Analysts and politicians, including members of the government, have reacted with indignation to the video showing Honduran drug traffickers negotiating bribes with Carlos Zelaya, Castro’s brother and brother of former President Manuel Zelaya, overthrown in June 2009.
The political crisis continues in Honduras following the release of a video related to drug trafficking involving Xiomara Castro’s government, while there are increasing calls for the resignation of the president and reconsidering her decision to terminate the extradition treaty with the United States.
Analysts and politicians, including members of the government, have reacted with indignation to the video showing Honduran drug traffickers negotiating bribes with Carlos Zelaya, Castro’s brother and brother of former President Manuel Zelaya, overthrown in June 2009.
In the video, released Tuesday by the U.S. organization InSight Crime, Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga, one of the former leaders of the Los Cachiros cartel, is heard, proposing a bribe to the now ruling Freedom and Refoundation Party (Libre), to which Carlos Zelaya responds that the half must go to the commander, referring to his brother the former president.
Having denounced the extradition treaty (with the US) was a very bad decision. That only means blood and tears for Hondurans, opposition MP Maribel Espinoza told EFE.
Castro’s decision
On August 28, the Honduran government notified the U.S. Embassy of the decision to terminate the extradition treaty between the two countries after the U.S. ambassador, Laura Dogu, expressed her country’s concern about the meeting of Honduran Defense authorities with the sanctioned Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López.
Congresswoman Espinoza said that in Honduras no more – a paradise of narcos can be allowed as in the past – and warned that drug trafficking would be restored at the end of that extradition treaty.
File photo of the President of Honduras, Xiomara Castro (i), speaking with the U.S. Ambassador, Laura Dogu, during an event in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. EFE/Gustavo Amador
Castro’s decision sends a negative message to the world, Espinoza emphasized, who urged the president to “reconsider the denunciation of the extradition treaty with the U.S..”
Along the same lines, the official deputy Rasel Tomé, who appealed to the sanity to the uncertainty in the country and asked Castro to return the extradition treaty with the United States.
Let us remember that in the face of transnational crime such as drug trafficking and terrorism, the way to deal with it is through international cooperation, therefore, it is a necessity to continue with the extradition treaty, stressed Tomé, deputy of the Free Party, in a message in X.
Castro’s brother-in-law admitted meeting with narcos
Analysts and politicians believe Castro ended the extradition agreement with the U.S. to protect relatives or senior officials, as three days after the decision, Carlos Zelaya admitted that he had met with drug traffickers.
This was insinuated by the Foreign Minister of Honduras, Eduardo Enrique Reina, on August 29, when he stated that his country ended the treaty with the United States because they fear that the agreement will be used as a political “sizer to extradite high-ranking officials or military personnel.”
The elimination of the extradition treaty led to the resignation of Carlos Zelaya as a deputy and secretary of the Honduran Parliament, and that of his son José Manuel Zelaya as Minister of Defense.
The Honduran ambassador to Canada, Beatriz Valle, also left her post, citing merely ethical and personal moral principles, which prevent her from supporting her from supporting the decision to terminate the extradition treaty with the United States.
The cascade of resignations was joined by the head of the Free Party bench in the Honduran Parliament, Rafael Sarmiento, after Carlos Zelaya assured that he was one of the organizers of the meeting with drug traffickers.
Mobilizations to demand Castro’s resignation
In the midst of the astonishment and condemnation of the video related to drug trafficking, a call for the resignation of Xiomara Castro has also emerged, who in the midst of the serious situation denounced on Tuesday an alleged plan to “add a new coup d’état.”
The National Anti-Corruption Council (CNA) called for Castro’s resignation by arguing – the serious accusations of drug trafficking that have been filed against the family environment, which you have designated to structure the State in the different secretariats, clearly collapsed by organized crime.
The request of that anti-corruption entity has been joined by opposition deputy and presidential pre-candidate Jorge Cálix, who said that Honduras cannot be governed under the shadow of corruption and drug trafficking.
Cálix, who until a month ago was a member of the Free Party, stressed that it is unacceptable for the country’s president to try to minimize her brother-in-law’s video-narco.
Social sectors have called for a great mobilization for this Friday in Tegucigalpa to demand the resignation of the Honduran president.
Mel Zelaya denies receiving money from drug lords and criticizes her brother’s conduct
Former President Manuel Zelaya, overthrown on June 28, 2009, reiterated on Wednesday that he has not received money from drug trafficking and questioned the abhorrent behavior of other people, including relatives, in reference to a 2013 video showing his brother, Carlos Zelaya, meeting with drug traffickers.
I don’t have crimes or money from drug trafficking in my 72 years of life. “Peach the opposite does so with a petty interest and is lying,” said Zelaya, who is now an adviser to his wife, Honduran President Xiomara Castro.
In a message on social network X, Zelaya indicated that his “life of fighting in the streets for more than 44 years will always be a moral witness and an example for present and future generations.”
He warned his opponents that they can unleash their attacks on social media or on corporate media, but I will not change my commitment to socialism in the face of the wrong and imperial policies of the United States that are implemented in Honduras.
This article has been translated after first appearing in El Salvador