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CCR has been involved in advocacy aimed to address systemic human rights violations in Honduras arising out of the June 28, 2009 military coup d’etat that ousted President Manuel Zelaya. We have advocated against the U.S. government's current policy towards Honduras, particularly its continuing assistance and support to Honduran police and military forces whose involvement in the commission of serious human rights violations since the coup have been well-documented.
One aspect of our advocacy has been to support the work of the True Commission, which was established by the Human Rights Platform of Honduras one year after the coup, in using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to request records and information from the U.S. government relating to the coup and its aftermath. In these efforts, CCR represents both the True Commission as well as Jeremy Bigwood, an independent journalist seeking to elicit this information.
(For additional information about CCR’s advocacy and litigation challenging the coup and repression in Honduras, click here.)
The True Commission’s FOIA requests are still pending in the administrative stage. The Bigwood case is set for summary judgment briefing in November 2013.
The Center for Constitutional Rights is also representing Jeremy Bigwood, an investigative journalist, in seeking information under FOIA to request materials from the United States government regarding the role that various U.S. interests, actors, or agencies may have played in the 2009 coup d’état. On March 23, 2011, CCR filed FOIA litigation against the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for withholding information that should have been handed over under Mr. Bigwood’s earlier FOIA requests.
On March 23, 2011, CCR filed FOIA litigation, Bigwood v. DOD, et al., against the DOD and CIA for withholding information that should have been handed over under Jeremy Bigwood’s earlier FOIA requests.
On March 24, 2011, CCR filed a series of FOIA requests on behalf of the True Commission seeking information from the DOD and CIA relating to Honduras.
On May 4, 2011, the Government filed its answer to the plaintiff’s complaint.
On June 20, 2011, and July 7, 2011, the DOD produced close to 500 pages of heavily redacted documents in response to the litigation. The CIA continues to neither confirm nor deny the existence of documents responsive to Bigwood’s request.
