HONDURAS: Democracy Still in Jeopardy, Activists Warn

By Thelma Mejía Reprint | | Print |

Thelma Mejia

TEGUCIGALPA, Aug 7 1999 (IPS) - Democracy in Honduras remains in jeopardy after the latest military crisis, because sectors of the armed forces “are resisting change,” warned the president of the non-governmental Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CODEH), Ramon Custodio.

The prominent activist said, however, that President Carlos Flores “has demonstrated” to the military brass who attempted to carry out designations of officers without the government’s approval “that he is not a decorative figure.”

Democracy has prevailed, and “another crisis triggered by the military has been defused,” said Custodio.

Flores was able to stave off a serious crisis Friday by sacking the upper echelons of the armed forces, as well as Deputy Minister of Defence General Roberto Lazarus.

While military marches were held and the airwaves monopolised, Flores held a five-hour meeting at the seat of government Friday with Defence Minister Edgardo Dumas and the junta of army commanders.

The seat of government remained cordoned off by soldiers, while the motor of the presidential helicopter was kept running, the doors ajar, the pilot in his seat – all of which led to rumours of a military coup, like those that have been common in this Central American country over the past 40 years.

The dismissals implied a beheading of the armed forces, and represented the culmination of a process of demilitarisation that began under president Carlos Reina (1994-98) and led to a process of constitutional reform in January.

The demilitarisation was proceeding as planned until the army brass rebelled and basically shut Flores up in the seat of government, where according to sources close to the president, he was able to abort a virtual attempted coup.

On Friday, the comptroller-general’s office announced – on Defence Minister Dumas’ initiative – an audit of all armed forces accounts, an investigation of denunciations of phantom payrolls and the establishment of a permanent auditing mechanism.

The military is a powerful player in the local economy.

The dismissals announced by Flores Friday came in response to promotions carried out over the past two weeks by the junta of army commanders, without the consent of Dumas, in Mexico at the time.

The designations were approved by Deputy Defence Minister Lazarus. But upon his return home Jul 26, Dumas overruled the decisions taken by the army brass, declaring that “I was not consulted.”

“I am the one steering the boat here,” said Dumas. “Civilian authority is in control here. The decision by the junta of commanders was inappropriate, and for that reason, I have disregarded the changes. If any new designations are made, they will be my decision, in consultation” with President Flores, he stressed.

The armed forces enjoyed autonomy from civilian authority from 1957 to last January, when constitutional amendments eliminated the post of commander-in-chief and made the president the ultimate authority, through a civilian defence minister.

The armed forces exercised power for two decades by means of a series of coups d’etats. During that time, they committed a large number of human rights violations, including 187 forced disappearances. Since 1982, five civilian presidents have succeeded each other in office.

The process of demilitarisation of Honduran society that began five years ago led to two attempts on the life of former president Reina, who also faced down a number of threatened coup attempts.

Reina abolished mandatory military service and named civilians to posts that were previously exclusively the domain of the military.

Since the reforms implemented in January, the military no longer enjoys immunity. Civilian officials oversee and exercise control over the military budget, and are authorised to investigate businesses in which the armed forces have been involved, as well as denunciations of corruption and illicit enrichment.

The military continues to control a business complex that figures among the eight most powerful economic groups in the country, run through the ‘Instituto de Prevision Militar’ (IPM) (military social security institute), which guarantees officers a monthly income after retirement.

The military’s heavy involvement in the country’s economic life has brought complaints from business, whose representatives protest that such involvement constitutes “unfair competition.”

The companies headed by the IPM include one of the two biggest cement companies in Honduras, a football team, radio station, bank, insurance companies, credit cards, shrimping concerns, farms and a publicity agency.

The armed forces also own a factory that produces military uniforms, as well as security agencies. And according to reports, they are about to acquire a newspaper that went under a year ago.

Through its ‘Armeria’ company, the IPM controls the possession and carrying of weapons, which according to the constitution is one of the duties of the armed forces. The activity brings the IPM some three million dollars a year in revenues.

But Minister Dumas wants that duty to be directly exercised by the armed forces, rather than by the IPM.

An earlier attempt at insubordination was overcome in June, headed by colonels Rodolfo Interiano Portillo and Eugenio Romero Euceda. The latter was among those removed from office last Friday.

Dumas, a lawyer with links to the Inter-American Press Society and a former ambassador to the United States, made it clear from the start that he intended to gain a grasp over all military activities, by setting up his office in the building of the Joint Chief of Staff.

The minister said the coming stage would be a critical one, due to his plan to “reorganise the military budget,” calculated at around 40 million dollars, in order to put it to “rational and fair use.

“I am going to review payroll by payroll, expenditure by expenditure – and I can assure that not just anyone will do whatever they please with these funds,” he warned earlier this year.

The minister, dubbed “the man with the baton” by the press, is seen as a “fussy gentleman” by the military brass, because he forces them to get up early, tour the barracks and improve relations between the officers and the rank and file.

Dumas enjoys wide support from civil society, human rights groups and President Flores himself, while critics of the government tend to desribe him as the best minister on the cabinet.

The judiciary, in the meantime, ruled last December that the amnesty benefitting leftist political exiles since 1990 was to be extended to members of the military accused of human rights violations.

Prior to that ruling, 13 serving and retired officers accused in court of involvement in the disappearance of leftist activists and political leaders in the 1980s received the assistance of other armed forces personnel in their attempt to flee justice.