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January 29, 2015<br>
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<br>
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<div class="subheadlinestyle"><b><big><big>Killing in the Name of
the War on Drugs</big></big></b></div>
<h1 class="article-title">Evidence the DEA Attempted to Alter
Testimony on Massacre in Honduras</h1>
<div class="mainauthorstyle">by KAREN SPRING</div>
<div class="main-text">
<p>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 <a
href="http://www.google.hn/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cepr.net%2Fdocuments%2Fpublications%2Fhonduras-2012-08.pdf&ei=pjqHVJaBAYi2yQSSmIHoCA&usg=AFQjCNHbQpCj9S6phYt4cOUB0k_zX7iAZQ&sig2=boq65qX2qeVZ58FzWQqKRA"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.google.hn']);">killed</a>
during shooting.</p>
<p>To date, no Honduran or U.S. agents have been held <a
href="http://www.google.hn/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCgQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cepr.net%2Fdocuments%2Fpublications%2Fhonduras-ahuas-2013-04.pdf&ei=pjqHVJaBAYi2yQSSmIHoCA&usg=AFQjCNFLqHPl6xUFYnLHepgMp8Pb6wrZtg&sig2=3sJmu4EJHLwTjiwt76mYNQ&bvm=bv.81449611,d.aWw"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.google.hn']);">accountable</a>
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 <a
href="http://www.defensoresenlinea.com/cms/index.php?view=article&catid=37%3Amem-y-imp&id=3164%3Acofadeh-apela-resolucion-emitida-por-juzgado-de-primera-instancia-en-el-caso-ahuas&tmpl=component&print=1&page=&option=com_content&Itemid=150"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.defensoresenlinea.com']);">acquitted</a>
for their involvement in the May 2012 incident. Honduran
authorities say that the U.S. Embassy <a
href="http://truth-out.org/news/item/17759-us-embassy-dea-obstructing-investigation-into-drug-war-killings-in-honduras"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://truth-out.org']);">refuses</a>
to hand over the names of the U.S. agents involved in the
massacre, thus obstructing investigation of the case.</p>
<p><strong>New Developments</strong></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>During questioning, the two Americans – one identified as
‘Mr. Andres’ – insisted that two men in the passenger boat in
which Wood was traveling opened fired at the U.S. State
Department helicopter, thus justifying the helicopter shooting
and killing four innocent civilians.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>On the second trip, as Eddie escorted her to the meeting, he
stopped at a pharmacy and asked for a pill to calm nerves,
which he gave to Clara and she took. She was then taken to a
building that she understood to be the U.S. Embassy and hooked
up to a polygraph machine.</p>
<p>She recounts that an American man who identified himself as
working with the DEA began administering the polygraph test
and soon asked her if she had taken any kind of medication. He
then left the room and she heard him speaking in the hall with
Mr. Andres who came in, asked her who had given her a pill,
and said they would no longer administer the test because she
did not want to tell the truth. Throughout both trips, Wood
refused to alter her testimony and stood by her <a
href="http://www.google.hn/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cepr.net%2Fdocuments%2Fpublications%2Fhonduras-2012-08.pdf&ei=ozyHVNuXB82fyASB2YG4Bw&usg=AFQjCNHbQpCj9S6phYt4cOUB0k_zX7iAZQ&sig2=R3cfMvOladgU_KS5eNJvYw&bvm=bv.81449611,d.aWw"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.google.hn']);">original
account</a> of the events of the 2012 massacre.</p>
<p>It is possible that the February 2014 contact with Clara Wood
is linked to an internal investigation being conducted by the
U.S. Department of Justice and the State Department or an
internal investigation that the DEA announced it was
conducting in May 2012. When a U.S. human rights observation
delegation questioned the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa about
contact with Mrs. Wood in November 2014, they were told that
the Embassy had limited knowledge of the contact, but that
they had been contacted first by someone claiming to have
information about the May 2012 incident.</p>
<p><em>The following is Wood’s testimony of her initial contact
with Eddie, her two trips to Tegucigalpa and the questioning
she endured without legal representation:</em></p>
<p><strong>‘Eddie’ Makes Contact with Massacre Survivor, Clara
Wood.</strong></p>
<p>Eddie first contacted Clara Wood in December of 2013. “He
told me he is from San Pedro Sula, the first time he called me
from San Pedro and he told me that he saw me on the internet
and he pitied me because I’m poor. He said that he knows
people who help poor people . . . He was going to take me to
those people who can help me.”</p>
<p>Eddie told Clara that he had gotten her phone number from
Clara’s cousin who lives in Puerto Lempira, Gracias a Dios.
Repeatedly over the next few months, Eddie called Clara,
asking how she was doing. During these conversations, he made
references to the killing of her son Hasked Brooks Wood in the
DEA-Honduran government massacre in Ahuas on May 11, 2012.</p>
<p>“He always called me on my cell phone, asking how I’m doing,
sometimes sending me phone credit to my phone. [We spoke] in
the months of December [2013], January, and February.”</p>
<p>In February 2014, Eddie phoned Clara and invited her to come
to Tegucigalpa. He told her that he had people in Tegucigalpa
who would help her because of the loss of her son.</p>
<p>“[Eddie] called me one day before he went to Roatan. The day
he arrived, he called me, ‘Listen, where are you? I’m in
Roatan’ he told me.”</p>
<p>The next day, Eddie went to Wood’s house. Wood describes him
as “dark- skinned, I don’t know how old – he was heavy set,
muscular, not young, he’s a grown man. He spoke Spanish and
English.”</p>
<p>Eddie picked Mrs. Wood up at her house, and the two of them
went by ferry to the mainland and then by public bus to
Tegucigalpa. Upon arriving in Tegucigalpa, Eddie took Clara to
the Hotel Guanacaste. For the rest of the day, Clara stayed in
her room. Eddie reserved a room for himself adjacent to
Clara’s room.</p>
<p><strong>Questioning and Interrogation in ‘US Embassy’ in
Tegucigalpa</strong></p>
<p>Early the following morning, Eddie took Clara by taxi to a
building that Clara believed to be the U.S. Embassy “I don’t
remember the color of the house, it had flowers outside and an
entrance.It’s a low-rise building, one level.”</p>
<p>Outside what Clara was told was a U.S. Embassy building,
stood a Honduran guard and “the guard inside [the building]
was American – I saw his [skin] color, his hat and his clothes
were khakis. He spoke Spanish but because of his clothes, I
knew he was American.”</p>
<p>Once inside the building, she was asked for her
identification. A man named Mr. Andres met Wood and Eddie at
the door. “Mr. Andres said ‘Hi Eddie.’ They hugged.”</p>
<p>Wood describes Mr. Andres as “an older man . . . he had the
physical build of an American and he told me he was American.”
Mr. Andres also spoke Spanish.</p>
<p>Mr. Andres led Wood into a room He said, “‘Let’s go inside’
and we left Eddie outside with the guard [at the entrance]. He
[Eddie] did not go into the room with me. Don Andres and
another man, yes”</p>
<p>Mr. Andres and a “tall” American man took Wood into a “small
room with no windows.” They began asking her questions about
the sequence of events of the incident that took place May 11,
2012 in Ahuas when she was in a boat that was fired on by
helicopters as part of a joint DEA-Honduran drug interdiction
operation.</p>
<p>Wood reiterated her entire testimony, including when the boat
was fired on, and her arrest upon getting to the shore of the
Patuca River. She said that she cried as she described how she
found her son Hasked’s dead body. The two men got her a glass
of water. Wood says at this point she was not scared.</p>
<p>“One [man] was standing behind me, the other was asking me
things. The older [tall] American man told me, ‘I’m sorry,
that was an accident, it was not our intention to kill
anyone.’”</p>
<p>Both men questioned Wood about what had happened that night,
specifically whether any passengers on the boat had guns.</p>
<p>“Mr. Andres asked me to tell the truth–that Mr. Melanio and
Emerson [the pilot and his assistant on the boat the night of
May 11, 2012] provoked the helicopter [to fire]. And I told
him ‘no’, I told him no, I did not see that’, but he told me
that Emerson was a military soldier, that he had a gun under
his shirt and that people say that Emerson walked around with
a shotgun all the time, and that he had it [that night], but I
told him that it was night time, I didn’t see anything because
the boat left at 7 [at night] and I didn’t see anything.”</p>
<p>“I told him that I could not lie, because I saw shots fired,
but from the helicopter. I heard shots, but I did not know
where they came from, I heard four shots that came from above
– that’s what I told them.” She said that it was impossible
for Melanio to fire a gun because he would have lost control
of the boat.</p>
<p>During the questioning, Clara reports that Mr. Andres asked
her for a bank account number. She responded that she did not
have one.</p>
<p>Mr. Andres also asked Clara about Eddie. “He asked me if
Eddie gave me anything. I said that he had not given me
anything [money]. He gave me food, drink, he brings me from
the hotel. He has not given me anything, I told them”</p>
<p>Mr. Andres said that he gave Eddie $500 dollars to give to
Wood and then wrote a Honduran phone number down on a piece of
paper. Mr. Andres then gave Wood the piece of paper, telling
her to call him if she needed anything.</p>
<p>“I gave $500 to Eddie for the expenses. Did he give it to
you?’” Asked Mr. Andres. “’He never gave me anything’ I said,
‘I haven’t received anything in my hand’ I told them.”</p>
<p>When the questioning was over, Wood was taken back to the
hotel. Upon arriving, Eddie asked her for the piece of paper
that Mr. Andres had given her. She gave it to him and he did
not give it back to her. Back at the hotel, Eddie told Wood
that they would deposit 100,000 Lps [$5000] in her account if
she “told the truth.”</p>
<p>“How much are you going to give me when they give you the
money?’ Eddie asked Clara. ‘I don’t know,’ Clara told him.
“You’ll give me 70,000 … how much will you give me?’ said
Eddie. ‘They’re going to give it to you,” Eddie told Clara.</p>
<p>“No, I don’t think they will give me anything, I said.”</p>
<p>The following morning, Wood, accompanied by Eddie, traveled
back to the island of Roatan. Eddie went with Wood to
Siguatepeque where he got off the bus, while Wood continued on
to Roatan</p>
<p><strong>Lie Detector Test and Clara’s Second Trip to
Tegucigalpa with Eddie</strong></p>
<p>Wood relates, “In the same month of February, two weeks
later, he brought me back again. Eddie went to Roatan, Eddie
went to my house to take me [to Tegucigalpa].”</p>
<p>Upon arriving, she was told that she would wait for a man
from the DEA who was coming from the United States. She waited
for two days in Tegucigalpa in the hotel. Eddie brought her
food and she did not leave the hotel much. When Clara and
Eddie did leave the hotel, Eddie gave Clara sunglasses to put
on so that people would not recognize her.</p>
<p>“I was waiting for two days in the hotel in the Guanacaste
[neighborhood] waiting with him [Eddie] and they came
specifically to put a polygraph on my body. They came for
that.”</p>
<p>During the time they waited in the hotel, Eddie made
reference to money that Clara would receive if she “told the
truth.” Clara was told that “They are going to give you money
if you tell the truth. ‘I will tell the truth’, I told him,
I’m going to speak about the same thing that I saw, I cannot
say lies’ I told him. ‘No, you were going to say that Melanio
and Emerson fired,’ he told me. ‘But I cannot lie’ I told him.</p>
<p>Eddie told Wood that he received a call asking him to make
sure that Wood slept well, ate well, and did not take any
medications before going to what Wood believes was the U.S.
Embassy again.</p>
<p>On the third day, early in the morning Eddie took Wood again
by taxi to the same house that she assumed to be the U.S.
Embassy. On their way to the Embassy, they stopped at a
pharmacy.</p>
<p>“Eddie came with me and close to the Embassy, he bought a
pill to calm nerves.” Eddie told Wood that the pill would help
her with her nerves. She took the pill even though she had not
asked for it nor did she feel like she needed it.</p>
<p>Eddie and Wood walked from the pharmacy to the building. Wood
was taken inside and led into a room alone with a man who told
her he had come from the United States specifically to give
her the polygraph test and worked with the DEA. He began
asking Clara questions about the series of events that
occurred on May 11, 2012. Shortly after, he asked Clara if she
had taken any medication.</p>
<p>“Then he asked me what I had taken. He [then] left the room
and went outside where they were waiting. Mr. Andres was
outside with the other American . . . and then Mr. Andres came
into the room. Mr. Andres said – ‘You don’t want to tell the
truth on the machine’. Eddie told me that you were going to
speak the truth but you don’t want to speak’. The man from the
DEA [giving the lie detector test] asked me what pill I had
taken. I told him that Eddie had bought me a pill. ‘But I told
him not to give you anything,’ he said, that he told Eddie to
make sure I ate dinner, and went to bed early and to not take
anything. I don’t know,’ I told him, he stopped at a pharmacy
and bought a pill. He asked me what pill I had taken, a pill
for nerves?’ I said ‘Yes, he bought it for me”</p>
<p>Upset and crying Clara was taken off the lie detector test.
Eddie then took Clara back to the hotel telling her that “for
a little thing, we lost everything.”</p>
<p>Eddie gave her food for dinner, but she did not eat it. She
went to her room. The following morning, Clara traveled back
to Roatan by herself. Eddie gave her 1,200 Lempiras [60 USD]
for her travel costs, but it was not enough for her to get
back to Roatan.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">* * *</p>
<p>Mrs. Wood’s testimony was taken over a series of interviews –
in person and by phone – from July to December 2014. The
purpose of the contact and polygraph test administered to Mrs.
Wood is unknown, however human rights organizations that are
accompanying Mrs. Wood and other survivors of the Ahuas
incident are concerned for her safety. The manner in which
Mrs. Wood was contacted is alarming, as is the form in which
she was questioned by individuals associated with the DEA,
without any legal representative, in an attempt to alter her
testimony of the incident.</p>
<p>The survivors and family members continue to be hopeful in
seeking justice for the murder and injury of their loved ones
despite the impunity rampant in the Honduran justice system,
the failure of an adequate, complete, and public U.S.
investigation into the incident, and the unwillingness of the
U.S. Embassy to provide the names of the agents involved.</p>
<p>This May will mark the third year anniversary of the Drug War
massacre in Ahuas, and the complete impunity in which U.S. and
Honduran forces militarize, injury, and kill in the name of
the ‘War on Drugs’.</p>
<p><em><strong>Karen Spring</strong> is a member of Rights
Action based in Honduras and a contributor to the <a
href="http://www.cipamericas.org"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.cipamericas.org']);">Americas
Program</a>. </em></p>
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