Washington Complicit in Honduras' Corruption Scandal

Washington Complicit in Honduras' Corruption Scandal
By: teleSUR / Lauren Carasik
Published 5 June 2015 (20 hours 12 minutes ago)

Corruption is too deeply entrenched in Honduras to entrust its ouster to the very actors that benefit from its largesse.


As the corruption scandal dogging Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández continues to gather steam, the Obama administration has been notably silent about problems plaguing its ally. This is unsurprising, since the current maelstrom is President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s legacy in post-coup Honduras.

The Honduran government’s crisis of legitimacy occurs amid a White House push for a $1 billion aid package to the region. The Plan of the Alliance for Prosperity for the Northern Triangle, championed by Vice President Joe Biden, aims to provide funding for security, development and strengthening institutions. But critics have long equated increasing funding for a government whose militarization and corruption have spawned a human rights crisis to using gas to try to put out a fire.

Honduran opposition parties allege that the right-wing National Party received $90 million of an estimated $300 million stolen from the IHSS, the Honduran Social Security Institute. The money, they claim, funded Hernandez’s costly 2013 presidential campaign against Xiomara Castro, wife of former President Mel Zelaya. The funds were apparently siphoned off through fake businesses, some of which wrote checks to the party, and jacked up prices to fund kickbacks. The entire 18-person board of the IHSS is under investigation – all are members of the National party. Meanwhile, several National Party officials filed a suit against Salvador Nasralla, head of the Anti-Corruption party, claiming his allegations of misappropriated funds are defamatory. Underscoring the uphill battle in ferreting out corruption, Roberto Ramirez Aldana, the prosecutor assigned to the case, fled the country in the wake of credible death threats, hampering the investigation. David Romero, the journalist who exposed the scandal, has also received death threats. Impunity and silence are enforced by threats and violence in post-coup Honduras.

More:
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Washington-Complicit-in-Honduras-Corruption-Scandal-20150605-0023.html