State Department Claims to Investigate Honduras 'Kill List' as House Dems Decry US Aid to Repressive
State Department Claims to Investigate Honduras 'Kill List' as House Dems Decry US Aid to Repressive Regime
'We have blood on our hands'
by Nika Knight, staff writer
The U.S. State Department is investigating allegations that the Honduran military is targeting environmental activists on a "kill list," the Guardian reported Friday.
A whistleblower first told the Guardian last month that such a list existed, and also alleged that the murdered environmental activist Berta Cáceres was on it before she was shot and killed in her sleep in early March.
This is the State Department's first public response to the "hit list" allegations. James Nealon, the U.S. ambassador to Honduras, told the Guardian, "We take allegations of human rights abuses with the utmost seriousness. We always take immediate action to ensure the security and safety of people where there is a credible threat."
The newspaper reports, "The State Department insists that it sticks closely to the letter and the spirit of the Leahy law, the legislation first implemented in 1997 that bans U.S. State Department and Department of Defense support to foreign military units charged with human rights violations. The U.S. embassy in Tegucigalpa employs staff under the Leahy law who vet all individuals or units earmarked for possible training, weeding out officials accused of gross abuses."
More:
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/07/08/state-department-claims-investigate-honduras-kill-list-house-dems-decry-us-aid
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Thanks, James Nealon. [/center]
