source: Criterio HN
This is not just another crisis. It is a convergence of serious situations that reinforce each other: the economic, the political, the social, the territorial, the violence, and now the return of a specter with real power.
The government of Nasry Asfura came to power on January 27, 2026, from the shadows of fraud, pushed by the Donald Trump/Washington machine and the Shield of the Americas, that offensive that seeks to declare the left terrorists, and they are accused of algorithmic fraud in several countries of the continent (and now they are going after Spain).
In six months, Asfura has traveled to the United States multiple times and held meetings with Israeli officials, both in person in the US and in Ukraine. These three countries share common themes: espionage technology, multipurpose drones, and transnational technology businesses. Meanwhile, we have not achieved the reinstatement of TPS, nor have we seen a reduction in the US tariffs from 10% (in fact, they maintain them at the same level, a policy they so vehemently criticized during Xiomara Castro's administration, which at least provided substantial and permanent subsidies to control the cost of living).
What has progressed is the territorial dispossession (4% of Roatán is no longer Honduran territory despite the Constitutional Court's ruling), and now the prosperous ZEDE is coming to the mainland (the port of Satuyé in La Ceiba and Garifuna territories). Behind them, it is said, are multimillionaire investors, some associated with Silicon Valley billionaires, OpenAI, and other investors in technologies, cryptocurrencies, perverse biological experiments without ethical controls, and others we can't even imagine. But their investors have the power of money to move the entire planet if they so desire, and they have decided they need the sovereignty of poor countries because their businesses are no longer enough for them, and they are uncomfortable with the rules of the countries of the global north. They need the flexible rules of poor countries, like those of Congress, of the National Party deputies, and of the high-society kids that Nasralla left us as deputies (although they later betrayed him, but he chose that elite caste to suit his needs).
Thus, the nationalists, supported by the National-Liberal coalition government, quickly aligned themselves with the transnational far right, especially with the US and Israel. This isn't just theory: it's the purchase of drones for espionage and repression, the presence of Israeli security companies monitoring us, control of networks, and interference in servers to control what enters electoral processes. They claim it's for security, but for issues related to drugs, technology, and both illegal and "legal" transnational businesses, today's borders are very porous.
Economically, they are suffocating us: they seize land, privatize public services. The National Electric Energy Company (ENEE), the last major state asset, is being dismantled. They say it's due to losses, but who isn't paying? The concessionary businesses, those who owe millions. The poor are given 30 days to pay their bills or their electricity is cut off. It's a perverse system where some accumulate wealth and others merely survive; they've also privatized healthcare.
Add to that the exhaustion of unemployment and the struggle to survive: paying rent, school fees, food, and no job. How can you get around if you don't know if you'll have food to eat tomorrow?
While they silence criticism: alternative media outlets like Criterio HN have taken down their websites and news networks, and police patrols harass them. No local human rights organization accompanies them. In a country with almost no protection for human rights defenders, this amounts to censorship with death threats.
The fear is not accidental. It reached the highest levels of oversight bodies. The President of the Supreme Court resigned under pressure from impeachment proceedings; electoral magistrates and council members, both full and alternate, who could have provided checks and balances, were removed through impeachment trials. Almost half of the Libre party's congressional representatives have open cases before the Public Prosecutor's Office, and we see them keeping a low profile.
And in that scenario, Juan Orlando Hernández returns. They say he is innocent, but he was convicted in the U.S. for conspiracy to export cocaine and weapons and was given a political pardon, a presidential pardon.
His brother was sentenced to life imprisonment for drug trafficking in the U.S., but JOH was released.
He's not just any former president. He's been pardoned by Trump, with Marco Rubio and Israeli Zionism behind him. He wields more power than President Asfura himself, because he pulls the strings that truly make decisions internationally, including the Prospera lobby, in gratitude to its former president and founding father.
And before he returns tomorrow, "without crimes," with the undisguised approval and glee of the Public Prosecutor's Office, the media, the National Anti-Corruption Council (CNA), the Association of Justice (ASJ), and others, we cannot fail to mention that violence has increased. We know that common and organized crime is not new, but now it is intertwined with transnational power. It is said that Israeli investments, which are committing genocide with impunity in Gaza, are here in Honduras in the security and defense sector.
The backdrop to this is the unsolved massacre of 20 farmers in Rigores, Trujillo, Colón; the killing of five police officers from the recently disbanded DIPAMPCO in Omoa; the surge in homicides and femicides; and the shocking increase in massacres. Is this the return of the structures that once served local power and now serve transnational interests?
On the positive side, however, there is resistance. I see it among the Garifuna people, among the farmers who refuse to be evicted, in communities that are organizing despite their fear. But it is scattered, poorly organized, and lacks effective support from the people.
Precisely for this reason, because the system is designed to demobilize us, we need to understand it as a warning and a denunciation. If we don't connect the dots, if we don't see that fear, perverse alliances with powerful groups, and the use of social media and technology are its main tools, we will continue to react from a place of vulnerability, instead of acting in a coordinated manner nationally and internationally.
I don't know if the people will wake up. But I do know that if we don't tell this story as it is—with the dispossession, the repression, the narco-power, and the international interests and complicity—we're going to lose the battle for the narrative. And that battle is as important as the battle for land or energy.
Mobilization is not a luxury, it's a necessity. Even if it hurts, even if it's scary, even if we're tired. Because otherwise, this perverse system will continue to steal everything from us and annihilate us in countless ways, swallowed by any of the tentacles of this perfect storm.
Author: By Reina Rivera
*Reina Rivera: is a Honduran lawyer, jurist and human rights defender, with an extensive career in the justice sector, international cooperation and work with civil society.
