Beating and arbitrary detention of human rights defender Mr José Guadalupe Ruelas García
Posted 2014/5/13
Honduras – Beating and arbitrary detention of human rights defender Mr José Guadalupe Ruelas García
On 8 May 2014, at 11pm, human rights defender Mr José Guadalupe Ruelas García was severely beaten in front of the Presidential Palace by members of the military police before being detained. He was detained on the grounds of driving dangerously and under the influence of alcohol. The alcohol tests, however, confirm his sobriety. He now faces charges of causing harm and injury. José Guadalupe Ruelas García is the Director of Casa Alianza – Honduras (Housing Alliance – Honduras), working on the rights of children and young people in Honduras. The human rights organisation offers crisis care, attention for victims of sexual exploitation and human trafficking, and assistance for children struggling with drug addictions. The organisation has published research on the impact of government policies upon children.
The human rights defender was driving in front of the Presidential Palace after a meeting with officials of Plan International, when police signalled him to stop. A few minutes later, a motorbike collided with the human rights defenders car, while it was still stationary. The military police forced José Guadalupe Ruelas García out of the car and began to hit and kick him. They insulted him and confiscated his wallet, car and other belongings in the car. They reportedly took 200 USD before dragging the human rights defender to the entrance of the Presidential Palace. -
At 12am, the human rights defender was brought to the first entry of the Kennedy colony. The officials performed six alcohol breath-tests. Despite his requests, José Guadalupe Ruelas García did not receive medical attention. The human rights defender's wife and son, two journalists and a representative of the Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH) were present at the station. At approximately 3:30am, the police brought the human rights defender to the old Core 7 office, where the Prosecutor ordered that José Guadalupe Ruelas García receive medical treatment. At 4:30am, he was treated by a doctor in Viera Hospital who performed another alcohol level test that reportedly confirmed that the human rights defender was not over the legal limit. At 10am, the police brought him to Core 7 before releasing him. José Guadalupe Ruelas García spent the next two days in hospital. The human rights defender is in recovery, but fearful of the impact of the claims on his reputation as a human rights defender. José Guadalupe Ruelas García has been charged with causing harm and injury and a hearing will be heard on 16 May 2014.
The incidents come two days after a statement by the human rights defender in the media criticising the policies of the government towards children. A report published by Casa Alianza - Honduras last month concluded that, since January 2014, 259 children were murdered in the country, the majority with firearms, but some were also killed by blanks, asphyxiation, burnings and other undetermined means. José Guadalupe Ruelas García stated that there exists a systematic campaign of child killings, adding that “violent deaths of girls, boys and young people have increased in this country, and with greater brutality due to the bad policies implemented to fight the problem, because instead of cameras, gates or military battalions, conditions of cohabitation must be created.”
- See more at: http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/25926#sthash.lgsU5m8j.dpuf
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URGENT ACTION
CHILDREN’S RIGHTS DEFENDER BEATEN, DETAINED
The Director of Casa Alianza Honduras, a children’s rights organization, was beaten and
detained by military police on 8 May. He believes his mistreatment was in retaliation for
speaking out against violence against children in Honduras and denouncing government
inaction on the matter.
Late in the evening on 8 May, José Guadalupe Ruelas, director of the children’s charity Casa Alianza in Honduras, was driving the organization’s car and wearing clothes with the organization’s markings, when he was bsignalled to stop at a military police checkpoint in front of the presidential residence in Honduras’ capital Tegucigalpa. José Guadalupe Ruelas says his car was stationary when a policeman on a motorbike collided with it.
He stated that he was pulled out of the car by military police and beaten in the face, head, ribs and legs. He was then pulled by the legs face down and kicked. The police also took José Guadalupe Ruelas’ belongings, including a laptop, before bringing him to a police station. When local human rights organizations intervened, José Guadalupe Ruelas was taken to hospital for check-ups, where he remained under police custody until late on 9 May.
José Guadalupe Ruelas believes that his mistreatment was in retaliation for speaking out against the government in the previous weeks. In April, he presented a report denouncing the high levels of killings of children and young people in the country, with at least 270 violent deaths of people under the age of 23 occurring in the first four months of 2014. Ruelas wrote “there is an emerging pattern of organized people with access to expensive vehicles, weapons and equipment, who kidnap, torture and kill poor children and youths, in almost total impunity”.
In May, after the discovery of the dismembered bodies of four children, José Guadalupe Ruelas was interviewed by the media and said that none of the numerous Honduran laws aimed at protecting children were being implemented by government due to corruption and impunity.
http://www.friendshipamericas.org/sites/default/files/Amnesty%20Statement%20on%20José%20Ruelas.pdf
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Here's the human rights worker a troll would claim is simply a drunk:
Honduras: Maryknoll joins public statement on beating of Casa Alianza director
From the Honduras Accompaniment Project:
On Thursday May 8 at approximately 11:30 pm José Guadalupe Ruelas García (right), the director of Casa Alianza of Honduras, was brutally beaten in front of the Presidential Palace in Tegucigalpa by members of the Honduran Military Police.
Ruelas was stopped at by military police near the Presidential Palace while driving a vehicle owned by Casa Alizana and was wearing a Casa Alianza shirt, when a motorcycle carrying guards assigned to the Security Minister Corrales, plowed into his parked vehicle. At that point, military and police pulled him violently from his vehicle and threw him to the ground, kicking him brutally. They then dragged him by his feet, face down, to the main gate of the Presidential Palace. His wallet, identification and cell phone were taken and the vehicle was impounded.
Ruelas was detained by police throughout the night without access to medical attention for injuries sustained as a result of being beaten, kicked and dragged by members of the Honduran state security forces.
At 4:30 am, May 9, Ruelas was finally transported to the hospital from the police station. At the hospital, transit police gave declarations to the press stating that his “injuries were the result of a traffic collision." PROAH accompanied COFADEH (Committee of the Families of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras) to the criminal court to present a habeas corpus for Ruelas and to file a report of the beating with the Public Ministry.
On the morning of May 10, Ruelas left the hospital, where he had been held in the intensive care unit.
On May 12, Casa Alianza held a press conference at which Ruelas expressed fear that the state has mounted a smear campaign against him and that he will suffer new attacks. He also demanded that the public prosecutor who also investigated the murder of the son of Julieta Castellanos, Rector of UNAH (National University of Honduras) take his case rather than the current public prosecutor who is married to an official at the Ministry of Security.
More:
http://maryknollogc.org/article/honduras-maryknoll-joins-public-statement-beating-casa-alianza-director
