Central America

From target to enforcer: Honduras minister vows ‘surgical’ cartel fight

AFP

Forced into hiding after targeting a drug cartel with alleged ties to the then-government, Honduras’s hounded police chief-turned interior minister has vowed to extract criminal tentacles in the State with “surgical” precision.

Ramon Sabillon, minister in the new cabinet of leftist Xiomara Castro, told AFP he was fired from his former job as police chief after dismantling a drug cartel in 2014 without informing then-president Juan Orlando Hernandez.

Hernandez is today awaiting extradition to the United States on drug trafficking charges.

The cartel he had hit, named Valle Valle, “had penetrated the structures of State” under Hernandez, Sabillon told AFP in an interview.

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Hernandez had him fired, he said, and “threatened with death, I had to leave the country… I had to either save my life or continue in the police… I preferred life.”

Now Sabillon is back as Castro’s interior minister, and in a twist of irony one of his first tasks was to execute an arrest warrant for Hernandez.

Hernandez, who held office from 2014 to early this year, is accused of having facilitated the smuggling of some 500 tons of drugs — mainly from Colombia and Venezuela — to the United States via Honduras since 2004.

In return, he allegedly received millions of dollars in bribes as well as protection money from drug kingpins such as Mexico’s Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

Hernandez’s brother, former Honduran congressman Tony Hernandez, is serving a life sentence in the United States for drug trafficking.

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– ‘A mafia’ –

“When organized crime gets embedded in the State, it becomes a mafia because it holds the power of the State. So it is a surgical job that we have to do, democratically, by enforcing the law,” Sabillon told AFP.

Extraditing a former president, he added, “sends a strong message to the entire population, to those seeking public office, that the State will not tolerate” such actions.

At least 40 Hondurans are sought by the United States on drug allegations.

The minister said a number of coca plantations and laboratories have been dismantled since the beginning of the year.

Cartels are seeking to become more autonomous, he explained, with production in Honduras itself, “so they need not depend on the point of origin” in South American countries such as Colombia and Peru.

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Hernandez, a right-wing lawyer, left office on January 27 when leftist Castro became president of the country with a poverty rate of at least 60 percent among its 10 million inhabitants.

The country’s first woman president faces an uphill struggle to reform a country with one of the highest murder rates in the world.

Tens of thousands of its citizens have tried to flee to the United States.

She has vowed to tackle deep-seated government corruption.

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Central America

U.S. extradites Iranian man over alleged sanctions evasion scheme

The United States has extradited from Panama an Iranian national accused of evading economic sanctions against Iran by illegally exporting U.S. technology. He is scheduled to appear this Monday before a court in Seattle.

Reza Dindar, 44, was extradited on April 17 after being detained in Panama since July 2025 on charges related to export control violations between 2011 and 2012, allegedly carried out through companies based in China.

The defendant appeared before a U.S. district court in Seattle, where he faces charges of violating sanctions imposed by the United States on Iran in 1995 during the administration of Bill Clinton. These sanctions prohibit the unauthorized export, re-export, or supply—directly or indirectly—of U.S. goods, technology, or services to Iran or its government.

According to the indictment, between 2010 and 2014, Dindar led the company New Port Sourcing Solutions in Xi’an, China, which allegedly concealed the procurement of U.S. products for shipment to clients in Iran.

Central America

Bukele administration surpasses 1,100 homicide-free days amid ongoing crackdown

El Salvador's PNC adds 85 days without murders and April is on track to be the safest in Salvadoran history

On Saturday, April 18, the Policía Nacional Civil (PNC) reported that no homicides were recorded in El Salvador, bringing the total to 17 days without murders.

With this update, the country has accumulated 91 homicide-free days so far in 2026. January closed with 27 such days, followed by 24 in February and 23 in March, according to police data.

During the administration of President Nayib Bukele, a total of 1,193 days without homicides have been registered. Of those, 1,079 have occurred since the implementation of the state of exception.

This extraordinary security measure has been extended 49 times by the Asamblea Legislativa de El Salvador, with the latest extension in effect from April 1 to April 30, 2026. Under the measure, more than 91,700 gang members and collaborators have been detained and prosecuted for illicit association.

Central America

Panama and OECD sign deal to boost investment climate and global integration

The Government of Panama and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) signed an agreement this Friday in Paris aimed at improving the country’s investment climate through data exchange, expert missions, and policy benchmarking.

“This is not a symbolic act. It is a strategic decision. A statement of intent. A commitment to transformation,” said Panama’s Foreign Minister, Javier Martínez-Acha, following the signing, according to an official statement.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed by Martínez-Acha and OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann at the organization’s headquarters in the French capital.

According to Panama’s Foreign Ministry, the agreement establishes “a solid and forward-looking framework for cooperation,” enabling high-level technical collaboration through data sharing, comparative policy analysis, expert missions, and evidence-based recommendations.

Authorities stated that the initiative is expected to enhance the investment environment, boost competitiveness, and improve predictability, while also strengthening governance, fostering innovation, increasing human capital, and aligning the education system with global economic demands.

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The agreement also opens the door for Panama to deepen its participation within OECD bodies, allowing the country to take part in discussions where global standards are defined.

Since taking office in July 2024, President José Raúl Mulino has prioritized efforts to remove Panama from international lists that label it as a tax haven, which his administration considers discriminatory.

As part of this strategy, the government restricted the participation of most European companies—except those from Spain, Italy, and Greece—in public tenders for major infrastructure projects, including a planned railway to the border with Costa Rica and a gas pipeline near the Panama Canal. This move came after the European Union kept Panama on its list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes.

Over the past year, Panama has made progress in this area, including its removal from the European Parliament’s money laundering list and Ecuador’s tax haven list.