Billy Fernando Joya Améndola

Billy Fernando Joya Améndola (known as Billy Joya ) is a military man and politician based in Honduras.

Life

Joya was a member of the Batallón 3-16 death squad from 1984 to 1991 under the code name Licenciado Arrazola . He was chief of the department Destacamento Técnico Especial , coordinator of the units of the Batallón 3-16 in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula , a liaison officer to the US military advisers, the US - embassy staff and the Argentine military advisers .

With this experience he founded his own death squad Lince de los Cobras , which, together with the Batallón, carried out 3-16 missions from bases in Guatemala in almost all of Central America.

These two death squads, or members of them, have continued their activities in Honduras from the early 1980s to the present day, which consists of targeting people labeled "subversive" by the military - political activists, students, professors, trade unionists, progressive politicians, and progressive foreigners threaten, kidnap, torture and ultimately kill.

The Batallón 3-16 received instruction from Argentine officers in abduction and torture methods, a military relationship between the two countries that was supported by the US. The battalion was then instructed in reconnaissance techniques and psychological interrogation by the CIA .

Batallón 3-16 and Lince de los Cobras were two secret military squadrons that did not operate from publicly known military bases, such as the Soto Cano Air Force Base, but rather from secret military facilities in Honduras, many of which were visited and monitored by CIA agents . The US Ambassador to Honduras from 1981 to 1985, John Dimitri Negroponte, helped set up and maintain these secret military facilities.

Joya was charged with direct criminal responsibility in at least 16 cases, which resulted in more than ten people being murdered and tortured. These include the missions in the settlements: La Campaña , La Matamoros , la San Francisco , La Florencia Sur , la Aurora , Guamilito and Loarque .

In July 1995, he and other senior officers were charged with illegal arrest, murder of detainees, and abuse of office in the case of six students.

From April 1996, Joya was converted in Seville in the parish of Sagrados Corazones de Jesús y de María , his brother-in-law was then in charge of their joint security company, Seguridad SAS-CTV, in Honduras . On May 30, 1997, the Spanish Interior Ministry rejected an extradition request from the Honduran authorities.

In February 1999 he was charged in the case of the missing student Hans Albert Madisson López.

In March 1999 Joya was charged with the illegal arrest, torture, ill-treatment and abuse of office in the case of the Reyes Bacca couple.

In the case of the six students, judge Manuel Cardona revised the sentence on the prison sentence, since according to his judgment in this case Joya could no longer be classified as an illegal arrest. The retired colonel, who had been on the run up to then and had a final four-year prison sentence, presented himself to a criminal court on December 15, 1998, according to which the Supreme Court had upheld an amnesty law for human rights crimes committed by the military on December 14, 1998 . In the mood after Hurricane Mitch , his sentence was commuted to a fine of 2,400 Lempiras . Joya remained in custody in the Primer Batallón de Infantería for two months . The judge, who was aware of the causal case, used the Auto Acordado (procedural approval ) of the Supreme Court of July 1996, according to which persons of his rank enjoy the privilege of impunity.

In 2004 Joya was a retired colonel against the three investigative cases pending, enjoyed parole and was an active campaigner in the presidential primaries for the mayor of Tegucigalpa Miguel Rodrigo Pastor Mejia in Partido Nacional .

At the end of 2004, a lawsuit against Colonel Billy Fernando Joya Amendola, along with former Chief of Staff Oscar Ramon Hernandez Chavez, Raymundo Alexander Hernandez Santos and Segundo Flores Murillo, for the murder of the student Hans Madisson, continued. None of the accused was in custody at the end of 2004. At the end of 2004, Jose Barrera Martinez had a witness expected to be arrested in cases related to Madisson's murder, but the warrants were not carried out.

In 2006, Joya threatened Honduran citizens.

In 2006, Joya became an advisor to the Minister of Security, Alvaro Romero, in the Manuel Zelaya government .

In July 2009, Joya became special ministerial advisor in the coup government of Roberto Micheletti .

See also

• Gustavo Adolfo Álvarez Martínez

Individual evidence

1. ^ School of the Americas Graduates and the Honduran Coup d'état. In: ¡Presente! Retrieved December 13, 2009 . 
2. ↑ El País , 9/08/1998, El paraíso español de Billy Joya, Un ex miembro de los 'escuadrones de la muerte' de Honduras se ampara en el derecho de asilo para esquivar a la justicia de su país
3. ↑ Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras , Hans Albert Madisson López
4. ↑ Periodistas en espanol , 03 de Agosto de 2008, El periodista Oscar Reyes Baca exige a Honduras 26 millones de dólares por la persecución sufrida en 1982
5. ↑ The Miami Herald , December 28, 1998 to http://www.marrder.com/htw/dec98/national.htm
6. ↑ COFADEH , Tegucigalpa, 2005, Algunos datos sobre Billy Fernando Joya Améndola, responsable de crímenes contra la humanidad
7. ↑ COFADEH , Situación de los Derechos Humanos en Honduras, Resumen 2004
8. ↑ honduraslaboral, Hans Madisson
9. ↑ Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor February 28, 2005, Honduras 2004
10. ^ COFADEH , Integrante del 3-16 ejecuta hostigamiento sistemático en contra de ciudadano
11. ^ Anne Vigna, from the French by Sabine Jainski: Crosses in Honduras. With the presidential elections, the transition to non-democracy is complete. In: Le Monde diplomatique No. 9089. www.monde-diplomatique.de, January 15, 2010, accessed on July 31, 2014 . 
12. ^ Sabine Masson: Revolt against the coup. In: amerika21.de. Portal amerika21.de, August 27, 2009, accessed on July 31, 2014 : “In July, Micheletti's regime appointed Billy Joya, a former Cobra commander and member of Death Squad 3-16 from 1986 to 1991, as advisory minister. "