Money Launderers In Honduras Are Getting Away With It
Rohan Parakkad / Nov 08 2022, 09:36AM EST
Dozens of individuals with claimed ties to organized crime have been released a year after Honduras changed its money laundering law, and there is a growing belief that this is an effort to shield those in authority.
According to a report by Insight Crime, at least 45 people with connections to organized crime have been released in the past year after their cases were dismissed as a result of a controversial reform to Honduras' Special Law Against Asset Laundering. The Honduran government published legal changes to the law in its official gazette last year after congress approved the reform.
These changes meant that proving someone had unexplained wealth was no longer enough to charge them with money laundering. Prosecutors must instead prove a link between the suspect's assets and another crime, like the distribution of drugs or the sale of weapons. Additionally, unless with a judge's prior approval, investigators are no longer permitted to access a suspect's or a company's financial records.
. . .
The decision to make it harder to prosecute money launderers seems suspicious in a nation where a previous president was extradited to the US on drug trafficking charges.
. . .
In 2019 the Honduran congress passed a controversial law that was criticized for protecting politicians from being investigated for embezzlement of public funds.
More:
https://www.latintimes.com/money-launderers-honduras-are-getting-away-it-531772
= new reply since forum marked as read
Seems like foreign power stole their democracy in 2009 when "someone" abducted their democratically elected president and spirited him away at gunpoint to Panama.
Seems rather undemocratic. Surely the coupsters would be found out. 
The former leader spent years stealing, defrauding, trafficking drugs and worse. When he wasn’t useful anymore, the US indicted him.
MARCH 1, 2022
Written by
Brian Saady
The former President of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez, or JOH, was arrested last week and will likely soon face charges by the U.S. Justice Department for allegedly trafficking roughly 500,000 kilos of cocaine. An Associated Press headline dubbed it a “stunning fall,” but the U.S. government provided him with significant support despite extensive evidence linking him to drug smuggling.
Aside from his ties to narcotics, Hernandez was involved in several scandals, including embezzling funds from Honduras’ social security system, stealing from World Bank development programs, credible fraud allegations in his 2017 re-election, and pervasive human rights violations by the police and military. In private conversations, Hernandez bragged about siphoning U.S. aid via phony NGOs.
The DOJ declined to press charges until after he left office last month. JOH was referenced as “CC-4,” or co-conspirator 4, in his brother’s drug trafficking case, along with other cases in the Southern District of New York. Nonetheless, this right-wing leader, who steadfastly supported U.S. economic, immigration, and military interests, enjoyed eight years of cordial relations with the White House.
American diplomats looked the other way as Honduras developed into a narco-state. Adding to this hypocrisy, the U.S. provided millions of dollars of aid for counternarcotics that trained/equipped a police and military bureaucracy riddled with corruption. In turn, Honduran security forces have acted viciously against peaceful protest.
More:
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2022/03/01/honduras-president-hernandez-was-washingtons-man-until-he-wasnt/
~ ~ ~
~ ~ ~
FEARING CORRUPTION CHARGES, HONDURAN DEFENSE MINISTER REQUESTS ASYLUM FROM BIDEN
As the left resumes power with President Xiomara Castro’s inauguration, the official seeks shelter in the United States.
Ken Klippenstein
January 31 2022, 5:48 p.m.
Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, left, waves while flanked by Army Gen. Fredy Santiago Díaz as they review the military guard during his swearing-in ceremony in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on Jan. 27, 2014. Photo: Fernando Antonio/AP
HONDURAS’S DEFENSE MINISTER quietly requested asylum from the U.S. government after the country elected a new leader in November, The Intercept has learned.
The defense minister, Gen. Fredy Díaz, said that he fears being charged with corruption by the newly elected democratic socialist President Xiomara Castro, especially considering the role the Honduran military played in the coup that ousted her husband, former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, according to a source whose knowledge of the matter was verified by The Intercept. In light of Zelaya’s expulsion from the presidency — and the country — by the Honduran army in 2009, Castro’s landslide victory on November 28 of last year stunned many in the international community. During her campaign, Castro vowed to “pull Honduras out of the abyss we have been buried in by neoliberalism,” reflecting the stance taken by Zelaya, who was critical of the U.S. role in the region.
Díaz joined the administration of Juan Orlando Hernández, the two-term Honduran president who took office in 2013 and whom the U.S. Justice Department accused last year of drug trafficking and bribery. During his narrow reelection in 2017, protesters took to the streets to oppose Hernández and were met with violent force by the Honduran military police, which killed at least 21 demonstrators and earned the condemnation of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The election was clouded by allegations of fraud from the Organization of American States, which called for a do-over, but U.S. President Donald Trump quickly recognized the results, and Hernández served as president until Castro’s inauguration on January 27.
Now the Biden administration is faced with the decision of whether to grant Díaz asylum before possible corruption charges, given that in his role as defense minister, he was at the helm of the Honduran military. The question will serve as a test of how serious the current U.S. government is about respecting the autonomy of governments in the region. A senior Democratic congressional aide, who was not authorized to speak publicly, told The Intercept: “If the Biden administration wants to make good on its commitment to democracy and human rights, this should be an easy call.”
In November’s high-turnout election, Castro defeated Nasry Asfura, the mayor of Tegucigalpa and a member of Hernández’s National Party, by a wide margin, becoming Honduras’s first female president. Since her inauguration last week, she has vowed to “uproot the corruption of the last 12 years of dictatorships,” making clear her view of the illegitimacy of the post-coup governments. Castro received a high-profile inauguration day visit from U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, whose office said it “welcomed President Castro’s focus on countering corruption and impunity.” The new administration faces no shortage of challenges, however, with the Honduran government presently mired in disagreement over whether a member of Castro’s party will run the Congress.
More:
https://theintercept.com/2022/01/31/honduras-defense-minister-asylum-biden-xiomara-castro/
This is from Wikipedia, and clearly it can all be verified instantly:
The Banana Wars were a series of conflicts that consisted of military occupation, police action, and intervention by the United States in Central America and the Caribbean between the end of the Spanish–American War in 1898 and the inception of the Good Neighbor Policy in 1934.[1] The military interventions were primarily carried out by the United States Marine Corps, who also developed a manual, the Small Wars Manual (1921) based on their experiences. On occasion, the United States Navy provided gunfire support and troops from the United States Army were also deployed.
With the Treaty of Paris signed in 1898, control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines fell to the United States (surrendered from Spain). Following this, the United States proceeded to conduct military interventions in Cuba, Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. These conflicts ended with the withdrawal of troops from Haiti in 1934 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The term "banana wars" was popularized in 1983[2] by writer Lester D. Langley. Langley wrote several books on Latin American history and American intervention, including: The United States and the Caribbean, 1900–1970 and The Banana Wars: An Inner History of American Empire, 1900–1934. His work regarding the Banana Wars encompasses the entire United States tropical empire, which overtook the western hemisphere, spanning both Roosevelt presidencies. The term was popularized through this writing and portrayed the United States as a police force sent to reconcile these warring tropical countries, lawless societies and corrupt politicians; essentially establishing US reign over tropical trade. Hundreds of American soldiers and thousands of locals died in the Banana Wars.
. . .
Interventions:
.....
Honduras, where the United Fruit Company and Standard Fruit Company dominated the country's key banana export sector and associated land holdings and railways, saw insertion of American troops in 1903, 1907, 1911, 1912, 1919, 1924 and 1925. The writer O. Henry coined the term "banana republic" in 1904 to describe Honduras.[9]
Much more:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_Wars
(This is outstanding information which I know school children DON'T hear at any time during their public school educations.)
I had no idea O. Henry had been interested in US history.
There are people I already want to send this Wikipedia information right away!
Thank you, so much, multigraincracker, for taking the time to make that point. I had not known this about Honduras, and very easily might NEVER have learned. Thank you.
🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌
🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌
🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌
🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌
🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌
🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌
🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌
🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌
banana crop in Honduras.
