His arrest occurs less than a month before the presidential elections in Honduras, with candidates peppered with allegations of corruption and drug trafficking.
Honduran authorities arrested presidential candidate Santos Rodríguez Orellana, a retired army captain, on Thursday. singled out for laundering drug money and participating in homicides, including that of an informant from the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
His arrest occurs less than a month before the presidential elections with favorite competitors peppered by allegations of corruption and drug trafficking. So is the current president, Juan Orlando Hernández, who will leave office in 2022 after eight years in power.
Rodríguez, from the Independent Movement Dignity and Hope (MIDE), is not among the favorites for the November 28 elections.
According to the Public Ministry (MP, Prosecutor’s Office), it is required for “money laundering.” In addition, a protected witness said that Rodríguez, in his functions as captain of the Armed Forces, “carried out operations (…) and when he found money or drugs, he did not declare it in its entirety, keeping part of the seized and confiscated weapons they were taken to a criminal group called ZIPE ”.
“According to witnesses, he is also involved in the death of many people, including an informant” from the DEA, said the institution.
The Prosecutor’s Office specified that he is also accused of negotiating deliveries of drugs that had been stolen from other criminal organizations and of giving the money for these operations to his wife and mother-in-law, detained together with Rodríguez.
After making a review of the bank accounts of the detainees, it was evident that “the commercial activity carried out and registered with the income administration is not consistent with what was declared” before the Treasury, the MP said.
“It is a revenge”
In moments of being apprehended, Rodríguez was carrying a girl in his arms. He considered his detention as “illegal”, and rejected all the charges against him.
“Am I in money laundering and drug trafficking? It is the president’s revenge because his brother is imprisoned in the United States. They can look for me whatever they want, I have nothing to hide, “he said in a video recorded by his collaborators.
In recent months, Rodríguez had assured that he was one of those who accused Tony Hernández, former deputy and brother of the president, of drug trafficking. currently sentenced to life in prison for that crime in the United States.
As he had indicated in recent days, he was being persecuted to allegedly find the whereabouts of an alleged money belonging to the former parliamentarian.
“It is a persecution that is not new (…) Democracy is being persecuted, a figure for the presidency of the Republic,” Israel Zelaya, vice presidential candidate and MIDE campaign manager, told AFP.
The leader does not believe in the accusations against his candidate and hopes that he will be able to face the charges against him in freedom.
In October 2016, the United States embassy in Tegucigalpa had warned that Santos Rodríguez was “under investigation due to his alleged links in drug trafficking and corruption activities.”
President Hernández assures that the accusations against him and his brother are “false” and are part of a retaliation by drug lords that his government helped extradite to the United States.
The favorites for the presidential elections in Honduras are the ruling party and current mayor of Tegucigalpa, Nasry Asfura (National Party, right), and Xiomara Castro, from the leftist Libre. (I)
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