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
Opposition leader highlights migration crisis in Panama speech
Opposition leader María Corina Machado recalled on Monday, during her final day in Panama, the thousands of Venezuelan migrants who crossed the dangerous Darién Gap jungle on their journey toward North America in search of better living conditions.
Speaking before Panama’s National Assembly, Machado stated that “more than 500,000 Venezuelans have crossed the Darién in search of freedom,” adding that many did not survive the journey.
Her remarks highlighted the Darién Gap as a central route in the recent regional migration crisis, where thousands of migrants—mostly Venezuelans—have attempted to travel north through one of the most dangerous jungle passages in the Americas.
According to migration data cited in recent years, the Darién route has seen daily flows of over a thousand migrants at its peak, reflecting the scale of the humanitarian challenge in the region.
Central America
Nicaragua’s Alliances With U.S. Rivals Could Trigger More Sanctions, Analysis Says
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to maintain political and economic pressure on the government of Nicaragua, led by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, due to its growing alliances with Russia, China and Iran, according to an analysis released Monday by the Centro de Estudios Transdisciplinarios de Centroamérica (Cetcam).
The report states that tensions between Washington and Managua have increased since the beginning of Trump’s second term and could worsen amid the regional political climate, particularly because of developments in Venezuela and Cuba.
Cetcam researchers noted that since the second half of 2025, the U.S. government has intensified criticism of the Sandinista administration, mainly regarding political prisoners, human rights, religious freedom and what it describes as the authoritarian model established by Ortega and Murillo.
“With this background, it is possible to foresee that Washington will maintain pressure, including sanctions, against the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship,” the think tank stated in its report.
The study also warns that one of Washington’s main concerns is the strengthening relationship between Managua and countries considered strategic rivals of the United States, particularly Russia, China and Iran.
Among the developments highlighted is the recent ratification by the Russian Senate of a military cooperation agreement signed with Nicaragua in 2025. The deal is expected to strengthen strategic coordination and Russia’s presence in Central America for an initial five-year period.
According to Cetcam, the move will “hardly go unnoticed” by the United States.
Central America
Guatemala swears in new attorney general after controversial exit of Consuelo Porras
The new Attorney General of Guatemala, Gabriel García Luna, officially took office on Sunday and pledged to restore public confidence in the institution while strengthening efforts against corruption and organized crime.
“Today does not mark the beginning of just another administration. Today marks an opportunity to restore dignity to Guatemala’s criminal justice system,” said García Luna, who was appointed by President Bernardo Arévalo.
García Luna succeeds Consuelo Porras, whose tenure began in 2018 and became highly controversial due to accusations of undermining democratic institutions and obstructing anti-corruption investigations.
Porras was sanctioned by the United States, the European Union, Canada, and the United Kingdom, among others, over allegations related to corruption and interference in judicial processes.
Her administration was also criticized for allegedly attempting to block President Arévalo’s inauguration in 2024 and for pursuing legal actions against former anti-mafia prosecutors, judges, journalists, and Indigenous leaders, many of whom later went into exile.
During his inauguration speech, García Luna acknowledged that many Guatemalans had lost trust in the Attorney General’s Office.
“For years, many Guatemalans lost confidence in the institution, not because they stopped believing in justice, but because justice stopped believing in them. Today begins the duty to restore that trust,” he stated.
The new attorney general also admitted he inherited an institution “with deep wounds.”
The United States has accused Porras of obstructing anti-corruption investigations to protect political allies and secure political favors.
Critics argue that such actions benefited the so-called “pact of the corrupt,” an alleged network of political, economic, and criminal interests believed to exert influence over Guatemala’s justice system.
Rubio and Lavrov Hold Talks After Large-Scale Russian Assault on Ukraine
Omar García Harfuch Announces Arrest of “El Chapo’s” Nephew
Diplomatic Talks Continue as Iran Accuses U.S. of Ceasefire Violations
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
Defense Minister commends salvadoran soldier for Central American Cross Country victory
Extension of the state of emergency approved in southern Chile
-
International3 days agoIran says agreement with U.S. to end Middle East conflict is in final stages
-
International4 days agoWHO Warns Ebola Outbreak Is Spreading Rapidly in DR Congo
-
International4 days agoGuatemalan Man Sentenced to 50 Years in U.S. Prison for Child Exploitation Crimes
-
International7 hours agoDiplomatic Talks Continue as Iran Accuses U.S. of Ceasefire Violations
-
Central America22 hours agoOpposition leader highlights migration crisis in Panama speech
-
International7 hours agoOmar García Harfuch Announces Arrest of “El Chapo’s” Nephew
-
International7 hours agoRubio and Lavrov Hold Talks After Large-Scale Russian Assault on Ukraine
-
International22 hours agoEcuador’s Noboa vows to continue “war” on criminal groups