2
5.
The IACHR also received information from the petitioners on the following dates: August 2,
2010; September 3, 2010; June to 2011; April 12, 2012; May 12, 2012; and August 4, 2012. Those
communications were duly forwarded to the State. In addition, it received information from the State on
the following dates: February 23, 2011; February 6, 2012; and June 28, 2012. That information was duly
relayed to the petitioners.
III.
POSITIONS OF THE PARTIES
A.
The Petitioners
6.
According to the petitioners, agents of the Honduran State extrajudicially executed
Herminio Deras García on January 29, 1983, in Barrio Las Flores, San Pedro Sula. They say that the time of
his death, Mr. Deras was a trade union advisor, member of the Communist Party, and primary school
teacher. They also say that the family of Mr. Deras García were subjected to illegal detentions, raids on
their homes, and torture by members of the security forces as part of a campaign of persecution against
Herminio Deras García, both before and after his extrajudicial execution.
7.
They argue that the extrajudicial execution of Mr. Deras was carried out in the framework
of a "National Security Policy" pursued by the State. They allege that there existed a pattern of persecution
against student, trade union, and grassroots organizations, whose members were kept under surveillance,
followed, kidnapped, forcibly disappeared, and extrajudicially executed by military units that acted in
connivance with the civilian authorities. They hold that the policy was part of an "ideological repression"
instituted by the State. In that connection, they claim that the killing of Herminio Deras García was an
extrajudicial execution committed by members of the security forces in the context of the abovedescribed state security policies.
8.
As part of the persecution, they say that on the morning of November 26, 1981, elements
of the Third Infantry Battalion and agents of the National Investigations Directorate [Dirección Nacional
de Investigaciones] (DNI) raided the home of Herminio Deras and his wife Otilia Flores. They burst in
violently without a court-issued warrant, destroyed furniture and roofs, stole property, and threatened
and arrested its occupants. In the house at the time were Elba Flores Ortiz, Otilia Flores’s sister; María del
Carmen Gonzáles, Otilia Flores’s niece; the domestic worker, and her daughter. They say that Elba Flores
Ortiz told the soldiers that Herminio and Otilia were not at home, to which the latter allegedly replied that
they would stay and wait for them. According to the petitioners, they took advantage of the interval to
detain everyone who visited the residence (students and trade unionists). They say that Herminio Deras
arrived home at about 4:00 p.m. with his wife and children, Lorena (age 11) and Herminio (age 7).
According to the petitioners, the soldiers forced Otilia to sit, locked up the children and pointed their
weapons at Mr. Deras, while a lieutenant said, “Now we’re going to kill this damned communist.” On that
occasion, Herminio Deras apparently managed to escape.
9.
Then the agents of the State allegedly arrested Elba Flores Ortiz and Otilia Flores, together
with the detained students and trade unionists, and took them blindfolded and handcuffed to facilities of
the DIN. They say that they were kept there for three days under constant interrogation, subjected to
degrading treatment, and tortured. One of the interrogators identified was the individual who was later
singled out by the courts of justice as the person who carried out the extrajudicial execution of Herminio
Deras.