Honduras Defense Minister, Deputy Step Down Over Drug Trafficking Accusations

Honduras' Minister of Defense José Manuel Zelaya Rosales and his father, who served as a deputy, resigned over the weekend after being accused of having ties to drug trafficking.

Both officials were related to President Xiomara Castro, with Rosales being her nephew and his father, her brother-in-law. Their resignation came Saturday -- three days after Castro canceled the extradition treaty with the United States.

Carlos Zelaya, the Secretary of Congress and brother of former President Manuel Zelaya (who was overthrown in a 2009 coup and was also Castro's husband), also resigned. He stepped down to allow an investigation into his alleged connections with drug traffickers.

"I will submit my resignation to the National Congress as a deputy and as Secretary of Congress to divest myself of any type of shield I may have and to be investigated," Zelaya told journalists, Tico Times reported.

"So that there can be a free investigation, I have submitted my resignation as Minister of Defense to the President," he later wrote on social media.

After speaking to the prosecutor's office, Zelaya said he had "fallen into a trap." He admitted that he was at a 2013 meeting where a notorious Honduran drug trafficker was present. During this meeting, an offer was made to contribute to the campaign of the ruling Libertad y Refundación (Libre) party.

"That meeting never had the endorsement of President Zelaya, it never had either the endorsement or the accompaniment, much less knowledge of that meeting, nor did President Castro. It was a unilateral meeting on my part," he said outside the Technical Agency for Criminal Investigation.

The president has not yet commented on the resignations of her brother-in-law and nephew. However, Manuel Zelaya, who led the Libre party, announced on X that he had called an "emergency session" of the party leadership for this Sunday.

The extradition treaty that the president canceled with the United States had previously led to the imprisonment and extradition of 50 Hondurans involved in drug trafficking, including some influential politicians.

Analyst Jorge Yllesca said the cancellation of the treaty and the two resignations seemed to be an attempt to "protect some people close to the government and to be in line with geopolitics against the United States."

Sociologist Pablo Carías had also warned last week that canceling the treaty with Washington suggests that some Honduran government officials might be "linked" to drug trafficking.

This story first appeared on Latin Times