Congressman Johnson Reintroduces The Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act

Press Release

This week commemorates the 5-year anniversary of the assassination of Honduran environmental and indigenous rights leader, Berta Cáceres. Five years later, the fight for human rights in Honduras wages on, and the United States must drastically change its role in that fight.

Today, Rep. Johnson, alongside his five co-leads, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL-09); Rep. Marcy Kaptur (OH-9); Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN-05); Rep. Chuy Garcia (IL-04) and Rep. Joaquin Castro (TX-20), reintroduced the Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act. The bill has 44 original cosponsors.

The Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act would suspend U.S. funding for police and military operations, and prohibit international loans providing security assistance from being dispersed unless the Honduran government investigates and prosecutes blatant human rights violations by their police and military forces.

The State Department, The New York Times, the Associated Press and numerous human rights groups have documented that the Honduran police and military are widely believed to be deeply corrupt and commit gross human rights abuses -- including torture, rape, illegal detention, and murder -- with impunity.

"We provide millions of dollars in security assistance to Honduras every year, but these same forces have been attacking and killing environmental, labor and human rights activists like Berta Cáceres without any effective response from the Honduran authorities," said Rep. Johnson.

"This rampant impunity cannot continue. It's time for our government to send a stronger message by leveraging security assistance and multilateral loans in order to put real and lasting pressure on the Honduran government to protect its activists and pursue those responsible for these outrageous crimes. I continue to stand in solidarity with Berta's family, COPINH, and the entire activist community that has committed their lives to sweeping justice for Hondurans."

The bill requires investigations into a series of suspicious killings of human rights activists and demands the Honduran government protect the rights of trade unionists; journalists; human rights; defenders; Indigenous, Afro-Indigenous, small farmers and LGBTI activists; critics of the government and other civil society activists so they may operate without interference from the police or military.

Berta Cáceres would have been 50 years old tomorrow. Her legacy lives on.

Other cosponsors: Reps. Don Beyer, Earl Blumenauer, Suzanne Bonamici, David Cicilline, Emanuel Cleaver II, Danny K. Davis, Peter DeFazio, Adriano Espaillat, Anna Eshoo, Sylvia Garcia, Mary Gay Scanlon, Raúl Grijalva, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Jared Huffman, Pramila Jayapal, Ro Khanna, Ron Kind, Derek Kilmer, Andy Levin, Alan Lowenthal, Stephen Lynch, James McGovern, Gwen Moore, Seth Moulton, Grace Napolitano, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jimmy Panetta, Chellie Pingree, Mark Pocan, Ayanna Pressley, Jamie Raskin, Kathleen Rice, Bobby L. Rush, Rashida Tlaib, Paul Tonko, Nydia Velázquez, Bonnie Watson Coleman, Juan Vargas, Peter Welch.

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