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Honduras: First Report of the OAS Anti-Corruption Mission to be Published Next Week

  November 21, 2016

The first half-yearly report of the Mission to Support the Fight against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (MACCIH) of the Organization of American States (OAS) will be made public on December 1 in the Permanent Council of the Organization.

The announcement took place following a meeting held today between the Secretary General of the Organization, Luis Almagro, Honduran authorities, and MACCIH officials.

The meeting included the participation of the President of the Judiciary of Honduras, Rolando Argueta; the Attorney General, Oscar Chinchilla; the Minister of the Presidency Reinaldo Sánchez; the Ambassador to the OAS, Leónidas Rosa Bautista; and the former Foreign Minister Arturo Corrales. The MACCIH was represented by its Spokesperson and Special Representative of the Secretary General, Juan Jiménez Mayor, together with other senior officials of the anti-corruption mission working in Honduras since last April. The Secretary for Strengthening Democracy of the OAS, Francisco Guerrero, also participated in the meeting.

“The MACCIH carries out its tasks in a framework of autonomy and independence, which is critical to preserve at all times for the achievement of the results in the struggle against corruption and impunity that must be achieved in the medium term,” said the Secretary General of the OAS Luis Almagro.

In the meeting held today a summary was presented of a work meeting held last Friday between representatives of the state and of the MACCIH, planned weeks before. The meeting reviewed the achievements of the Mission in recent months, and presented the results and challenges that lie ahead, as well as the technical mechanisms for evaluation and follow-up.

The Secretary General highlighted the political will of the President of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, in the process that made the presence of the MACCIH in the country possible, and the openness to cooperation of the Attorney General and the President of the Judiciary.

“It is essential that everyone understands the active work of collaboration by the MACCIH with the institutions of Honduras in the persecution of those who commit crimes of corruption and in the eradication of impunity. The MACCIH cannot itself arrest the guilty, but Honduran institutions can,” underlined Almagro.

During the meeting, the central role of the active participation of civil society through the Observatory of Criminal Justice was emphasized.

Reference: E-224/16