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While Latin America’s socialist governments have condemned the Honduran military for its June 28 ousting of President Manuel Zelaya in response to Zelaya’s questionable moves to usurp the nation’s constitution, intelligence shows that counter-narcotics and counterterrorism authorities had been investigating the Zelaya regime’s ties to Mexico’s narco-cartels … and terrorists.
After reputedly defying the Supreme Court by trying to hold a vote on extending presidential term limits, in accordance with Honduran law as interpreted by the legislature and the high court, the Honduran military followed lawful civilian orders to exile Zelaya to Costa Rica. Zelaya also had began implementing agreements he'd made with Venezuela and Cuba that weren't congressionally approved, Honduran officials have insisted.
But the bigger problem is that Honduras, with the help of government authorities, has been allowed to be used as a transshipment hub for South American cocaine en route north toward the United States. Only recently, though, did it become the subject of narco-trafficking investigations of Honduran-based traffickers' links to terrorist groups established in the region.
Investigations have focused on a few Honduran Muslim businessmen that intelligence indicates are aiding Mexican narco-cartels to smuggle drugs and launder the ill-gotten gains from the sale of these drugs, and to facilitate regional activities of fundamentalist Islamic terrorist organizations, according to a report, Operation Cazando Anguilas ("hunting eels") prepared for the US government by a private security contractor, obtained by Homeland Security Today and detailed in the August cover story, "Unholy Trinity. "
"Analysis of information available in Honduras ... indicates that linkages between ... Muslim businessmen and transnational drug trafficking organizations [DTOs] operating in the Caribbean Basin are much more highly evolved and intricate than previously reported and that the basis for this nexus is 'business;' i.e., the 'for-profit' smuggling of drugs, humans, arms and currency," stated the intelligence report on the situation in Latin America.
"Especially in Honduras ... there exists a strategic and tactical alliance between ... Muslim businessmen involved in money laundering and transnational DTOs, specifically Mexico's Gulf Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel," the intelligence report stated.
The report alleges that "the amount of contraband and currency being couriered ... is significant." Citing regional law enforcement sources, the intelligence stated that "an estimated "$1 million per day is moved from Mexico to Honduras ..."
By most accounts, Honduras has become a way station for cocaine being smuggled from Colombia to Mexico's cartels, who today buy most of their cocaine for distribution in the US from Colombian coca processors.
The new Honduran foreign minister, Enrique Ortez, told CNN en Espanol that Zelaya allowed tons of cocaine to be flown into Honduras that was bound for the United States.
"We have proof ... Neighboring governments have it. The DEA has it," Ortez claimed, adding, "every night, three or four Venezuelan-registered planes land without the permission of appropriate authorities and bring thousands of pounds ... and packages of money that are the fruit of drug trafficking."
Congressman Rodolfo Irias Navas of the Honduran National Party echoed Ortez, saying publicly that planes loaded with both drugs and munitions landed daily and that only a small number had been seized by counter-drug authorities.
In March, Guatemalan and Honduran officials stated that they had intelligence reports indicating that Mexico's ruthless Sinaloa narco-cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is hiding in Honduras.
Ortez said Zelaya will be arrested if he returns to Honduras on charges pending against him for violating the constitution and other unspecified crimes.
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