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•ÌýInSight CrimeÌýresearches, analyzes, and investigates organized crime in the Americas. Opinions are the organization's own.

ÌýTheÌýHondurasÌýgovernment named Julian Pacheco, an active military general, as the head of its Security Ministry inÌýHonduras, another sign of its reliance on military personnel to fill positions in domestic security and other state institutions.

Mr. Pacheco, the current head of the multi-agency task force known as FUSINA, will begin serving as the minister of security on Jan. 15 of next year,Ìýreported La Prensa.ÌýThe powerful post oversees the country's beleaguered 14,000 member police force, as well as administers data collection on crime and violence. Pacheco will presumably still exercise control over FUSINA as well.

This is the first appointment of an active duty general to head the ministry since its creation in 1998,Ìýaccording to Reuters, which, for some analysts, is a troubling sign.

"President [Juan Orlando] Hernandez does not trust in the police nor in the civilian population," said Julieta Castellanos, the head of the National Autonomous University ofÌýHondurasÌý(UNAH),Ìýaccording to Proceso.

The announcement comes just a few weeks after the head ofÌýHonduras' national police, Ramon Sabillon, wasÌýremoved from his postÌýas part of an ongoing restructuring of the country's security forces.Ìý

A militarized history

The decision to place Pacheco as the head of the police confirms the de facto reality inÌýHonduras: that the military are officially in charge of all things related to citizen security.Ìý

Even before he was named, Pacheco was heading up some of the most important security posts. He directed the military intelligence unit, and FUSINA manages, among other things, the powerful anti-extortionÌýunit. That unit controls phone intercepts, which are also by default controlled by military intelligence.Ìý

Centralizing control of information is dangerous in a place likeÌýHonduras, a country where there is no separation of powers and political blackmail is a sport.Ìý

More importantly, Pacheco answers directly to President Hernandez. Hernandez is Army reserve, and he attended military school. He also counts his brother, Amilcar, an active colonel in the Army, among his inner circle.Ìý

The president has done everything in his power to militarize his administration since taking power in January. In addition to expanding Pacheco's control over civilian security services, intelligence collection, and citizen security reform – including the all important purging of the police forces – he has placed numerous military officials in civilian posts. These include the head of the penitentiary system, the customs chief, the director of civilian aviation, and the managers of the housing and social services agencies.Ìý

Hernandez also recently called for the country's military police force (PMOP) to be written into the country's constitution, asÌý1,000 new members of the unitÌýare set to begin patrollingÌýHonduras' most dangerous urban areas.

"Military personnel now control state institutions that in the 1990s were taken from them,"ÌýHector Becerra, executive director of the Freedom of Expression Committee for the online newspaper ConexiHon, told InSight Crime.Ìý

Other civil society groupsÌýin the country have also likened the increasingly militarized Honduran government to how state institutions were run before President Carlos Reina (1994 - 1998) put civilians in charge of agencies previously run by military personnel.

Police corruption

The appointment also confirms another reality: that the Honduran police have never escaped the military yoke inÌýHonduras. The Honduran armed forces – which ranÌýHondurasÌýin the 1970s and held sway through the 1980s – relinquished control of the police in the early 1990s. But former military members have been named as security ministers in the past, and current police chiefs have found it hard to shake off their former masters' hands.

Former Police Chief Sabillon, for instance,Ìýmay have been outed due to his opposition to the increasing militarization of the country's police force,Ìýaccording to reports in the Honduran media.ÌýThe Honduran sociologist Eugenio Sosa told InSight Crime he believes Sabillon was punished for not agreeing to the "subordination and weakening" of the civilian police to the PMOP in the fight against organized crime in the country.Ìý

Throughout the police have maintained a military mentality, prioritizing mass arrests over intelligence gathering and detective work, and shunning community policing programs even while the government beefs up the military police. The results are clear:ÌýHondurasÌýsolves but one percent of its homicides,Ìýaccording to a recent report.

The militarization of the Honduran government is similar to the one occurring inÌýGuatemalaÌýunder former general and now President Otto Perez Molina. Like Hernandez, President Perez Molina has placed numerous current and former military officials in civilian posts. The most prominent example is Juan de Dios Rodriguez, a former intelligence official who now runsÌýGuatemala's Social Security Institute.Ìý

Militarization of the civilian security services notwithstanding, Pacheco might be the only person who can do the job, especially givenÌýthe embattled state of the police.

"Police corruption, the failure to purge [inadequate officers], and the confidence the population has in the Armed Forces are circumstances that justify the decision," Ms. Castellanos told InSight Crime in an email correspondence.Ìý