On March 8, Juan Orlando Hernandez (former President of Honduras) was found guilty in a New York court of drug-trafficking. It is hard to overstate how complicit the U.S. and Canada were in ‘legitimizing’ and supporting 12 years and 7 months of the repressive, “open for global business”, narco regime headed by Juan Orlando Hernandez, calling it a “democratic allie” the entire time.
Rights Action highly recommends listen to Episode 7, parts I and II, of the Under the Shadow podcast series that recap the U.S. and Canadian-backed military coup d’etat of June 27, 2009, and then almost 13 years of unconditional U.S. and Canadian support for the Honduran narco regime.
- Episode 7, Part I – 2009 Honduras: La Resistencia
- Episode 7, Part II – Honduras 2009: Legacy of a Coup
In Update 3 of the podcast, Karen Spring (former Rights Action colleague, long-time co-coordinator of the Honduras Solidarity Network) takes the listener inside the trial that found Juan Orlando Hernández guilty of drug trafficking.
Karen provides a devastating summary of just how much violence and damage the narco regime did to Honduras, its people and society, government and State institutions, all enabled by the U.S. and Canada.
The trial exposed:
- the fraud that is the U.S.-led “war on drugs” in the Americas, such that the U.S. and Canada supported and ‘legitimized’ a regime that was knowingly shipping drugs north to U.S. and Canadian markets.
- how the narco regime corrupted every institution and State and government, including the judiciary, legislative branch, police and army.
- how the narco regime empowered, enriched and operated in partnership with “the gangs” that, in mainstream media and policy newspeak, are the source of all problems that plague Honduras, forcing people to flee.
- how mainstream media operates, more often than not, as an information outlet for the foreign policy establishments of the U.S. and Canada. With few exceptions, the media ignored the “Honduras story” or parroted analysis emanating from Washington and Ottawa, from the day of the June 27, 2009 coup through to when Hernandez was forced from office on January 27, 2022.
- how the newly elected democratic government of Honduras now faces the ‘herculean task’ of trying to begin to repair the devastation and destruction done to the people, State and society, even as the same media and policy establishments in the U.S. and Canada begin to blame the new government for all the ills of Honduras.
And the trial exposed, yet again, the hypocrisy and utter lack of political oversight and legal accountability in the U.S. and Canada for the policies and actions of our governments internationally. There are simply no consequences whatsoever when our governments support and enable repressive, corrupt regimes, and lie about it.
But there are consequences! It is the majority Honduran population, plus the institutions of government and the State, that suffered the consequences of this U.S. and Canadian-backed nightmare, as all aspects of their quality of life were flushed down the toilet.
Grahame Russell, info@rightsaction.org
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‘Putting the U.S. and Canada on Trial’ campaign
Rights Action encourages folks to follow the work of Karen Spring and the Honduras Solidarity Network leading a campaign to hold the U.S. and Canada responsible for supporting the Honduran narco-state.
https://www.hondurasnow.org/category/narco-trial-campaign/
Read Update #1: U.S. and Canadian support 2009 coup, making way for narco state
Read Update #2: Trial date change. The campaign continues
Read Update #3: “The U.S. government’s go-to man on the war on drug trafficking” pleads guilty to drug trafficking
Read Update #4: U.S. and Canada ‘legitimized’ three repressive, fraudulent elections (2009, 2013, 2017)
Read Update #5: Live from New York
Read Update #6: U.S. government blocks use of classified information outlining U.S. relations with Juan Orlando Hernandez and narco regime
Read Update #7: Trial against Juan Orlando Hernández starts
Read Update #8: How U.S. and Canada ignored warnings of narco trafficking corruption and violence
Read Update #9: How Honduras was ‘Open for Global Business’ (and drug trafficking)
Read Update #10: U.S.-trained military officials Involved in drug trafficking
Facebook: Honduras Solidarity Network & Honduras Now
X: @Hondurassol @HondurasNow
Instagram: @HondurasNow
Web: Bit.ly/NarcoTrialCampaign
Contact: karen@hondurasnow.org
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More information
Rights Action archives (https://rightsaction.org/archives) for information about work and struggle in defense of land and human rights, democracy and justice, during the entire 13 years of the U.S. and Canadian backed narco regime in Honduras.
TESTIMONIO: Canadian Mining in the Aftermath of Genocides in Guatemala
Edited by Catherine Nolin & Grahame Russell
https://www.testimoniothebook.org
