Dokument #1122840
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Autor)
According to a report which appeared in
page 7 of the Central America NewsPak of 18 June-1 July 1990
(attached) originating from a Honduran News Service (SHN) cable
published by the Mexican newspaper Excelsior on 21 June
1990, desertion is a punishable crime in Honduras.
In a telephone conversation with the IRBDC
on 17 July 1990, the Central America Resource Centre of Austin,
Texas (publishers of the Central America NewsPak) stated
that according to a recent report whose date was not provided a
youth had been accidentally shot by the army during a search for
deserters. According to the quoted report, the search apparently
had the purpose of arresting the deserters.
The Embassy of Honduras in Ottawa provided
in a telephone conversation with the IRBDC on 17 July 1990 the
information in the following paragraph. However, the source stated
that this information should be considered unofficial as it
corresponds to the information immediately available to it at the
time of the conversation. The Embassy of Honduras has offered to
research its legal holdings and other sources. A written request
for an official response on the subject has been submitted to the
Embassy and as soon as a response is received by the IRBDC, it will
be forwarded to you.
According to the Embassy of Honduras in
Ottawa the maximum penalty usually imposed on deserters is
detention inside their own military unit for an unspecified period
of time. If the deserter has committed other crimes, he will be
forwarded to a military tribunal and after his trial, if found
guilty, he will be taken to a penitentiary. While under arrest in
his military unit, the deserter's reasons for escaping service
would be briefly investigated. The Embassy added that deserters are
usually released after a short period of time and not expected to
continue serving, possibly because they may not be considered very
reliable and holding them indefinitely would represent an
unnecessary expense.
Additional and/or corroborating information
on the requested subject could not be found among the sources
currently available to the IRBDC. As stated above, official or
other new information on the subject will be forwarded to you upon
arrival to the IRBDC.