Thousands of opposition members march in Honduras against the end of the extradition agreement with the US
President Castro claims to be protecting the country from a foreign-influenced coup attempt
AFP, Prensa Latina and Sputnik
The newspaper La Jornada
Saturday, September 7, 2024, p. 24
Tegucigalpa. Thousands of right-wing opposition members marched yesterday with torches in the Honduran capital against the government of Xiomara Castro, for cancelling the extradition treaty with the United States that allowed the imprisonment of fifty drug traffickers.
“The Honduran people have been outraged by this narco videowhich makes clear that there has been an alliance between the Libertad y Refundación party and drug trafficking,” since 2013, indicated during the mobilization one of the leaders of the National Party, Kilvet Bertrand, who was close to former president Juan Orlando Hernández (2014-2022), extradited under the agreement with the United States and sentenced to 45 years in prison, reported the news agency Afp.
The video in question was released on Tuesday by the InSight Crime portal, and it showsshows Honduran drug traffickers offering bribes to a member of the presidential familyhighlighted the X online portal, referring to the president’s brother-in-law, Carlos Zelaya.
The mass demonstration called by the Citizen Peace Army against the termination of the bilateral agreement between the United States and Honduran justice systems reached the government headquarters in Tegucigalpa without incident.
Meanwhile, Honduras will maintain a permanent dialogue with the United States to combat drug trafficking, said Defense Minister Rixi Moncada yesterday, days after her country cancelled the bilateral extradition treaty that allowed the handover of fifty drug lords in recent years.
Moncada and the head of the Honduran General Staff, General Roosevelt Hernández, held a meeting with the U.S. ambassador, Laura Dogu, amid criticism in Honduras against President Castro for terminating the agreement between the two nations.
We confirm that our government is in favor of extradition as one of the mechanisms to combat drug trafficking.but what It is not intended to be used as an instrument for the electoral process (general elections) November 2025, which is why it was decided to cancel the treaty, the minister stressed. At the time of going to press, the US embassy had not provided a version of the meeting with Minister Moncada.
Castro announced on August 28 his decision to cancel the bilateral pact (in force since 1912, but active since 2014), because it could serve to prepare a coup d’état in Honduras.
Three days later, her brother-in-law and a nephew of the president resigned: the secretary of Congress, deputy Carlos Zelaya, after admitting to the prosecution the veracity of the images disseminated – arguing that at that time I didn’t know that the people he met with were engaged in illegal activities – and his son, the then Minister of Defense, José Manuel Zelaya, who was replaced by Moncada.
During the inauguration of a soccer field, the Honduran president confirmed yesterday that We are making every effort to dismantle the coup they have planned, and all the actions we are taking are to repel the attacks they are carrying out, because we will not allow it..