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Honduras: MACCIH will Begin its Work Next Week

  April 8, 2016

The Mission to Support the Fight against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (MACCIH) of the Organization of American States (OAS) will begin its work in Tegucigalpa next week.

The Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, today informed the Honduran Foreign Minister, Arturo Corrales, that the first members of the MACCIH will arrive in the country next week.

During the meeting between the two at OAS headquarters in Washington DC, Secretary General Almagro explained that this would comply with the Agreement signed on January 19 between the OAS and the Honduran government.

The MACCIH will be headed by the Special Representative of the Secretary General and Spokesman of the Mission, Juan Jiménez Mayor, who will be accompanied by the experts:
• Jacobo Dominguez, Coordinator of the Politico-Electoral Division
• Jan Michael Simon, Special Adviser against Corruption and Impunity
• Katalina Montaña, Chief of the Institutional Strengthening Section in Mediation and Dialogue of the OAS
• An expert from the Public Security Department of the OAS
Soon thereafter the group will be joined by Juan Pablo Corlazzoli, who heads the Criminal Justice Observatory of MACCIH.

Secretary General Almagro emphasized that the MACCIH is “an unprecedented initiative which aims to overcome corruption and impunity in Honduras and produce a structural reform in the administration of justice in a country that is fed up with corruption."

In addition, and in support of the process of revision and modernization of the Honduran police, it was announced that the Third Round of the Evaluation Report on the National System of Citizen Security would take place in the framework of the Mission, following the rounds held in 2012 and 2014.

In the case of the investigation of the crime against the indigenous leader Berta Cáceres, it was explained that once the MACCIH was established, its members would meet with the various agencies involved in the investigation to determine the best way to lend support.

Secretary General Almagro concluded that, as was said by the family of Berta Cáceres, the human rights aspects of the case should be addressed by the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (IACHR).

Reference: E-040/16