By: Staff Writer
January 12, 2021
The International Narcotics Control Strategy Reports of the US Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs revealed that during the administration of President Juan Orlando Hernández, drug traffic through Honduras was reduced by 83 percent at a total value of $24bn over the six years.
The Honduras ambassador to the United States and former coordinator of the security Cabinet, Luis Fernando Suazo, explained that a report published by the State Department in 2013 indicated that 87 percent of the cocaine heading north passed through Honduras, while in 2020 the report stated that the passage of drugs through the country was 4 percent, a significant reduction of 83 percent in the last 6 years of government.
A report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime quantifying the value of cocaine in its transit up North to America, points out that in 2013 the value of the drug circulating in Central America was $4.8bn, signifying that the drug traffickers who operated in all the Central American Atlantic coasts’ lost $24bn in the six years of the administration of President Hernández.
Ambassador Suazo assured that this significant reduction in the transit of drugs through the country is the result of the frontal battle that the Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez has led since he was head of the National Congress, when he promoted and got approved a constitutional reform that gave way to the extradition of Hondurans.
When asked about the accusations of some drug traffickers that link the Honduran president and state security bodies to drug trafficking, Suazo affirmed that they are baseless allegations, in retaliation for all the money that these criminals have lost plus the extraditions and sentences they got as a result of the fight against organized crime during the Hernández Administration.
“The facts and results of Honduras against drug trafficking under the leadership of the president should remove all doubts about its integrity, there is no support for criminals in the face of such clear results presented by his government” he said. Suazo assured that there is no accusation by the courts of justice, and what is prevailing are merely allegations of confessed criminals that not only trafficked drug, but are confessed murders and have fail to present any type of evidences”.
On top of the reduction in the passage of drugs through the country, there are 24 Hondurans who have been captured by the Armed Forces and the National Police and extradited to the United States to face a legal process. Suazo declared that in the face of this demonstration of political will from Honduras government, many other criminals chose to negotiate an agreement to reduce their sentences and appear “voluntarily”.
“In order to reduce their sentences, they have chosen to make a series of unsubstantiated statements with no evidence other than their word” Suazo said. “These accusations are allegations of declared drug traffickers, which languish in the face of the results that Honduras has had in the fight against drug trafficking under the leadership of President Hernández and that, no country in the world has obtained in such a short time”.
“There are men and women of the Armed Forces and the National Police who have fought this battle, who risked their lives, who have sacrificed a great deal; 87 of them lost their lives in this war and it seems to me that it is not a good testimony of their sacrifice to validate these baseless accusations “, the ambassador concluded.