Impunity in Honduras
Torture and Ill-Treatment after the Coup d'État
February 2014Read the report (pdf)
On June 28, 2009, members of the Honduran armed forces removed President José Manuel Zelaya from office after his efforts to alter the country’s constitution triggered a political crisis. The Honduran National Congress subsequently named then speaker Roberto Micheletti as interim president. On July 1, Micheletti declared a state of exception, ordered a curfew, and suspended several constitutional protections in an effort to quell nationwide peaceful public demonstrations in support of the deposed president that lasted months. Reputable organizations documented human rights abuses in the aftermath of what was considered a coup d’état.
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) sent a team of forensic experts to Honduras to investigate cases of alleged torture and ill-treatment by the country’s security forces that had occurred in the aftermath of the 2009 coup d’état.
PHR has withheld the publication of the present briefing paper until now to avoid influencing the course of the judicial proceedings, given that Dr. Moreno, a member of PHR’s investigative team, was appointed as a forensic court expert and his reports were submitted into evidence.