[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 14902]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       HONDURAS MUST PROTECT HUMAN RIGHTS, VULNERABLE COMMUNITIES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, last week I joined a fact-finding 
delegation to Honduras led by WOLA, the Washington Office on Latin 
America. We looked at the problem of violence and the lack of 
opportunity in order to understand why families and young people 
continue to flee the country. We wanted to learn what the Honduran 
Government and people were doing in response to the problems that 
confront their country and how the United States might help. We met 
with families, young people, and community leaders in several marginal 
and violent communities, including those who benefit from programs at 
Casa Alianza.
  The delegation also visited an innovative USAID-sponsored violence 
prevention program. It not only offers programs for young people in a 
poor and dangerous neighborhood, but brings together community leaders 
and local institutions to tackle local problems. By strengthening local 
leaders and groups and working with trained and vetted local police, 
crime levels have dropped and new opportunities for youth have been 
created. These are hopeful results for a community that 1 year ago was 
under siege by violent criminal actors.
  We also met with many NGOs, human rights defenders, and international 
organizations to understand the intertwined problems of human rights, 
Democratic governance, and corruption. We had substantial conversations 
with Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez and met with our 
Ambassador, James Nealon, and his team, and I am grateful for how 
generous they were with their time.
  I would like to share with my colleagues a few thoughts and 
conclusions from this trip.
  First, I have no doubt that violence or lack of opportunity are 
driving families and young people to flee Honduras. I saw the marginal 
communities and heard the stories from families about the problems 
young people face. The best thing we can do is support efforts that 
break the cycle of violence and help build opportunities for youth in 
Honduras and elsewhere in Central America. At Casa Alianza and the 
USAID project, we saw the kind of programs that actually make a 
difference. That is where we should be directing our assistance.
  Additionally, I also heard how long-term drought is exacerbating 
hunger, malnutrition, and the loss of livelihoods in rural central 
Honduras and igniting a new wave of migration.
  Second, I heard from returned migrants and the families of migrants, 
including those whose loved ones have disappeared and never been heard 
from again. Migrants face abuse as they travel. They are extorted by 
authorities in Mexico and sometimes Guatemala and robbed or kidnapped 
and held for ransom by criminal groups. Young women run the risk of 
being trafficked and forced into prostitution.
  We heard from returned migrants, especially those who had been 
stopped in Mexico, about the return journey and the lack of services at 
the El Corinto border crossing. We met migrants who had fled gang 
violence only to be forced to return to the same dangers.
  I was moved by many of these stories. Migrants, even those traveling 
without legal documents, have basic rights, and we should be working 
with the Governments of Mexico and Honduras to ensure that they get 
decent treatment, access to needed services, and the protection they 
deserve.
  Third, human rights abuses continue to be a serious problem in 
Honduras. Longtime human rights defenders, journalists, and gay, 
lesbian, and transgender activists described ongoing threats, attacks, 
and even assassinations, and the response by the police and the 
attorney general has not improved. In fact, a U.S.-supported special 
investigative unit that was supposed to focus on attacks on the LGBT 
community, journalists, and others has investigated even fewer cases 
this year than last.
  I am troubled by the government's focus on special military police 
units, whose human rights record isn't good. I support the U.S. 
decision not to provide aid to the military police. Instead, the 
Honduran Government needs to clean up and strengthen civilian police 
and the Attorney General's Office.
  My trip to Honduras was both challenging and inspiring. I saw 
troubling problems of poverty and violence, heard painful stories about 
migrant abuses and disappearances, and saw major problems in the area 
of human rights and the protection of human rights defenders and 
activists.
  But I also saw hope. I met with young people who dream of bright 
futures for themselves in Honduras, with student and youth leaders who 
are campaigning selflessly and courageously to build mechanisms to 
tackle corruption, and with LGBT activists, human rights defenders, and 
journalists who are standing up to threats. I saw community-led 
projects to combat violence and poverty that are making a real 
difference.
  Mr. Speaker, last week our Nation was graced by the presence of Pope 
Francis. I was deeply moved by his call for us to welcome the stranger, 
to help the most vulnerable among us, and to work together for the 
common good. I believe each of those calls to action apply to the case 
of Honduras, both in how we respond to Hondurans fleeing to the United 
States to find safe haven and a new life and how we help Hondurans 
respond to their own problems inside their country.
  I look forward, Mr. Speaker, to working with my colleagues to help 
the Honduran people deal successfully with these challenges.

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