5 de August de 2013 Press Release

CEJIL condemns the assassination of Honduran judge and demands investigation

San José, July 29, 2013

The Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) condemns the assassination of Judge Mireya Mendoza, who was a judge of the Trial Court in the city of El Progreso, Honduras, and who also was the Assistant Secretary of the Board of the Association of Judges for Democracy (AJD).

Judge Mendoza was assassinated on July 24, 2013, around noon, while she was driving her vehicle. Unknown subjects shot her about 20 times.

The assassination of the Judge has not been the only one against justice operators in this country.  In 2010, Judge Olga Mariné Laguna was killed, and on May 27, 2011, Raúl Enrique Reyes Carbajal was also killed. He was the coordinator in Honduras for the Public Prosecutor in Puerto Cortes, and only days before taking office he had been the Prosecutor against Organized Crime in San Pedro Sula.

For its part, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), in the year 2011 when it published its Second Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, expressed its concern regarding the 22 Honduran judges who signaled that they had been threatened to death because they dealt with delicate cases related to organized crime, youth groups, or gangs.

Also, the context of impunity that prevails in Honduras is worrisome. Recently, the former Attorney General, Luis Rubí, declared before the National Congress that 80% of homicides committed in the country are left in impunity due to the investigation bodies’ lack of capacity.

Nevertheless, the Honduran State has the legal duty to investigate violations to the right of life. In this sense, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has established that States should “commence ex officio and without delay, a serious, fair, and effective investigation (…) with all available means and should be designed to establish the truth and to investigate, prosecute, and punish all the persons who are liable for the facts”.

“The assassination of Judge Mendoza is extremely worrisome because of the inevitable chilling effect on all those persons who are committed to the search for justice. If there is no investigation and punishment of all those responsible- both material and intellectual-, the State would be tolerating these acts and with that it would intimidate the independent and impartial work of judges and other justice operators” declared Marcia Aguiluz, CEJIL’s Program Director for Central America and Mexico.

CEJIL calls upon the Honduran authorities to assign all the necessary resources to effectively investigate the assassination of Judge Mireya Mendoza and punish those responsible. We also insist that the authorities create a protection mechanism for justice operators with the objective of preventing this type of crime and fully guaranteeing judicial independence.

Contact in Costa Rica

Marcia Aguiluz

Program Director for Central America and Mexico

Tel. (506) 2280-7473 / 7608

 

Foto crédito: Asociación de Jueces por la Democracia