This drastic decision raises questions about his real motivations and possible consequences for the Central American country.
Castro is an ally of Chavismo and the dictatorial regimes of Cuba and Nicaragua.
What prompted the measure?
Castro made the decision on Wednesday hours after the US ambassador in Tegucigalpa, Laura Dogu, criticized a meeting between a minister and a Honduran general with the Venezuelan regime’s defense minister, General Vladimir Padrino López, whom Washington accuses of drug trafficking.
The president, who is close to Chavez, said the treaty could be used against military leaders loyal to her socialist regime to facilitate a coup attempt.
“I will not allow extradition to be used or exploited to intimidate or blackmail,” declared the pro-government leader. However, she facilitated the extradition of the former president of that nation, Juan Orlando Hernández, whom the United States accuses of drug trafficking.
The Castro government is a staunch ally of the dictatorship Venezuela. Honduras was one of the few Latin American countries that congratulated Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro on his controversial re-election on July 28.
What is Castro afraid of?
Sociologist Pablo Carías said that the measure suggests that there are Honduran government officials “linked” to drugs.
“The water is reaching their homes,” said opposition deputy Tomás Zambrano, alluding to the fact that the United States could request the extradition of Castro’s collaborators.
“I think it was a decision they had been thinking about for a long time,” said analyst and academic Joaquín Mejía, who believes Castro took advantage of the ambassador’s statement to take the step.
How did the extraditions begin?
The treaty, which does not mention drug trafficking, was signed in 1909 and entered into force in 1912, but extraditions of Hondurans did not begin until 2014 due to pressure from Washington seeking to contain the shipment of drugs from Central America.
That year, the United States summoned the then Honduran president Porfirio Lobo (2010-2014) and the leader of Congress and later president, Juan Orlando Hernández, to Miami.
The agreement began to be applied because “here the judges released the drug traffickers because they were afraid, (because) we were not organized enough to provide protection to the judges,” Lobo said on Thursday.
Fifty Hondurans have been extradited, but the treaty soon after turned against the country’s leaders who validated its application: Lobo and Hernández, who governed in the period 2014-2022.
Hernández was extradited in 2022 and was sentenced to 45 years in prison in New York last June for drug trafficking. His brother Tony was also sentenced to life in prison in the United States in 2021 for “large-scale” drug trafficking.
Lobo was accused in the trial against Tony Hernández of allegedly receiving bribes from drug traffickers, for which he could eventually be asked for extradition. In addition, in 2017 his son Fabio was sentenced in the United States to 24 years in prison after being captured in Haiti by the anti-drug agency DEA.
What consequences can this bring?
The measure has put “security, economic stability, jobs and our international relations, especially with our most important trading partner, at serious risk,” according to Honduran business leaders.
Sociologist Carías also believes that ordinary citizens of the Central American country will “feel it in terms of trade, investment and migration.”
Nearly two million Hondurans live in the United States and send back some $10 billion annually in family remittances, almost 25% of Honduras’ GDP.
But others believe the biggest impact will be on the fight against drugs.
“The first possible reaction could be that Honduras be declared a state like Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, which do not cooperate sufficiently in the fight against drug trafficking,” said analyst Mejía.
“This will have an impact on bilateral cooperation,” added the professor from the National University.
Terminating the treaty “is like saying now: Honduras is a free port and now everyone can engage in drug trafficking, (because) they will not be penalized,” said Salvador Nasralla, presidential appointee (vice president) who left the government in 2023 due to disagreements in decision-making.
Does it have immediate effect?
The treaty states that “either Contracting Party may terminate it at any time by giving the other six months’ notice.”
This means that extraditions should continue, in theory, until February 28, 2025.
For this reason, next week Mario Cálix, alias Cubeta, partner of former President Hernández, will be extradited to the United States, according to the spokesman of the Supreme Court, Melvin Duarte.
