human Rights in Honduras (Codeh) on charges of weapons theft, extrajudicial executions of two people “disappeared” in the 1980s, and abuse of authority.

In the past, the general has maintained that those charges are part of a smear campaign, while insisting on his willingness to prove his innocence in court.