16 * h) * * Expert opinion of Leo José Rodrigo Valladares Lanza, former National Human Rights Commissioner in Honduras The country’s situation was set within the framework of the final stage of the peacemaking process in Central America. During the 1980s, there were conflicts throughout the region, and Honduras was in the midst of the countries with domestic conflicts: Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. It was the final stage of the peacemaking process, at least in El Salvador, as the Peace Accords were already being signed, and in Nicaragua there had been a transfer of government from the Sandinistas to Mrs. Violeta Barrios. During this stage in Honduras the judiciary system and its investigations of criminal acts were entrusted to the military forces; through the doctrine of national security, the latter deemed that the only way to combat so-called subversion or insurgency was to create clandestine groups that, outside all judicial control and that of other authorities, took upon themselves the right to signal persons who were dangerous, deprive them of their freedom, torture them, and sometimes kill them and make them disappear. At the time, in 1992, Honduras still had a system in which the armed forces were clearly predominant and they were granted a special, autonomous status. This entailed control of the whole police system by the armed forces. Generally, the Commanders of the Public Security Forces came from the army, the land forces; they had strictly military training, and the police was militarized. They also controlled customs, airports, and immigration. With respect to the security forces operating in the border region between Honduras and El Salvador at the time, on the Honduran side there were three important camps: Mesa Grande, San Antonio, and Colomoncagua. The Honduran authorities suspected that the refugee camps were rest areas for the Salvadoran guerrilla, as they were very close to the borders and this supposedly allowed the Salvadoran guerrillas to reach the camps, benefit from the humanitarian aid, rest, and then go back to fight. Therefore, the camps were subject to rigorous external control, as internally they were under the control of UNHCR by agreement with the Honduran authorities. The area was part of the jurisdiction of the Tenth Battalion, based in the town of Marcala, in the Department of La Paz. However, special border control was necessary, and therefore the territorial forces were created to guard the border. The border problem between Honduras and El Salvador had not yet been solved at the time, and there were some sectors called “bolsones” or “pockets,” claimed by both countries. What they did then was to maintain a type of status quo in which they did not intervene within those disputed areas or lands. Since they could not intervene in them, the Honduran military forces guarded the area more and more closely. In 1992, the public security forces, that is the police, and the Tenth Battalion as well as the territorial forces were all under the joint high command of the armed forces. The Tenth Battalion was a regular force. The territorial forces had a specific mission. When there was an action in which the Tenth Battalion had participated or which was in some manner a border protection one, they transferred it to the territorial forces. The military forces did not have legal authority as such,