Families of Police Commission Members Moved to U.S.

The wives and children of two men who are working to root out widespread police corruption in Honduras have been moved temporarily to the United States.

Because of threats of violence and intimidation, Bernarda Hernandez and Elizabeth Rivera and their children recently moved to an unspecified location in the U.S.

Their husbands—Carlos Hernandez and Omar Rivera—are serving on a presidential commission that has already removed more than 160 corrupt, top-level police officers from their jobs.

Late last week, in connection to the probe, the U.S. also issued indictments, charging six Hondurans living in the U.S. with drug trafficking.

“My husband is working to bring the most important topic to the table, and that is security for all of the people of Honduras,” said Elizabeth Rivera in an interview.

“For our families, this is very difficult, but we have the privilege of having brave husbands,” said Bernarda Hernandez.

“In Honduras, the general public is behind them and their work. . . . We have God in our hearts and know God is in control.”

Both Carlos Hernandez and Omar Rivera are affiliated with the Association for a More Just Society (AJS), a social justice organization that was cofounded by a Calvin College sociologist and is recommended for support by the CRC.

The CRC has played a role in resettling their wives and children to the U.S., say AJS officials.

For the past several years, AJS has fought for better health care and education, land rights, and protection for victims of sexual violence in Honduras.

The organization has also been advocating to wipe out corruption in the 14,000-member Honduran National Police Force. As a result of its advocacy work, Rivera and Hernandez and Alberto Solorzano, Honduran pastor and a member of the AJS board, were named in April to what is called the Special Commission for the Purging and Transformation of the Police Force.

The commission was formed by the Honduran president and other lawmakers following media accounts of high-ranking police involvement in the assassination seven years ago of the head of the drug enforcement agency in Honduras.

But as the probe has unfolded, intimidation has increased against AJS officials and their families.

Bernarda Hernandez said that in May she was at work at a private school where she is a teacher when she received a phone call from her husband saying he had received a threat.

He had been at home sleeping, and when he awoke, he found a note slipped under the gate to their home, saying, “You’re going to pay.”

“We had bodyguards, and I felt relatively safe until then,” she said. But that note helped to convince her of the need to leave Honduras.

Elizabeth Rivera recalls how an unfamiliar car followed her vehicle one day for miles as she was taking her children to school.

Almost every day, she said, the news media in Honduras feature stories on their husbands and the work they are doing. While many in the country consider their husbands heroes, there are others, especially police officers who have lost their jobs, who are angry.

“We realized we needed to keep our family safe. We also decided to leave Honduras so our husbands can be at peace, not having to worry about us, in the very difficult work they are doing,” said Rivera.

AJS officials say they are thankful for the support the CRC has shown in this situation. In addition, they ask people to visit AJS.org to offer prayer, to sign a petition seeking the backing of U.S. and Canadian lawmakers in conducting the police probe, and to donate funds to support AJS's work in police reform.