Former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya denies ties to and contributions from drug traffickers – Diario La Página – 2024-09-08 03:57:34

Former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted on June 28, 2009, reiterated on Wednesday that he had not received money from drug trafficking and questioned the “abominable conduct” of other people, including family members, in reference to a 2013 video showing his brother, Carlos Zelaya, meeting with drug traffickers.

“I have not committed any crimes or money from drug trafficking in my 72 years of life. Whoever claims otherwise does so with petty interest and is lying,” stressed Zelaya, who is now an adviser to his wife, Honduran President Xiomara Castro.

In a message on the social network X, Zelaya said that his “life of struggle in the streets for more than 44 years will always be a moral testimony and an example for present and future generations.”

He warned his opponents that “they can unleash their attacks on social media or in corporate media, but I will not change my commitment to socialism in the face of the misguided and imperial policies of the United States being implemented in Honduras.”

“I cannot answer for the abominable conduct of another person, even if he is a family member,” Zelaya stressed, a day after the release of a video showing drug traffickers negotiating a bribe in 2013 with his brother, Carlos Zelaya, brother-in-law of the Honduran president.

Clear audio and images
“The images and audio are clear enough to show traffickers recalling past contributions allegedly paid to former President Manuel Zelaya, Castro’s husband, Carlos’ brother and founder of the Libre Party,” said a report by the US non-governmental organization InSight Crime (Organized Crime in the Americas).

Carlos Zelaya resigned on Saturday, August 31 as secretary of the Honduran Congress, after admitting that he met with drug traffickers who offered him contributions for the political campaign of the ruling Liberty and Refoundation Party (Libre), whose general coordinator is Manuel Zelaya, although he denied having received money.

The video was handed over by Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga, former leader of the Los Cachiros cartel, after reaching an agreement with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in December 2013.

The meeting was also attended by Honduran drug traffickers Javier Rivera Maradiaga, also from Los Cachiros; Hector Fernandez Rosa, alias “Don H”, Carlos Lobo and Ramon Matta Waldurraga, son of Juan Ramon Matta Ballesteros, who has been serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison since 1990.

The video was released almost a week after the Honduran government terminated the extradition treaty with the United States, due to the alleged “interference” of the US ambassador in Tegucigalpa, Laura Dogu, by questioning a meeting between Honduran authorities and the sanctioned Venezuelan Minister of Defense, Vladimir Padrino López.