April 2004
Authority must be challenged
When Maria Luisa Borjas in the Internal Affairs Unit asked Police Superindentant Juan Carlos Bonilla to explain his links to extrajudicial executions, he reportedly told her, "If they want to send me to court like a sacrificial lamb, it will backfire on them, because I can say to the Minister of Security's face that the only thing I did was follow his instructions."
Borjas adds that Bonilla immediately picked up his cell phone and called the Minister of Security Oscar Álvarez to say, "Mister Minister, I am having some problems here for following your instructions, and I need to meet with you."
Borjas tells this story as one of her experiences while heading the Department of Internal Affairs for the Police in March of 2002. On July 19 of that year, Oscar Álvarez, who was at that time the Vice Minister of Security and is now the Minister of Security, gave the department a written order to investigate the participation of police officers in extrajudicial killings, with a special focus on Superintendant Bonilla, also known as "The Tiger".
With her grounding in the law, Borjas says she was never afraid to confront organized crime and drug trafficking when she led the police forces in the cities of Tocoa, Choluteca and Danlí. It was because of Borjas's work that Coronel Wilfredo Leva Cabrera was imprisoned for his links to drug trafficking. It was Borjas who discovered and arrested Colonel Emilio David Rodríguez Alvarado for his leadership in a band of thieves.
Borjas worked with Police Superindentant Aldo Rodolfo Oliva and lawyer Lastenia Díaz to begin her investigations into the extrajudicial executions, with daily briefings to the Minister of Security.
The Results of the Investigation
"We need to find the AK-47 the police used when they executed the supposed delinquents," urged Borjas and her investigative team in their first report to the Minister of Security on August 21, 2002. Her report included the names of the victims and the police officers involved, including Juan Carlos Bonilla Valladares, Carlos Arnoldo Mejía López, José Ventura Flores Maradiaga and Carlos Zavala Velásquez.
Internal Affairs has proved that these four officers participated in the execution of alleged delincuents in San Pedro Sula. "I say alleged because these individuals never went to trial and were never proven guilty of any criminal act. They never had the right to defend themselves and their lives were snatched from them abruptly," maintained Borjas.
Borjas includes in
her documents the statement of a boy who reported that various police
officers took him as a hostage in a police vehicle on the way to carry
out executions. He said he was forced to point out the homes of some of
his acquaintances who were involved in criminal activity and that these
individuals were found dead the next day. He reports witnessing their
executions.
In his statement, the boy names an officer with the last name Motiño
as the apparent leader of the group called "The Magnificents".
One of 20 death squads, they earned their name for not leaving behind
evidence of their work.
Borjas says that she was rewarded for her report with the request that
she resign from her post, supposedly because she was no longer a person
trusted by the Ministry. She swears that she never thought that doing
her job correctly would end her 26 year police career.
With the case presented before the Special Prosecutor for Human Rights,
judges issued an order for the arrest of Bonilla in October of 2002. Bonilla
was a fugitive from the law for a year before he was captured. Then, the
courts issued arrest warrants for the other three officials. Juan Carlos
Bonilla paid a bail of more than 100 thousand lempiras to remain free
until the end of his trial.
"You can see the protection given these people," said Borjas.
"There was a warrant for the arrest of Superintendant Juan Carlos
Bonilla Valladares and he went visiting public places. Everyone saw him.
He was even in the papers and he was never detained."
The results
come to light
"Custodio and Álvarez asked for my resignation"
Contrary to what you might expect, Maria Luisa Borjas's investigations did not lead to more revelations of the involvement of police in extrajudicial executions. Rather, her office was isolated and marginalized within the Ministry of Security.
When Borjas first received the order to investigate the case, she was also instructed to contact the Commission for Human Rights and the Public Prosecutor to better coordinate the investigation.
When she presented the results of her investigation, one of the first responses came on September 18, 2002, from Ramón Custodio, Commissioner for Human Rights. He asked her to resign to avoid damage to her career, since the Ministry of Security had already requested her resignation.
Borjas responded that if the Ministry had any grounds to act against her, that it could proceed. Two days later, on September 20, the Minister of Security asked for her resignation and said they would begin a campaign of harassment against her if she refused.
But that was only the beginning of the Borjas's ordeal within the Ministry of Security. On September 23, the Minister held a press conference where he announced that Internal Affairs was being restructured because it was not fulfilling expectations.
When Borjas circulated
a memo describing everything that had taken place, the Minister sent members
of the Cobra Squadron to pick her up. She was brought to the Minister's
office where she says Álvarez was with his advisors Jesús
Boerleggi and Leo Torres. They told her they would work with her to retract
all the information she had just publicized. Borjas refused.
Then, on November 28, Borjas and her personnel came to work to find that
their offices were being forcibly occupied by Cobra police officers who
blocked them from entering their own offices. "They kept me from
taking the documents from my office," said Borjas.
With all the employees of the Internal Affairs office out of work, Borjas
began receiving telephone calls threatening her that she would pay the
consequences if she continued pursuing these cases. The callers reminded
her that she has children.
CONASIN intervenes
CONASIN, the National Commission for Internal Security, controls and supervises
the police. The Ministry asked that CONASIN intervene in the situation.
Borjas told Revistazo.com that CONASIN named an ad-hoc commission led
by Andrés Pavón of CODEH, Maria Luisa Venegas of the Honduran
Womens' Asssociation and Jorge Gómez Bonilla of COHEP.
"They were going to monitor the investigations to see that there
were no obstacles placed in front of the investigation, that my administrative
staff be returned to work and that I be given the logistical support needed,"
explains Borjas. She adds that as of today, none of those promises have
been fulfilled.
"The counsel is only an advising body. It cannot issue orders. We
all should take the responsibility to demand that their recommendations
be followed," explained Andrés Pavon when asked why he has
not restored Borjas' staff.
Pavón added that he publicized CONASIN's recommendations to the
Ministry of Security, but the media has not published them.
Process of dismissal
Borjas reports that on November 28, 2002 she was still officially the
Superintendant for Internal Affairs. On that day, the Minister of Security
called a meeting for all the personnel of Internal Affairs and, without
recognizing her, promised to support the unit.
She tells that on that afternoon Superintendant Bustillo Salgado was sent
to take over the offices of the Internal Affairs Unit for the purpose
of blocking Borjas and her allies from taking out any documents from their
investigations. These documents later disappeared.
In the days that followed, Borjas kept going to her office and continued
working with her trusted colleagues to continue the investigations into
extrajudicial executions even without the support of the Ministry.
Then, on December 2 she arrived at her office to find an officer with
an order to ban her from the office. On that same day she received the
order for her suspension. She was instructed to present herself the next
day for a meeting where she would be fired. "They suspended me before
they fired me, and that same day thay named Elia Ramírez to take
my place."
Thirteen days later, on January 15, 2003, Borjas went with her lawyer,
Lilian Ávila Talavera, to file a complaint about her dismissal.
Surprisingly, they could not find any order for her dismissal. "When
we reviewed the documents, there was no order for my dismissal, only for
my suspension. But when we looked at the record book, there was a handwritten
note made by the Secretary of the Ministry of Security saying that I had
been given an order of dismissal on January 9th and that I had refused
to sign the book," explained Borjas.
Borjas submitted a legal petition with the Court for Administrative Complaints
for the restitution of her position, or of a position of equal stature,
and the restitution of her personnel and her rights.
The accusation that justified her suspensión was that Borjas had
violated the confidentiality of police matters by publicly revealing the
names of the police officers involved in extrajudicial executions. Borjas
responded, "Since when are murders confidential crimes if they are
done publicly and any citizen can witness and report them?"
From Police Superintendant to Technical Advisor
On April 11 the Director of Police, Coralia Rivera, named Borjas as a
Technical Advisor. Borjas contested the appointment and the Solicitor
General decided in her favor on the grounds that the position did not
really exist within the institution and that Rivera did not have the authority
to make the appointment.
After her resistance, Borjas says that Ministry created a new position
title "Technical Advisor" and appointed her a second time. She
decided to persist and presented a new protest on September 19, 2003.
On September 25, Borjas was called to a meeting to be dismissed for her
failure to show up for work. "I brought a copy of my petition in
the Court for Administrative Complaints and I explained the legal reasons
why I could not accept the positing," maintains Borjas.
Time passed and Borjas never resolved the matter. On February 24, a police
officer visited Borjas and presented her with an appointment to meet with
the Director of Human Resources the next day when she would receive an
order. She says she was only told the time of the appointment, with no
explanation of what it was about. When she arrived for the meeting, she
received an order for her dishonorable discharge from the police force
for having allegedly abandoned her post.
Borjas submitted the charge that her dismissal was illegal because her
case, submitted by her lawyer days earlier, had not yet been decided by
the courts.
During her time leading Internal Affairs, Borjas and her staff investigated
32 cases of extrajudicial executions committed by police during the first
part of her service. Later in 2002, they presented another 22 cases for
investigation and a case in which police destroyed guns that would have
been evidence.
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