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MEXICO CITY – Proposed new US legislation targets Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández as allegations of links to drug trafficking mount.
As President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to bring corruption and human rights concerns back to relations with Honduras and other Central American countries, a group of Democratic senators say the US government’s relations with the Honduras must change.
Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley on Tuesday introduced a bill to isolate Hernández, who in recent years has relied heavily on his support in the US government in the face of national opposition and mounting allegations of links to drug traffickers by US prosecutors.
“The United States cannot remain silent in the face of deeply alarming corruption and human rights abuses at the highest levels of the Honduran government,” Merkley said in a statement. Failure to hold Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, national officials, and members of the police and military accountable for these crimes will fuel widespread poverty and violence and force more families to flee their seeking communities. of security. “
Merkley’s bill, “Honduran Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Act 2021,” calls on Biden to impose sanctions on Hernández and “determine if he is a specially designated narcotics trafficker “. The legislation also has the backing of Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Richard Durbin of Illinois, and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, among others.
Such a designation would be a tremendous setback for a president who frequently cites the active participation of Honduras in the US war on drugs whenever US prosecutors in New York suggest his political rise was funded in part by drug traffickers. drug. He was not charged.
The bill also seeks to ban the export of defensive items such as tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets that Honduran security forces have deployed against protesters in recent years. The US government is reportedly actively opposing loans to Honduran security forces from multilateral development banks.
He calls on the Honduran government to discuss with the United Nations the creation of an anti-corruption mission like the one that has been successful in Guatemala. Under Hernández, a mission backed by the Organization of American States was not renewed after it began to implicate a number of federal lawmakers in corruption scandals.
Earlier this month, Hernández again denied any connection to drug trafficking after US prosecutors filed documents in an upcoming drug trafficker trial suggesting the president was under attack. investigation. Hernández’s brother, Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández, was convicted in New York on a drug conspiracy in 2019.
On Friday, US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke with his Honduran counterpart about cooperation between the governments of the two countries.
Under President Donald Trump’s administration, immigration has overshadowed everything else in the relationship. Biden spoke of supporting the development of so-called Northern Triangle countries to tackle the root causes of migration, but Blinken also included “corruption and disrespect for human rights” as causes of migration. , according to a State Department summary of the appeal.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
