TEGUCIGALPA – Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández’s name keeps popping up in the New York trial of an alleged drug trafficker.
And one of the candidates running to replace him in Sunday’s primary elections has been convicted in the same court of laundering money for the same cartel.
The court actions show just how deep are the challenges facing Honduras, a country that U.S. prosecutors have repeatedly portrayed as a narco-state where drug traffickers buy protection from politicians.
Honduras’ economy has been hammered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Two devastating Category 4 hurricanes passed through in November.