US prosecutors declare Honduras a “narco-state”
On Thursday, the former leader of the Honduran drug cartel Los Cachiros, Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga, testified before the US District Court for the Southern District of New York that he had bribed three successive Honduran presidents in exchange for protection and government contracts to launder drug proceeds.
Juan Orlando Hernández (Credit: Alan SantosPR)
According to his testimony, the bribes include hundreds of thousands of dollars paid to the current President Juan Orlando Hernández (2015-today) through his siblings, and to his Vice-President Ricardo Álvarez, when he was mayor of Tegucigalpa. He said he paid half a million dollars to President Manuel Zelaya (2006-2009) and carried out several deals with President Porfirio Lobo (2010-2014) during their tenures.