The military unit Battalion 3-16, which received training and support from the United States Central Intelligence Agency both in Honduras and at U.S. military bases[2] and in Chile during the presidency of the dictator Augusto Pinochet,[3] carried out political assassinations and torture of suspected political opponents of the government.
[5] Following testimony that CODEH regional director in northern Honduras, Miguel Ángel Pavón Salazar, gave against the Honduran government in October 1987 before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), he was shot dead on 14 January 1988.
[8] The present president the organization, Andrés Pavón Murillo, has had three legal cases against him and one attempt was made to kill him because of his human rights activities.
[6] In mid-2006, CODEH reported that seven former members of Battalion 3-16 (Billy Joya, Alvaro Romero, Erick Sánchez, Onofre Oyuela Oyuela, Napoleón Nassar Herrera, Vicente Rafael Canales Nuñez, Salomón Escoto Salinas and René Maradianga Panchamé) occupied important positions in the administration of President Manuel Zelaya.
[9] On 11 November 2009, Andrés Pavón stated that the Honduran military planned to disguise soldiers as a fake armed wing of the National Resistance Front against the coup d'etat in Honduras that would massacre members of the Democratic Civic Union on 29 November 2009, the day of the planned Honduran general election, with the goal of discrediting the National Resistance Front and creating a cycle of lethal violence between pro- and anti-coup civilian groups.