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.
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.
– ‘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.
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.
Central America
Arrests and clashes in Tegucigalpa as vote count continues after Honduras election
Protesters affiliated with the ruling Liberty and Refoundation Party (Libre) gathered in a demonstration that led to several arrests, disturbances, the burning of tires, and left at least 15 people injured outside the center where votes from Honduras’ November 30 general election are still being counted.
The group assembled on Monday outside the National Institute for Professional Training (INFOP) in Tegucigalpa, after President Xiomara Castro called on supporters through social media, claiming that a “new coup d’état” was being plotted in Honduras.
“I call on the people, social movements, grassroots organizations, party militants and citizens to urgently and peacefully gather in Tegucigalpa to defend the popular mandate, reject any coup attempt and make it clear to the world that a new coup is taking shape here,” the president said.
Castro has stated that she does not recognize the partial election results, which currently place right-wing candidate Nasry Asfura in the lead with 40.54% of the vote, followed closely by liberal candidate Salvador Nasralla with 39.20%. The ruling party’s candidate, Rixi Moncada, remains in a distant third place with 19.30%, with no realistic chance of a comeback.
Both the Libre Party and the Liberal Party, led by Castro and Nasralla respectively, have alleged electoral fraud. On Tuesday, the two parties agreed to participate in the special review panels that the National Electoral Council (CNE) says will finalize the count by reexamining 1,081 polling records flagged for irregularities.
Former president Manuel Zelaya, Castro’s husband and a senior figure within Libre, said last week that according to his party’s own nationwide tally of presidential ballots, Nasralla—a former Libre member—won the election.
Central America
Bukele says AI partnership with xAI will transform public education in El Salvador
President Nayib Bukele stated on Monday that the implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI), with the support of Elon Musk’s company xAI, will help redefine the future of public education in El Salvador.
“El Salvador and xAI will redefine the future of public education. Children will not use Grok the same way we use it,” the president wrote on X.
Last week, Bukele and Musk announced a partnership to provide personalized tutoring through the AI assistant Grok for all students enrolled in public schools across the country.
This pioneering alliance between the Government of El Salvador and xAI represents the launch of the world’s first national education program powered by artificial intelligence.
“Grok will be used in all public schools in El Salvador over the next two years. More than one million students will receive personalized tutoring. Thousands of teachers will receive assistance and support as partners in the educational process,” the president explained.
Meanwhile, FMLN Secretary General Manuel Flores described the incorporation of AI into public school education as “reckless,” arguing that many schools still lack basic services such as electricity and internet access.
“Schools do not even have desks. They said: ‘All schools will have internet’; that promise was not fulfilled. And others used to say: ‘The only promises that matter are the ones that are kept,’” Flores said during his regular Monday press conference.
Flores questioned who would teach artificial intelligence classes, noting that in some areas schools lack televisions or electricity. “How are they going to have internet? Starlink [satellite internet service] has already been announced five times,” he added.
He further labeled the AI-driven education program promoted by President Bukele as “another lie,” comparing it to the “Two Schools a Day” initiative, which he claimed is “pure propaganda.”
The “Two Schools a Day” program was announced earlier this year and involves the construction or reconstruction of public schools nationwide to improve educational quality. The project is being implemented by government institutions such as the National Directorate of Municipal Works.
Central America
El Salvador ranks among top countries in the Americas in fight against organized crime
El Salvador has positioned itself as the country in the Americas with the strongest performance in the Global Organized Crime Index (GOCI), ranking 18th out of 35 countries in the region and 77th out of 193 nations worldwide that are engaged in the fight against organized crime.
According to the index, El Salvador outperforms Mexico, which ranks 2nd in the Americas and 3rd globally, as well as the United States, which holds the 14th position in the Americas and 60th worldwide.
The Global Organized Crime Index evaluates multiple indicators, including criminal markets, human trafficking and smuggling, extortion, arms trafficking, counterfeit goods trade, illicit trade in excisable goods, environmental crimes involving flora and fauna, crimes against non-renewable resources, heroin, cocaine, cannabis and synthetic drug trafficking, cyber-dependent crimes, financial crimes, mafia-style groups and criminal networks.
Within Central America, El Salvador surpasses Panama, which ranks 8th in the Americas and 21st globally; Costa Rica, ranked 13th in the region and 58th worldwide; Nicaragua, ranked 16th and 69th; Honduras, positioned 5th in the Americas and 13th globally; and Guatemala, which holds 9th place in the Americas and 25th worldwide.
Belize is the only Central American country ranked above El Salvador, placing 23rd in the Americas and 103rd globally. However, while El Salvador climbed 25 positions compared to its 2023 ranking—improving from 52nd to 77th—Belize dropped three positions, moving from 106th in 2023 to 103rd in the current index.
El Salvador’s progress in combating organized crime also surpasses that of several countries across the Americas, including Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Peru, Chile and Paraguay, all of which rank lower both regionally and globally.
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