Jorge Barralaga Hernandez Arrested for Money Laundering

Former Tegucigalpa Police Commander Jorge Barralaga Hernandez was arrested and his home was confiscated.  He is accused of money laundering.

Barralaga rose to fame in October, 2011, because he allowed the four policemen accused of killing 4 university students, including rector Julietta Castellanos's son, to be freed from jail, allowing them to then flee.  At the time Baralaga was in charge of District 1 of Tegucigalpa and the four policemen, Sub Inspector Carlos Galeas Cruz and policemen Wilfredo Figueroa Velasquez, Arnulfo Padilla Roderiguez, and José Ruben Pozo, were under arrest in District 1 for the crime of murdering four university students.  Even though a court had ordered them held, in October, 2011 he released them, and they fled into the countryside.  For this action he was fired.

In 2012 he filed a legal appeal, seeking reinstatement and back pay; that case was never heard and remains open.  In 2013 he was accused and had an initial audience in court for abuse of authority along with Marco Tulio Palma in freeing the four accused of killing the university students.  That case remains untried.  As early as 2010 a police investigation found that Barralaga, then serving in the border Department of Copan,  had illicit income from corrupt sources, probably drug running, but high levels of the National Police, including Juan Carlos "El Tigre" Bonilla, sat on the investigation and allowed Barralaga to continue to serve and be promoted.

Baralaga was arrested this morning and his house confiscated.  He is accused of money laundering.  The police are still investigating the source of the 27 million Lempiras ($1.2 million) he has in personal bank accounts.

Tigre Bonilla and Rene Osorio Canales Out

Porfirio Lobo Sosa  is letting Juan Orlando Hernández start making changes in the Honduran government before he is sworn in this coming January, underlining the collaboration that exists between these two Partido Nacional administrations, while highlighting their differences in key changes in the police and military leadership.

On December 17, Lobo Sosa gave his Ministers until the end of the day to hand in their resignations so that Hernandez could install his choices once he made them.  The first act was to shuffle the command in the police and military.  The new holders of these positions have already been sworn in by Lobo Sosa today, with Hernández speaking at the ceremony.

Juan Carlos "Tigre" Bonilla is out.  Ramon Antonio Sabillon Pineda is the new police commander.  Sabillon previously was the commander of the special investigations division of the police. 

Bonilla is rumored to have had differences with Arturo Corrales, the Security Minister, who Hernández is considering keeping in that office. 

Felix Villanueva Mejia will be the assistant director of the police.  The preventative police will be headed by Javier Leopoldo Flores Milla, while Hernández will keep the current director of the transit police, Abencio Atilio Flores Morazán, in that position.  The director of the investigative police (Dirección Nacional de Investigación Criminal) will be Jose Leandro Osorio.  The special investigative police will be headed by Ruben Martel Garcia,while Hector Ivan Mejia will serve as director of the police academy.  Abraham Flores Marcelino will be head of the police special unit, and José Leonel Enamorado will be the police commander of the joint military and police task force.

The high command of the Honduran Armed Forces was also changed significantly. 

In the place of the current military commander, Rene Osorio Canales, will be Fredy Santiago Diaz Zelaya.  In December Zelaya received his fifth star, along with Julian Pacheco Tinoco, who will remain as commander of the Military Intelligence service.  Rigoberto Espinosa Posadas, who was promoted in December, will be second in command of the Honduran Joint Chiefs.  Miguel Palacios Romero will be the military Inspector General.  Jorge Alberto Fernández López will command the Air Force, and Héctor Orlando Caballero Espinoza will command the Navy.

Lobo Sosa also let Juan Orlando Hernández name and install his head of the Dirección Ejecutivo de Ingresos (DEI), the Honduran equivalent of the IRS. 

This important government unit, which failed to meet its quotas all through the Lobo Sosa government, will be Miriam Guzman.  She also has taken the reins of her government unit already.

Progress Report on Police Anti-Corruption Reviews

The Dirección de Investigación y Evaluación de la Carrera Policial (DIECP) has reportedly issued a press release stating that the 24  police officers of all ranks who have not submitted to the proof of confidence testing required by the DIECP will probably be fired.

The DIECP reported that none of the 24 had provided a reason for not showing up for their scheduled appointment. The DIECP press release points out that this is disobedience of a superior's order, punishable with dismissal according to the police charter.

The files on these 24 police officers will be turned over to the police chief, Juan Carlos Bonilla, for disposition.

Proceso Digital reports that the DIECP has attempted to review 169 police officials, most of them members of the highest levels of command.  Of these, 145 have submitted to the exam, and 24 refused.  That is a rate of resistance to the campaign to excise corruption of about 14%.

The DIECP has not released the results of the confidence test on any of the 145 who have taken it so far, so the actual proportion of police officers who do not meet the requirements is not (yet) known.

The DIECP hopes to have conducted over 400 confidence tests by the end of 2012, and over 5000 in the next three years. 

Police Kill Four in La Ceiba

Eight police officers in La Ceiba have been suspended after witnesses reportedly saw some of those suspended officers arresting four young people who were found dead the next morning.

And these are not just ordinary cops-on-the-beat. They are members of one of the special units that have been organized to combat specific crimes.

The suspended officers are members of the local Grupo Especial Anti-Secuestro (Special Anti-Kidnapping Group) or GEAS.  Also suspended was the police commander in La Ceiba, Marco Tulio Cruz Aguilar.

The four youths were asphixiated by tying plastic bags around their heads, with their hands bound behind their back.  Their bodies were  then thrown into a stream.  The autopsy report indicates they were tortured before they were killed.

This is not the first time GEAS has been involved in controversy.  

GEAS was modeled after the Colombian Army's Anti-Kidnapping unit, GAULA, and its members were trained by elements of the Colombian Army.  Shortly after a GEAS/GAULA operation to free Porfirio Lobo Sosa's cousin from his kidnappers last November, six bodies were found in the same area.  Everyone agreed they were the kidnappers, but the police said it was a coincidence that they turned up dead.

Nor is this the first accusation against the La Ceiba GEAS group in particular. 

Last November, an officer who was part of the La Ceiba GEAS unit was captured by San Pedro police while he was attempting to kidnap a San Pedro businessman.

The prosecutor's office has opened an investigation of the latest incident.

Police commander Juan Carlos Bonilla says the suspensions are so that these officers don't get in the way of the investigation.