Death Squad Victims’ Kin to Receive Funds

The Honduran government announced that it will pay $2.1 million to the families of 19 of the 184 political activists kidnapped and killed by an army death squad in the 1980s. Acting on a recommendation by the Organization of American States, Honduras said similar payments will be offered to the rest of those whose relatives “disappeared” in connection with the army’s Counterinsurgency Battalion 316. “The government has promised to locate those responsible for these crimes, arrest them and bring them to trial,” said Bertha Oliva, leader of Honduras’ Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared. To date, charges have been brought against 29 members of the army.