Thousands of right-wing opponents marched with torches in Honduras on Friday, protesting against the leftist government of President Xiomara Castro for canceling the extradition treaty with the United States, which had led to the imprisonment of approximately fifty drug traffickers.
The large mobilization, organized by the “Citizen Army of Peace,” opposed the termination of the bilateral agreement last week and reached the government headquarters in Tegucigalpa without any reported incidents.
On August 28, Castro announced her decision to cancel the treaty— which had been in place since 1912 but was only enforced starting in 2014— claiming it could be used to facilitate a “coup” in the Central American country. Jorge Zelaya, a congressman from the opposition National Party (PN, right-wing), told reporters during the march that he joined the protesters “in defense of democracy.”
Right-wing political groups accuse the ruling Liberty and Refoundation (Libre) party, led by Castro’s husband, former president Manuel Zelaya—who was ousted in 2009— of seeking to establish a government similar to Venezuela or Nicaragua under the guise of “democratic socialism.” The opposition also alleges that Castro ended the extradition treaty with Washington to protect members of her administration and her family.
Just three days after the decision, two of the president’s relatives resigned: her brother-in-law and her nephew. Carlos Zelaya, the Secretary of Congress, stepped down after admitting to the Attorney General’s Office that he had met with drug traffickers in 2013, a revelation made public by a leaked video earlier that week. José Manuel Zelaya, the Minister of Defense and the president’s son, also resigned.
“Hondurans are outraged by that narcotics video, which clearly shows an alliance between the Liberty and Refoundation party and drug traffickers,” said PN leader Kilvet Bertrand during the protest.
“This alliance has existed since 2013,” added Bertrand, who was closely aligned with former president Juan Orlando Hernández (2014-2022). Hernández was extradited to the United States under the same agreement and sentenced to 45 years in prison in New York this past June.
In 2014, torchlit marches with up to 100,000 participants took to the streets of Honduras to protest against corruption in Hernández’s government.
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