Juan Lopez Grijalva

He was the head of military intelligence in Honduras and commanding officer of Battalion 316. He was accused in a civil court of charges of torture, murder and being involved in the disappearance of several people in Honduras.

Grijalva immigrated to the United States in 1998 and was arrested by the INS in April 2002 for having violated the U.S. immigration laws. Hearings for his deportation were initiated by the U.S. government for his notorious participation in violations of human rights in Honduras and because the Honduran government had opened a judicial enquiry against him on homicide charges. A spokesman of the INS said that he was, almost certainly, the highest ranking officer ever accused of having committed torture that an immigration court had ever brought to trial. When his arrest was made public, the Center for Justice and Accountability (Centro para la Justicia y la Responsabilidad) opened a case against Grijalva in a civil court on behalf of survivors of his torture and on behalf of relatives of people who had been declared missing persons.

The plaintiffs argued that Grijalva had «planned, ordered, authorized, encouraged and allowed his subordinates in the military forces or the paramilitary groups in Honduras to carry out torture, to declare people as missing and to kill people extra-judicially». They also argued that he had helped cover up those acts afterwards. The lawsuit was based on two federal laws that allow U.S. courts to evaluate the damages caused by people responsible for severe violations of human rights in other countries.

The trial in this case was scheduled for October 18, 2004; nonetheless, a few days before the trial, the federal judge postponed it. Parallel to it an immigration judge had made his judgement on the case at the immigration office ordering the deportation of Lopez Grijalva. On October 21, 2004, immigration agents escorted him and flew him back to Honduras. The Center for Justice and Accountability and its plaintiffs still await the sentence of the federal judge. They still hope that Lopez Grijalva will be declared responsible for the violations committed by his subordinates and that he will be ordered to pay the pertinent compensation.