Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of Honduras, General Romeo Vásquez, was arrested this Sunday as the alleged perpetrator of the military-led homicide of a protester in 2009, days after leading the coup against former president Manuel Zelaya (2006-2009). Along with him, the Deputy Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Venancio Cervantes, and the former Commander of the Joint Operations Command, Carlos Puerto, were also arrested, reported the Secretary of State for Security (Interior), Gustavo Sánchez, on his X social media account.
“The three arrests were executed moments ago by the Honduras Police in coordination with the Public Ministry in Tegucigalpa and La Paz (west),” said Sánchez. The three former military officers were wanted by the Public Ministry “for allegedly being responsible for the crimes of homicide and serious injuries” following an armed attack by military personnel against protesters near the Toncontín airport in Tegucigalpa on July 5, 2009.
The protesters were waiting for Zelaya’s return from Nicaragua after he had been removed at gunpoint from his house in Tegucigalpa in the early morning of June 28 of that year by about 200 military personnel who handcuffed him and took him to the airport, where they put him on a plane bound for Costa Rica.
Days later, his return to Honduras was expected when “elements of the Armed Forces” acted “disproportionately” and shot at protesters with M16 rifles “indiscriminately,” stated the Public Ministry in its requirement. In the events, Obed Murillo died from a gunshot to the head, and Alex Zavala was seriously injured.
Pending Hearing
Vásquez was transferred under heavy police escort to the Criminal Court in Tegucigalpa. More than 200 heavily armed agents of the Honduran National Police Special Forces guarded the transfer and the former military officer’s access to the court, as witnessed by an AFP journalist on site.
In front of the court, a small group of supporters of the ruling Libre party protested against the military’s actions during and after the coup against Zelaya. “We demand justice for the persecution we suffered,” said Heidy Coello, a congressional candidate for President Xiomara Castro’s leftist Libre party.
“Obed lives! The struggle continues!” chanted the rest of the protesters. At the time of his arrest, Vásquez posted on X that he is a “victim of political persecution and manipulation of power” by Castro’s “communist government.”
Human Rights Violation
Honduras’ Foreign Minister, Enrique Reina, indicated on X that “human rights violation is a criminal and imprescriptible act” and that the events stemming from the coup “must not go unpunished.”
From the government’s State Secretariat for Human Rights Office, they indicated that they support the arrests of the former military officers “within the framework of justice and accountability for the serious human rights violations committed during and after the coup in Honduras” by the “former members of the military leadership.”
They also highlighted the “need for the arrests to lead to effective and transparent judicial processes that guarantee the clarification of the events,” which were “widely” condemned by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR).
