The odd and large-scale corruption by Hilda Hernández, sister of the Honduran president

Carol was always close to Hilda Hernández. According to the UFERCO indictment, in 2013, the president’s sister ordered Alvarado to register José Adolfo Sierra, Alvarado’s personal driver, as an authorized representative of Servicios e Inversiones AID. Soon after, the company opened an office in Tegucigalpa’s La Granja neighborhood, as well as a checking account with Banco Atlantida. When Hilda Hernández was appointed Minister of Communication and Strategy, they closed that office and moved to an office within the Office of the President, and operated from there until 2016.

The charges presented in the Corruption on Wheels case indicate that Hilda Hernández’s name was not associated with Servicios e Inversiones AID because she said that she was not allowed to create private companies as a public official, and because she did not want any adverse publicity for herself or her brother’s presidential campaign. However, while working at the Office of the President between April 9, 2014 and December 8, 2016, she signed 53 checks amounting to 122 million lempiras (US$5 million) paid to various radio and television media outlets for advertising and publicity services.

UFERCO’s investigation found that 14 of the 53 payments were not backed by any type of service contract. Most of this money was used to pay for advertising for government initiatives such as the Honduras Actívate and Navidad Catracha programs. The indictment also notes that none of these contracts were awarded through a competitive bidding process, despite regulations requiring such a process for contracts above a certain amount. In addition, the payments made by the Office of the President to Servicios e Inversiones AID exceeded the 2014, 2015 and 2016 budgets for this type of expenditure by more than 49 million lempiras (US$2 million).

According to the indictment, Hernández made verbal agreements with more than 70 journalists to write news and opinion pieces favorable to the president. At least 60 million lempiras (US$2.47 million) were funneled through the shell company to pay some of the country’s most prominent journalists for this service.

In June 2015, the indignados (outraged) movement protested to demand accountability for the massive embezzlement of the Honduran Institute of Social Security (IHSS). Amid widespread calls for an international commission to investigate impunity in Honduras (Comisión Internacional Contra La Impunidad en Honduras – CICIH), a group of high-profile journalists met with Hilda Hernández to initiate a national dialogue and quell the protests. Two of the journalists in that meeting were Luis Edgardo Vallejo, who received 2.6 million lempiras (US$107,000) over a two-year period, and Armando Villanueva, who received 480,000 lempiras (US$19,800).

These back-room deals with journalists didn’t seem to have any expiration date. In 2018, President Hernández gave a series of exclusive interviews to several journalists, including Rosendo Garcia. In his interview with Garcia about the federal charges against his brother, Juan Antonio Hernández, who is being tried in the Southern District of New York, the president said, “This is a complicated case because the witnesses are people who have been heavily affected by decisions I have made as president and when I was president of the National Congress.” 

Rosendo García is director of the Al Banquillo news analysis program broadcast by Televicentro, one of the largest media companies in the country. In 2018, Garcia gave an interview to a national newspaper in which he expressed his opinion about journalists who take money from the government. “It’s a bad idea to have journalists sell advertising for their own programs. A journalist doesn’t actually go around selling advertising to politicians or businesses. But some politicians give money to journalists without entering into advertising contracts. I’m glad it hasn’t happened to me. I don’t see this as a politician giving you a gift as a payoff for something. But there’s still a sense of obligation attached to the money.”

Between April 14, 2014 and October 27, 2016, Garcia received monthly payments of 60,000 lempiras amounting to 1.9 million lempiras (US$79,000) from Servicios e Inversiones AID. In 2017, the National Congress awarded him a journalism prize.

Another journalist who received government money was Ernesto Alonso Rojas, who works for the HCH (Hable Como Habla) TV channel. In December 2018, Rojas was interviewing people at the Metropolitan Bus Terminal in San Pedro Sula who were chanting disparaging slogans about the president. Rojas said “He [the president] isn’t going anywhere. Stop chanting that stuff – it’s so annoying.” Later on he said, “They’re all idiots, just idiots.” Rojas was paid 360,000 lempiras (US$15,000) between June 2015 and October 2016 through Servicios e Inversiones AID.

Even before the details of the UFERCO investigation were revealed, reports surfaced about government practices that could be seen as attempts to influence the press.  Contracorriente reported in 2019 that the government paid the travel expenses of journalists who flew to Israel to cover the opening of the Honduran Trade and Cooperation Office in Jerusalem. 

The Office of the President paid the airfare, transportation and meals for journalists, according to one journalist who covered the event in Israel. Economy class airfare from Honduras to Israel costs about 46,000 lempiras (US$1,900), so the government spent approximately 465,000 lempiras (US$19,000) on flights alone. This contradicts information provided by the Office of the President’s public information official.

Read our report (in Spanish): The Office of the President pays expenses for journalists who traveled to Israel

In response to the UFERCO investigation, the Honduran Association of Journalists issued a statement in which it claimed to have no information about the journalists identified in the indictment, and while it supports the battle against corruption, it doubted “… that [the payments] were used in an immoral or sinister manner to create hatred, produce smokescreens, or win pyrrhic political victories just to conduct a public lynching of our colleagues.”

None of the journalists identified in the indictment have been charged with a crime yet and there is no clarity about where the funds paid ultimately ended up. In addition, the person who received the most money from the Office of the President’s advertising fund was driver José Adolfo Sierra, who cashed 102 checks totalling 42.5 million lempiras (US$1.76 million). According to the indictment issued by the Office of the Public Prosecutor, these funds “…were delivered to his employer, Carol Vanessa Alvarado Izaguirre, or to other people working for her.”

UFERCO chief Luis Javier Santos has said that 11 public officials have been named in the indictment and that the charges against them should lead to arrest warrants that have not yet been issued by the Supreme Court of Justice. 

The officials from the Office of the President charged in the indictment are: Pedro Alexander Pineda Díaz (Secretary of State for Financial Management), Harvis Edulfo Herrera Carballo (administrative manager), Lesly Mirella Fúnez Sierra (general accountant), and Axel Eduardo Huete González (administrative manager). They are charged with violation of the duties of public officials, embezzlement of public funds and fraud. Carol Vanessa Alvarado Izaguirre, Claudia Yamilia Noriega González and Normal Guillermo Noriega Rodríguez have also been charged with money laundering.

The indictment includes charges of aggravated obstruction against Mario Alberto Villanueva Menjívar, Deputy Chief of Budget Audits for the Superior Audit Court, as well as Gloria Margarita Vargas, Judit Mariel Muñoz Casteñada and Julio Antonio Galdámes Fuentes.

According to the Ministry of Justice, there is no evidence that José Adolfo Sierra made personal use of these funds, nor did he have access to checking accounts or credit cards belonging to Servicios e Inversiones AID. This could explain why there are no charges against him in the Corruption on Wheels and Hermes cases; the charges against him in the Pandora case were ultimately dismissed.

The Hermes indictment describes how these criminal acts were enabled by the collusion between “Carol Vanessa Alvarado, de facto administrator of Servicios e Inversiones AID, and a number of officials from the Office of the President.” These officials include Pedro Pineda, who faces 43 charges of violation of the duties of public officials, one charge of embezzlement of public funds, 43 charges of fraud, and 53 charges of embezzlement of public funds to the detriment of the public administration.