immersion in water laced with feces, forced nasal inhalation of liquids, hangings, prolonged nudity, being forced to torture other detainees, mock execution with firearms, threats to kidnap their families... 25 39. The National Human Rights Commissioner stated in the report “Preliminary Report on Missing Persons in Honduras” that forced disappearances and extrajudicial executions from 1980 to 1993 were perpetrated by the armed forces intelligence units, particularly Intelligence Battalion 3-16 (hereinafter “Battalion 3-16”), known as one of the “death squads.” The members of this security corps were trained in activities of counterinsurgency to fight against a perceived “communist threat.” 40. Strict military control over the police and judiciary led to a widespread climate of impunity whenever human rights violations were reported. There is no evidence the Office of the Public Prosecutor of Honduras had initiated any proceedings against military or police personnel for these cases. B. The death of Herminio Deras García 41. Herminio Deras García, born in September 1941, lived in the city of San Pedro Sula in the department of Cortés, Honduras. He was a teacher by profession, a political leader with the Honduran Communist Party, and advisor to several trade unions 26 from the northern coast of Honduras. 27 Herminio Deras García also wrote for his party’s newspaper Vanguardia Revolucionaria. 28 At the time of his death, Deras García was serving as Second Secretary General of the Communist Party and used pseudonyms to elude repression (supra paras. 37 to 40), including “Diego” and “La Liebre” (the hare). On the morning of November 26, 1981, the Third Infantry Battalion and agents from 42. the National Department of Investigation (Dirección Nacional de Investigación, hereinafter “DNI”) raided the home of Herminio Deras García and his wife Otilia Flores Ortiz, 29 destroyed the lock on the outer gate to the home, smashed the furniture and ceiling, and took several personal objects, all without a search warrant. 30 The people in the house at the time the agents arrived were Maria del Carmen Gonzales, niece of Otilia Flores Ortiz, the domestic Expert opinion by José Eugenio Sosa Iglesias, April 30, 2022 (evidence file, folio 2386). According to his sister, Alba Deras García, “[a]s advisor to the trade unions from the northern coast, [Herminio Deras García] helped the unions with collective bargaining agreements. This aroused concern because the workers were making major demands of their employers and sometimes won very good contracts. It was, in fact, a major collective bargaining process that triggered a large-scale strike in 1979, which marked the beginning of violent, systematic, lethal persecution against Herminio and other union workers and members of the Communist Party, who were murdered, went missing, or were jailed.” Statement by Alba Luz Deras García, April 28, 2022 (evidence file, folios 2361 to 2362). 27 Herminio Deras García was, in the words of his wife, Otilia Flores Ortiz, a “labor advisor and educator.” Cf. Statement by Otilia Flores Ortiz in the public hearing on the instant case. 28 His sister stated that, through this newspaper, Herminio Deras García “gave his political position on the events of the day in the country, called for a workers’ struggle, a trade-union struggle, and for unity among trade unions for a better Honduras. Herminio […] was very skillful at writing and articulating his political and ideological ideas. He always taught us to be readers, and very often we helped him distribute it […] and he asked us to help him spread his ideas. Statement by Irma Isabel Deras García in the public hearing on the instant case. 29 Otilia Flores Ortiz was 34 years old in 1981 and worked in the records office of the National Autonomous 25 26 University of Honduras, at the northern regional campus. She was also an active member of the Union of Workers of the National Autonomous University of Honduras (Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras, SITRAUNAH). 30 Otilia Deras Flores said, “...in 1981 my house was searched, destroyed, they stole everything, they mistreated us […]. When they raided the house, […] [Elba Flores] protested because they were destroying everything in the house, and they were taking everything from the house. Herminio had started a book, writing a book on agrarian reform, they took it, they burned the whole thing, and I was never able to recover it.” Statement by Otilia Flores Ortiz, supra.