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APPENDIX 14- Original text in Spanish
La Gaceta Republic of Honduras - Tegucigalpa, M.D.C., February 2, 2010
Legislative Branch
DECREE No. 2-2010
The National Congress:
WHEREAS: Honduras is a sovereign state of
laws, established as a free, democratic, and
independent republic, with the aim of ensuring
its inhabitants the enjoyment of justice, liberty,
culture, and economic and social wellbeing;
WHEREAS: Pursuant to the Constitution, our
form of government is republican, democratic,
and representative, to be exercised by three (3)
branches–the legislature, the executive, and the
judiciary–that are complementary, independent,
and not subordinated to each other;
WHEREAS: The framers of the Constitution
provided that the government be based on the
fundamental principle of participatory
democracy, crystallized with national
integration through the involvement of all
political sectors in the administration of the
State, thus ensuring and strengthening the
progress of Honduras on the basis of political
stability and national conciliation. And all this
with the aim of making citizen participation a
reality by instituting, for the purpose, legal
mechanisms for citizen consultation through
plebiscites and referenda;
WHEREAS: For the consolidation of
universal peace and democracy, Honduras
embraces the principles and practices of
international law and, to that end, binds itself to
respect and observe the international treaties
adopted and ratified by the branches of
government;
WHEREAS: Our Constitution orders that
alternation in the office of the President of the
Section A, Agreements and Laws
No. 32,129
Republic is obligatory and that any breach of
that mandate shall constitute the crime of
treason against the fatherland, bringing the
corresponding consequences of: (a) loss of
citizenship, (b) immediate cessation of
functions, and (c) disqualification from all
public offices for a period of ten (10) years,
irrespective of the sanctions of imprisonment
provided for in the Criminal Code;
WHEREAS: Upon taking office, all public
officials are obliged to swear loyalty to the
Republic and to observe and enforce the
Constitution and the law; to understand that as
public servants, they have no powers other than
those expressly conferred by law and that, as
the bearers of authority, they are legally
responsible for their official conduct, which is
subject to the law and at no time above it; and
that consequently, all actions taken beyond the
law shall be without effect and shall trigger
civil, criminal, and administrative
responsibility;
WHEREAS: The content of the constitutional
provisions referred to in the preceding
paragraph indicates that in Honduras the law is
not an instrument of power but that power is an
agent of the law, thus maintaining that the
functions performed by each of the three (3)
branches of government, when they arise from
what the current laws establish, must be
observed and complied with in all their terms;
WHEREAS: Amnesty is an act of government
and of sovereignty that is a part of the
constitutional system, which, through the
mandate of popular sovereignty, expressed with
the utmost clarity in the Supreme Law, may
only be extended by the National Congress,
solely and exclusively for the remission of
political crimes and common crimes associated
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therewith and may not be extended as a form of
pardon for any other type of criminal offense;
WHEREAS: When the State, through the
National Congress, covers political crimes and
their associated common crimes with the
blanket of remission, all it is doing is declining
or renouncing, in those circumstances, the
power to repress or punish those specific
criminal offenses, thereby eliminating the
criminal action and extinguishing the penalties
applicable to those actions and all their legal
effects with the exception of the right to redress
for the harm inflicted as a result of the agent’s
unlawful actions. With this, the beneficiaries of
the pardon are exempted from criminal
responsibility, in order to consolidate the unity
and peace of the nation;
WHEREAS: Doctrine defines as political
crimes all actions that aim to attack: (1) the
existence and security of the State, (2) the
system of government, and (3) the rights of the
citizen;
WHEREAS: For criminal purposes, political
crimes are defined as those indicated in Title
XI, Chapters I, II, and III, and Title XII,
Chapters II, V, VI, and VII, of the Second
Volume of the Criminal Code. Common crimes
associated with political crimes are those that
bear a direct or immediate relationship with a
political crime or that are a natural and usual
means for preparing, committing, or abetting
such a crime;
WHEREAS: To contribute to the peace,
harmony, and national reconciliation of the
Honduran family and thus prevent the
continuation of conflict for ideological and
political reasons, the approval of this pardon
extended by the State is appropriate.
WHEREAS: Honduran criminal law punishes
not only crimes consummated but also crimes
attempted, which it sanctions as if they had
been committed, taking them to exist when the
perpetrators carry out unmistakable acts of
execution which are not consummated for
reasons unrelated to the will of the perpetrators;
WHEREAS: The actions of the Executive,
expressly manifested by the incumbent serving
as the President of the Republic, in Cabinet, in
issuing Executive Decrees Nos. PCM-019-2009
and PCM-020-2009, both of May 26, 2009, and
both published in the official journal La Gaceta
No. 31,945 of June 25, 2009, together with the
numerous notorious facts revealed by most of
the public officials who worked with him and
for him, indicated that the judgment handed
down by the judiciary declaring the illegality of
the popular consultation known as the
“Survey,” the apparent aim of which was to
reveal public opinion regarding a review of the
Constitution of the Republic as a whole,
including the Untouchable Articles, would not
be obeyed, in an act of open contempt and
illegality that would entail disregarding one of
the branches of government;
WHEREAS: The Honduran State is a
signatory of various international treaties and
agreements regarding the establishment of a
single effort against corruption and others based
on the international legal principles of human
solidarity and the consolidation of peace and
democracy, and consequently acts of corruption
are not considered associated political crimes
even when allegedly committed for political
reasons or goals.
CONSEQUENTLY: The National Congress,
in exercise of the powers vested in it and
pursuant to Articles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 15, 59, 189,
205 (sections 12, 16, and 20), 239, 321, 322,
323, 324, 326, 242, and other applicable articles
of the Constitution of the Republic, and in
obedience to urgent social and political
demands of public interest that necessitate a
call for concord, harmony, and national
reconciliation,
DECREES:
ARTICLE 1. The granting of a GENERAL
AMNESTY to those citizens who attempted or
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consummated the offenses listed in the ARTICLE 4. This decree shall enter into effect
following Articles of the Criminal Code: 302, twenty (20) days following its publication in
310-A, and 311 of Title XI Chapter I (On the the official journal La Gaceta.
Crime of Treason Against the Fatherland); 328
sections 1, 2, and 4, 329, and 330 of Title XII Given in the City of Tegucigalpa, Central
Chapter II (On Crimes Against the Form of District Municipality, in the Sessions Chamber
Government); 335 sections 6, 7, and 8 of Title of the National Congress, on the Twenty-
XII Chapter V (On the Crime of Terrorism); seventh day of January, Two Thousand and
337 sections 1, 3, 4, and 5, 338, and 340 of Ten.
Title XII Chapter VII (On the Crime of
Sedition); all of which are defined as political
crimes; and solely those associated common JUAN ORLANDO HERNÁNDEZ
crimes covered by Articles 292 of Title IX ALVARADO
Chapter IV (On Usurpation of Authority); 331 PRESIDENT
of Title XII Chapter III (On Offenses
Committed by Individuals Against the Exercise
of the Rights Guaranteed by the Constitution); RIGOBERTO CHANG CASTILLO
346 and 349 sections 1, 2, 3, and 4 of Title XIII SECRETARY
Chapters II and III respectively (On Crimes of
Disobedience and Abuse of Authority and
Violation of Duties by Public Officials) of the GLADYS AURORA LÓPEZ CALDERÓN
same legal code. SECRETARY
No actions that constitute crimes related to acts
of corruption, such as misappropriation of
public funds, illicit enrichment, bribery, and To the Executive Branch: Consequently, may
others defined as such in criminal legislation, or it be thus executed.
that constitute crimes against humanity or
human rights violations, shall be covered by Tegucigalpa, M.D.C., January 27, 2010
this Decree.
PORFIRIO LOBO SOSA
The actions covered by this Decree were CONSTITUTIONAL PRESIDENT OF THE
attempted or consummated in the period from REPUBLIC
January 1, 2008, to January 27, 2010, inclusive.
The Secretary of State for the Interior and
ARTICLE 2. The competent courts shall, on Justice
their own initiative or at the request of an
interested party, dismiss all proceedings that
they are hearing and that are covered by this ÁFRICO MADRID
benefit.

ARTICLE 3. Investigations and other

formalities currently being processed by the
offices of the Public Prosecution Service shall
be sent to the administrative archive by that
agency under the terms of the pardon granted
hereby, abiding for that purpose by the terms of
Article 40 of the law governing the agency
named in this paragraph; and,