Honduras said it would end its longtime extradition treaty with the United States on Wednesday, in response to criticism from the American ambassador to the country over a meeting between Honduran and Venezuelan officials.
Enrique Reina, Honduras’s foreign minister, posted a letter on social media Wednesday evening expressing “the decision of the government of the republic of Honduras to terminate the extradition treaty,” after President Xiomara Castro of Honduras accused the United States of meddling in its affairs. Ms. Castro said the United States’ “intention to direct the politics of Honduras through its embassy and other representatives is intolerable.”
Honduran officials were angered after Laura Dogu, the U.S. ambassador to the country, told local reporters on Wednesday that she was “surprised” to see Honduras’s defense minister and a top general “seated next to a narco-trafficker in Venezuela” — referring to a meeting last week between the Honduran officials and the defense minister of Venezuela under President Nicolás Maduro, the authoritarian leader who has been in power since 2013.
In a local television interview, Mr. Reina said the American ambassador’s comments undermined the authority of Gen. Roosevelt Leonel Hernández, the Honduran military leader who attended the meeting, even suggesting that some armed forces now sought to replace him.
Along with Mr. Maduro and other members of his inner circle, Gen. Vladimir Padrino López, the Venezuelan defense chief, was charged in 2020 by U.S. prosecutors with conspiracy to smuggle drugs. Two years earlier, the American authorities imposed sanctions on him.
By linking two Honduran officials to a Venezuelan leader indicted by U.S. prosecutors, Mr. Reina said, he feared the extradition treaty could be used as a “political weapon.”
The extradition treaty, which has been in place since 1912, has been used to extradite dozens of Honduran politicians to the United States — most notably the former president Juan Orlando Hernández, who was extradited in 2022. He was convicted in March in a federal court in Manhattan of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States, among other charges, and sentenced to 45 years in prison.
In the last decade, at least 38 people have been extradited to the United States for their participation in drug trafficking, including officials, police officers and mayors.
The suspension of the treaty will take effect in six months, Mr. Reina said.
The U.S. Embassy in Honduras and the Honduran Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The United States and Honduras have long been allies, with Honduras hosting U.S. troops at a military base in the central part of the country. American authorities rely on Honduran assistance for issues involving drug trafficking and immigration. But there have been a few tense moments over the years, including Honduras last year abandoning formal ties with Taiwan, which is heavily backed by the United States, and establishing relations with China.
Following Venezuela’s presidential election in July, Ms. Castro and Mr. Reina publicly congratulated Mr. Maduro on his self-proclaimed victory, while many international leaders, including President Biden, condemned the vote and said the government failed to release any collected tallies proving Mr. Maduro won.
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