Retired Catholic editor Reyes, wife win damage award in torture case

Published: 2006-04-04

MIAMI (CNS) -- A federal judge in Miami has ordered a former Honduran military officer to pay $19 million in damages to Oscar Reyes, the retired editor of the Spanish-language weekly of the Washington Archdiocese, and his wife in a torture case when the couple lived in their native Honduras. Judge Joan Lenard of the U.S. District Court in Miami ruled March 31 that retired Col. Juan Lopez Grijalba, who headed Honduran military intelligence in 1982 when Oscar and Gloria Reyes were kidnapped from their home by military operatives, was legally responsible for the actions that resulted in the torturing of the couple. Reyes then was director of the journalism school at the University of Honduras. Several other plaintiffs joined in the lawsuit and Lopez Grijalba was ordered to pay a total of $47 million in damages. Chances of the plaintiffs receiving any of the damages are slim. In 2004, the U.S. government deported Lopez Grijalba to Honduras. In 2004 Reyes said at a news conference that his aim was not to win money but to hold accountable someone who abused human rights.

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