Honduran President Xiomara Castro announced on August 28 that she ordered the suspension of the extradition agreement between her country and the United States. The move was in response to comments made by the U.S. Ambassador to Honduras, Laura Dogu, regarding different high-ranking Honduran officials who had traveled to Venezuela.
The Honduran head of state wrote in a post,
The interference and interventionism of the United States, as well as its intention to direct the politics of Honduras through its Embassy and other representatives, is intolerable. They attack, disregard and violate with impunity the principles and practices of international law, which promote respect for the sovereignty and self-determination of peoples, non-intervention and universal peace. Enough. Based on our Constitution and international treaties, I have ordered Chancellor Enrique Reina to denounce the extradition treaty with the United States.
The comments in question by the U.S. ambassador happened during an interview with media outlet HCH TV on August 28. Dogu had said that it was “surprising and disappointing” to see Honduran government officials meet with members of the Venezuelan government because “The U.S. government announced several years ago that the Venezuelan government is involved in drug trafficking; especially, they are sending drugs directly to the United States.”
She added that the Venezuelan Minister of Defense Vladimir Padrino López who met with Honduras’ Secretary of Defense José Manuel Zelaya Rosales is one of the officials that has already been sanctioned by the U.S. government. “It was surprising to see [Honduran] government officials sitting with them because I know that the President [Xiomara Castro] is in a constant fight against drug traffickers. And it was surprising to see government officials sitting [next to] members of a cartel based in Venezuela,” she concluded.
The following day on August 29, Foreign Minister of Honduras Enrique Reina said in a televised interview that the comments by Dogu were linked to a more sinister plan. “We have obtained intelligence information, that these statements by U.S. Ambassador Laura Dogu, imply that some members of the Armed Forces, military personnel of certain rankings, were conspiring with the idea that since allegations have been made against General Roosevelt, he must be taken out of his post,” Reina stated. “Even though we were able to carry out a clean election which brought the president to power [in 2021], we know where we are coming from, we know of all the struggle that we have waged to even just rescue the institutionality in the country,” the foreign minister added. He also has clarified that at the moment there are not any pending extradition orders against government officials.
Xiomara Castro said in a public address on August 29 that the U.S. government cannot be allowed to publicly attack the Chief of the Armed Forces, General Roosevelt Hernández, and the Minister of Defense, José Manuel Zelaya, for having attended a meeting with the Venezuelan military, and these types of comments “weaken the institutionality” of the Honduran Army. She classified the comments as part of a plan to undermine and overthrow her government and stated:
I want to promise the Honduran people that there will be no more coups d’état, and that I will not allow the instrument of extradition to be used to intimidate or blackmail the Honduran Armed Forces, we are defending our Armed Forces.
Several other Latin American and Caribbean left leaders have made statements in support of the Honduran government and condemning yet another U.S. destabilization plan.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel stated,
Stop meddling in the internal affairs of Honduras. All our support and solidarity to President Xiomara Castro, her Government and the Honduran people in the face of attacks on the sovereignty of Honduras and Our America.
Former Bolivian president Evo Morales who was overthrown in a coup in 2019, wrote,
We extend our full support to our comrade Xiomara Castro, President of Honduras, in the face of the destabilization attempts orchestrated by the Honduran right wing in complicity with the government of the United States. We recognize her tireless work and courage in leading the destinies of the beloved and admired Honduran people and defending their sovereignty. They will not return!
Extradition treaty
In addition to strong statements by top government officials, the Honduran government did take the concrete measure to terminate the extradition agreement between the governments of Honduras and the United States. This agreement has allowed more than 50 Hondurans to be tried and sentenced to prison in U.S. jails. Among them is former U.S.-backed President Juan Orlando Hernández, who in June was sentenced to 45 years in prison in New York (and who, interestingly, has criticized Castro’s decision to suspend the extradition agreement).
Extradition treaties with the U.S. have been widely criticized by progressives across the world as it represents a violation of a country’s sovereignty and undermines their judicial processes. Some have also criticized that the U.S. often uses extradition treaties for their own political goals. Advocates of such agreements argue that it places higher deterrence against committing drug trafficking crimes as the fear of imprisonment in the U.S. is higher.
The President of Honduras has clarified that her objective is not, as the opposition to her government claims, to diminish the fight against drug traffickers or to promote impunity (something that the U.S. ambassador herself recognizes as a virtue in Castro’s government), but rather to prevent the agreement from being used as a political “tool” against officials of the Executive and the Honduran Armed Forces.
U.S. Ambassadors’ provocations
In what appears to be a generalized imperialist political communication strategy, U.S. ambassadors in Latin America in recent years have decided to “comment” publicly to local media about their opinions on the internal politics of the countries in which they serve missions. Just this week, Mexican President López Obrador put diplomatic relations with the U.S. and Canadian ambassadors on “pause” due to their public opinions on the Judicial Reform proposed by AMLO and MORENA. However, Ambassador Dogu’s statements stand out for their severity and harshness against high-ranking officials of the Honduran State.
For now, it remains to be seen what attitude the U.S. government will take towards the moves made by the Latin American leaders, and if there will be any retaliation against the Executives of the countries that demand, in accordance with international agreements, that U.S. ambassadors stop publicly commenting on the internal affairs of the countries where they are based.