Perfil de Leonardo Aguilar

Translated on December 13 •

With the launch of the ‘Comprehensive Plan To Address Extortion and Related Crimes’, the Honduran government appears to be imitating neighboring El Salvador’s ‘Territorial Control Plan’, under which the Salvadoran government claims to have captured some 56,000 gang members.

Translated on April 20 | A judge authorized the seizure of 33 properties, eight businesses, 16 vehicles, and other financial assets from former president Juan Orlando Hernández’s family. However, this represents less than half of Hernández’s $7.8 million net worth.
Recent news reports said that the former first lady sought to protect some of their wealth by transferring US$2.44 million in personal assets to a local bank, allegedly to repay a debt. This asset transfer temporarily prevented the Justice Ministry from seizing these assets, while prosecutors investigate whether the bank and Ana García de Hernández acted in good faith.

On March 16, after a judge authorized the extradition of former President Juan Orlando Hernández to the United States on drug trafficking and weapons charges, Hernández sat down in the Supreme Court president’s chair and began to record a video. The incident did not sit well with the Special Commission on Extradition of the National Congress, which had met in the same room a day earlier with several Supreme Court judges, including the president of that body, Rolando Argueta Pérez.

Ex-president Juan Orlando Hernández (2014-2022) was arrested at his home in Tegucigalpa and taken to the police special forces headquarters after the United States requested his extradition on drug trafficking charges.

Former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, repeatedly accused of having direct ties to drug traffickers, became a representative to the Central American Parliament in a virtual swearing-in ceremony on January 27. This granted him immunity from prosecution and extradition. A few days earlier, Representative Norma Torres of California had sent a letter to the United States Department of Justice asking for the immediate extradition of Hernández for drug trafficking.

Competing boards of directors of the National Congress were sworn in on January 23 in Honduras. One was elected by a group of 79 legislators who met offsite, 30 kilometers from the National Congress’s chambers. The other board was elected by 50 members of Congress who met in a legislative chamber with no lighting. Some political analysts say the first board was legally elected, but the second one is backed by president-elect Xiomara Castro. The dispute will now have to be sorted out by the nation’s constitutional court.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights opposes unlimited presidential reelection limits on the grounds that it violates the American Convention and the American Declaration. Dr. Joaquín Mejía says that the Supreme Court justices who ruled in favor of this practice should be criminally investigated, and that President Juan Orlando Hernández’s reelection was illegitimate. Mejia believes that Honduras’ Supreme Court should reverse this ruling and reestablish presidential term limits.

People are increasingly denouncing the National Party’s politicization of vaccinations in Honduras. These complaints not only criticize the national government, but also some mayors who are taking advantage of the situation to gain favor among the electorate and garner more votes in the November general elections.