Evidence the DEA Attempted to Alter Testimony on Drug War Massacre in Honduras
Evidence the DEA Attempted to Alter Testimony on Drug War Massacre in Honduras
By Karen Spring Rights Action | 26 / January / 2015
Clara Wood survived a shooting carried out during a joint Honduras-U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) drug interdiction operation in the Moskitia region in eastern Honduras on May 11, 2012. Her 14-year old son, Hasked Brooks Wood, was killed during shooting.
To date, no Honduran or U.S. agents have been held accountable for the death of four Miskitu indigenous people who were assassinated and three who were gravely injured during the attack Between February and March 2013, three Honduran agents were acquitted for their involvement in the May 2012 incident. Honduran authorities say that the U.S. Embassy refuses to hand over the names of the U.S. agents involved in the massacre, thus obstructing investigation of the case.
New Developments
Beginning in mid-2013, Clara Wood and a family member of a woman killed during the operation began receiving phone calls from a Honduran man that identified himself as ‘Eddie’. Eddie offered to help them, including insisting that they drop their current legal representation and allow him to find them – the survivors and family members – a ‘better’ lawyer to take on their case. He told Clara he had friends in the U.S. Embassy that could help her. He suggested the other survivor, who he was also trying to convince to change legal representation, travel to San Pedro Sula with a woman rumored in Ahuas to traffic sex workers.
On two occasions in February 2014, Mrs. Wood traveled with Eddie to Tegucigalpa for questioning conducted by individuals that she was told were Americans and/or worked for the Drug Enforcement Administration. On the first trip, two U.S. men attempted to convince Mrs. Wood to alter her testimony regarding the series of events that led up to the May 2012 massacre.
On this trip, Eddie told Wood that she would receive 100,000 Lempiras ($5,000 USD) if she said that two men in the passenger boat fired first at the helicopter. Later that day, after proposing she return to Tegucigalpa to speak with colleagues of his coming from Washington, Mr. Andres asked Wood to bring her bank account number, apparently confirming Eddie’s offer.
More:
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/14509
