The Latin American Report # 311

Honduras: a follow-up

Last Monday, a Honduran court ratified the seizure of some twenty assets belonging to the brother of former president Juan Orlando Hernández—convicted in the United States for drug trafficking—and his wife. The monetary value of the corruption attributed to Juan Antonio 'Tony' Hernández—who is serving a life sentence in the United States—is around US$488,000, of which 60% was not recovered. In the case of his wife, the value of the unjustified assets amounts to a little more than 234 thousand dollars, but only approximately 17% of that value was recovered. Three vehicles, a house and about twenty bank accounts with about $148,000 are among the assets seized from both of them. 'Tony' Hernández was found guilty of trafficking some 185 tons of cocaine between 2004 and 2015.

His brother, former President Hernández, was sentenced last June to 45 years for being involved in the shipment of more than 400 tons of cocaine to the US market. It was very interesting to see him being extradited in 2022 under a deal he signed with Washington in 2014—while leader of Congress—along with then-President Porfirio Lobo, also indicted for corruption and drug trafficking. “[Here in Honduras] the judges let the drug traffickers go free because they were afraid, [because] we were not organized enough to give them protection”, Lobo acknowledged recently. But President Xiomara Castro last week “denounced” the century-old treaty that served as the basis for beginning extraditions ten years ago, in an act that has left a bad taste even among those who thought her government would be far removed from corruption scandals.

Although Castro based her decision to cancel the treaty on certainly disrespectful statements by the U.S. ambassador in the country, it is at least suspicious that 72 hours later her brother-in-law Carlos Zelaya admitted that he met with drug traffickers in the past, which led him to resign from his position in Congress, and incidentally led to the departure of his son from the head of the Defense portfolio. “We thought that with Xiomara Castro corruption would end, because they were supposed to make a difference from previous governments, but they have turned out the same or worse”, a disillusioned Honduran told the AP. “Unless Castro retracts and reestablishes the extradition treaty, this move will inevitably be seen as a way to protect her family”, said an Italy-based expert on Central American political affairs.

The particular problem of nepotism

The accusations against Castro's government for nepotism are not new. Last year the non-governmental National Anti-Corruption Council denounced that “strategic posts [were] directed by members of the same political structure and by members of [the] same family, causing institutional monopolization by a minority”. An investigation by an independent media found three cases of nepotism in the appointment of consuls in the United States, all openly acknowledged by a deputy foreign minister who held Castro responsible for the decisions. “Yes, there are [...] cases, there are decisions that the president made, she considered the profile of [the people selected] and did so. [As] head of state [she] can appoint whoever she wants and the people [appointed] meet the legal requirements”, the official said.

_{The nepotism tree (source).}

This year, the referred anti-corruption organization reported an alarming increase of almost 110% of cases of consanguinity and affinity links between public servants, with three families concentrating a representative share of power in the executive branch. The report entitled “Strategic Networks of Concentration of Power” refers to the interesting case of the COP28 UN Climate Change Conference held in Dubai last year, which was attended by several members of the Zelaya-Castro clan, in some cases without having a formal position in the Government. One of those who went to visit the popular tourist destination was Carlos Zelaya, who after the publication yesterday of the video showing his meeting with drug traffickers will never again be able to claim that he naively thought he was talking to “businessmen”.

And this is all for our report today. I have referenced the sources dynamically in the text, and remember you can learn how and where to follow the LATAM trail news by reading my work here. Have a nice day.