Another Case Of Murdered Honduran Children To International
Court
Another uninvestigated case of murder of Honduran children has been submitted this week to the Inter American Commission on Human Rights in Washington by Casa Alianza and CEJIL in a continuing effort to stop the increasing levels of murders of children and youth in the Central American country.
On January 11th, 1998, Oscar Daniel Medina Cortes, 15, and Jose Luis Hernandez, 14, were riding their bicycles in the children's park in the center of El Progreso. Oscar was a member of the local youth church group and Jose Luis would help his mother sell fresh juice. They were good kids. At 6:30pm that Sunday evening, a blue pick-up with five heavily armed men drew up alongside the laughing boys, pulled out their guns and literally threw the two children into the back of the pick up and their bicycles on top of them before speeding away. There were several witnesses who recognized at least two of the kidnappers as members of the local General Direction of Criminal Investigation, known as the DGIC in Spanish.
That was the last time the boys were seen alive. The next morning, their mutilated and tortured bodies were found on the road to Mantecal, in the municipality of Lima Cortes. Four and a half years later, the crime has still not been adequately investigated and key witnesses have not been called to declare. The DGIC in Honduras is responsible for the investigation.
Casa Alianza and CEJIL, the Center for Justice and International Law, have presented a total of six cases against the State of Honduras over the past four years before the Inter American Commission on Human Rights for human rights violations against children by agents of the State, leading to significant financial payments by the government to the families of the young victims. These cases could have been avoided had the Honduran authorities respected the law.
No arrest warrants have been issued in the murders of Oscar and Jose Luis and the Honduran judiciary has not followed the basic lines of investigation in the case, which could lead to the conviction of the killers. The two kidnapping murders caused outrage in the community. Oscar's younger brother, Jose Luis Medina Cortes, spoke out about the murder of his brother when Casa Alianza was awarded one of the Children's Prizes by Queen Silvia of Sweden in Stockholm in April of this year.
Family members finally collected the bodies of the two boys after waiting hours for the authorities that never came.
The Inter American Commission on Human Rights is an organ of the Organization of American States that was organized, together with the Inter American Court of Human Rights in Costa Rica, as a mechanism to guarantee the application of the American Convention on Human Rights.
This new case against the State of Honduras the first to be presented in the administration of President Maduro is based upon the unjustified slowness in the application of justice and the violations of the following articles in the case of the two boys: Article 4 (the Right to Life); Personal Integrity (Article 5); personal freedom (Article 7); the Rights of the Child (Article 19); guarantees of an investigation and due process (Articles 8 and 25); together with the generic obligation of Article 1 of the American Convention on Human Rights.
"There have been 1,293 murders of children and youth in Honduras between January 1998 and July 2002, more than 60% of which have not been adequately investigated in order to identify the killers", stated Bruce Harris, the Executive Director of Latin American Programs for Casa Alianza. "With this new case before the Commission, a total of six of these murders are being investigated by the Commission. Unless the murders are investigated in Honduras, we have no other option to ask the Commission to intervene".
Harris and Casa Alianza's National Director in Honduras, Jose Manuel Capellin, are awaiting an audience tomorrow with the President of Honduras, Ricardo Maduro Joest, to discuss the murders of Honduran children, but to date the meeting has not been reconfirmed by the President's Office.
The six cases against the State of Honduras before the Commission presented by Casa Alianza and CEJIL are:
- No. 11,491 Children jailed with adults. The State of Honduras has paid out some US$ 50,000 in damages so far in this case to child victims who were jailed together with adults where they were often beaten and raped. The prosecution of judges who ordered the illegal detentions is still pending.
- No. 11,545 The rape of a mentally retarded 12 year old girl by two guards at a government center. The two guards have since been convicted and jailed and the State of Honduras has agreed to take care of the victim for life.
- No. 11,805 The murder of Carlos Jaco, a minor illegally detained in an adult jail where he was murdered by an adult inmate. The murderer has been convicted and the government paid more than US$ 20,000 in damages to the family of the victim.
- No. 11,802 The torture of five minors who were illegally detained in the Comayagua adult prison, where they were tortured under orders of the prison director.
- No. 12,331 The murder and torture of four young men two of them minors by four officers of the FUSEP, the Honduran military police.
- The torture and murder of the two young boys in El Progreso.
For more information, please contact Casa Alianza Honduras at +504-237-1750 or <bruce@casa-alianza.org>
