January 11, 2021
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- Below: AP news report, Jan.9, 2021
Olivia Zuniga Caceres - daughter of assassinated Berta Caceres / member of Congress – holds poster:
“Drug traffickers should be in jail, not in the Presidential Palace.”
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US motions expand drug claims against Honduras president
By Claudia Torrens, AP News, January 9, 2021, https://apnews.com/article/international-news-honduras-united-states-e22425a26c8a227eb4f67d851c3b8a6e
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. federal prosecutors have filed motions saying that Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández took bribes from drug traffickers and had the country’s armed forces protect a cocaine laboratory and shipments to the United States. The documents quote Hernández as saying he wanted to “‘shove the drugs right up the noses of the gringos’ by flooding the United States with cocaine.”
The motions filed Friday with the U.S. Southern District of New York do not specifically name the president, referring to him as “CC-4,” or co-conspirator No. 4, but clearly identify him by naming his brother and his own post as president.
The president, who has not been charged, has repeatedly denied any connection to traffickers despite the 2019 conviction of one of his brothers, Juan Antonio Hernandez. During that trial, the president was accused of accepting more than $1 million from Mexican drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán — an accusation repeated in the new motions. He has said that traffickers are falsely accusing him to seek vengeance for clamping down on them. The government did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new filings.
The motions seek pretrial approval to admit evidence in the case of Geovanny Fuentes Ramírez, who was arrested in Miami in March. And they expand upon allegations filed shortly after the arrest accusing Hernandez of taking bribes in exchange for protection from law enforcement.
Fuentes Ramirez is accused of conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the United States and the motions filed Friday accuse him of producing “hundreds of kilograms a month” of cocaine and of having several people killed to protect his illicit business.
“By late 2013, the defendant partnered directly with CC-4 and high-ranking officials in the Honduran military. At this time, CC-4 was pursuing election as the President of Honduras as a member of the Partido Nacional de Honduras (the “National Party”),” the motion said.
It added that a witness “would testify that that they and other drug-traffickers were paying massive bribes to CC-4 in exchange for protection from law enforcement and extradition to the United States;” and that the president-to-be “accepted approximately $1 million in drug trafficking proceeds that was provided to his brother by the former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, Joaquín Guzmán Loera.”
Prosecutors say he had agreed to work through the president’s now-convicted brother. The motions also implicate senior military, police, political and business figures in laundering money and bribery.
Hernandez, who had been president of congress before being elected president in 2013, was reelected in 2017 to a term that ends in January 2022. He has cooperated with the Trump administration and its efforts to stem migration from his nation and others in Central America.
During a January 2020 visit to Honduras, acting U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said, “Honduras is a valued and proven partner to the United States in managing migration and promoting security and prosperity in Central America.”
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Complicity, silence, impunity in Washington and Ottawa
Since the U.S. and Canadian backed military coup (June 28, 2009) ousted Honduras’ last democratic government, Honduras – dominated by a military-backed, drug-trafficking, ‘open-for-global-business’ regime – has become:
- the repression capital of Latin America
- a murder capital of the world
- a corruption capital of Latin America
- the largest, along with Guatemala, cocaine trans-shipment country in Central America
- the #1 source of migrants and refugees forced to flee into exile year after year
When will U.S. and Canadian political and legal systems investigate and hold accountable government politicians and officials, from 2009 through to the present, responsible for legitimizing and supporting the drug-trafficking, military-backed regime of Honduras?
Background
US supports Honduran government that forces many to migrate as it protects drug trafficking
By Tim Steller, Tucson Star, Sep. 12, 2020, https://tucson.com/news/local/star-investigation-us-supports-honduran-government-that-forces-many-to-migrate-as-it-protects-drug/article_cbfacb4c-dc94-50e8-a80f-82f307574662.html
U.S. Justice Department Indicts Honduran Former National Police Chief on Cocaine Trafficking Charges
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/former-chief-honduran-national-police-charged-drug-trafficking-and-weapons-offenses
Key witness arrested in drug case against brother of Honduran president
By David Adams & Jeff Ernst, 14 Feb. 2020, https://www.univision.com/univision-news/latin-america/key-witness-arrested-in-drug-case-against-brother-of-the-honduran-president
Witness directly involves president of Honduras in use of drug money for campaigns
By Jeff Ernst, 8 Oct. 2019, https://www.univision.com/univision-news/latin-america/witness-directly-involves-the-president-of-honduras-in-the-use-of-drug-money-for-his-campaigns
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Why do 10s of thousands of Hondurans & Guatemalans flee year after year?
The U.S. and Canadian governments, the World Bank and global businesses and investors (mining, hydro-electric dams, African palm, sugarcane, bananas, garment “sweatshop” factors, tourism, etc.) maintain profitable relations with anti-democratic and corrupt, repressive and racist governments in Honduras and Guatemala, contributing to and benefitting from exploitation and repression, environmental harms and human rights violations, corruption and impunity.
“Shithole countries: U.S., Canada & international community helping produce forced migrancy from Honduras & Guatemala”
by Grahame Russell, October 2019, https://mailchi.mp/rightsaction/shithole-countries
Act – Stir up the pot – Chip away
Keep sending copies of Rights Action information (and that of other solidarity groups/ NGOs) to family, friends and your networks, to politicians and media – always asking ‘Why do our governments, companies and investment firms benefit from and turn a blind eye to poverty, repression and violence, environmental and health harms that caused the forced migrancy / refugee crisis in Guatemala and Honduras?’
Other solidarity/ NGO groups in U.S. and Canada
Tax-Deductible Donations (Canada & U.S.)
To support land, human rights and environmental defender groups in Honduras and Guatemala, make check to "Rights Action" and mail to:
- U.S.: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
- Canada: (Box 552) 351 Queen St. E, Toronto ON, M5A-1T8
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