The Center has undertaken a project to monitor the Mission to Support the Fight against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (MACCIH). This project aims to analyze the Organization of American States (OAS)-sponsored Mission’s work and enhanced public understanding of the MACCIH and its performance. Under the direction of School of International Service Professor Charles Call and a team of senior researchers, this effort strives to understand MACCIH in the context of anti-corruption and impunity initiatives in Honduras and beyond.

The project delivered regular reports, which provide updates and analyses of the work of MACCIH that are available online in Spanish and English; and analytic papers, beginning with one report that analyzes MACCIH’s first two years of operations, which was presented at a public event in Honduras in June 2018 and at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, DC in July 2018. Sources for these products include news articles, tweets, press conferences, as well as private interviews with key informants inside and outside Honduras. Project researchers also engaged independent observers, journalists, and academics; government officials of Honduras, the United States, and other countries; Honduran and U.S.- based non-governmental organizations; and officials of the OAS and MACCIH. The project was funded by Open Society Foundations.

Project lead Professor Call authored a report that examines MACCIH's progress and challenges in the past two years since its inception. Halfway through its four-year mandate, MACCIH scored some important successes but confronted growing sabotage from segments of Honduras’s political elite determined to undermine the Mission’s work. The report was launched in Tegucigalpa, Honduras on June 21, 2018 in front of an audience of nearly 200. The report is available for download in English and Spanish:

• From Steady Progress to Severely Wounded: A Two-Year Report on the Performance of the OAS Mission in Support of the Fight Against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (MACCIH)
• Avances y Desafíos: Informe sobre los primeros dos años de la Misión de Apoyo contra la Corrupción y la Impunidad en Honduras (MACCIH)

Throughout the project's duration, the MACCIH Monitor has provided regular, independent analysis of the work of MACCIH, and is available online in English and Spanish:

• The MACCIH Monitor, Issue 1, November 21, 2017 (English)
• El Monitor de MACCIH, Número 1, el 21 de noviembre del 2017 (Español)
• The MACCIH Monitor, Issue 2, January 31, 2018 (English)
• El Monitor de MACCIH, Número 2, el 31 de enero del 2018 (Español)
• The MACCIH Monitor, Issue 3, March 22, 2018 (English)
• El Monitor de MACCIH, Número 3, el 22 de marzo del 2018 (Español)
• The MACCIH Monitor, Issue 4, May 18, 2018 (English)
• The MACCIH Monitor, Issue 5, August 30, 2018 (English)
• El Monitor de MACCIH, Número 5, el 30 de agosto del 2018 (Spanish)
• El Monitor de MACCIH, Edición Especial, el 9 de enero del 2019 (Spanish) 

Corruption in Honduras: Can MACCIH Make a Dent?

July 31, 2018

In partnership with the Inter-American Dialogue and the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), CLALS held an event at the Dialogue to assess the past progress and future prospects in combating corruption and impunity in Honduras. SIS Professor and project lead Chuck Call opened the event with a summary of the Center's recent report on the first two years of MACCIH. The event continued with interventions from Luis Santos, Head of Special Attorney's Unit Against Impunity and Corruption (UFECIC), and Ana María Calderón Boy, Coordinator of MACCIH's Division of Prevention and Combating of Corruption. Adriana Beltrán of WOLA moderated the lively discussion, which was attended by over 100 people. Watch a recording of the event.

Dos años de la MACCIH: Avances y desafíos

June 21, 2018

CLALS and the Universidad Tecnológica Centroamericana (UNITEC) hosted a public event to present a two-year report, authored by SIS Professor and project lead Charles Call, on the MACCIH's progress and challenges faced in an increasingly polarized atmosphere in Honduras. After opening remarks from CLALS' Eric Hershberg and UNITEC's Marlon Brevé, Professor Call summarized the report for an audience of nearly 150. Afterwards, panelists from various sectors of Honduran civil society elaborated on the report's findings and discussed anti-corruption initiatives in a wider context. The panelists included: Ana María Calderón Boy, Interim Spokesperson for MACCIH; Yahvé Sabillón, Congressperson(LIBRE) and Leader of the Congressional Front in support of MACCIH (FPAM); Odir Fernández, Head of the Investigative Unit in the National Anti-Corruption Council (CNA); and Gabriela Blen, Leader of the "Indignados" Movement and Founder of the Student Anti-Corruption Group (CEA). Watch a recording of the event.

Event flyer