HomeNewsBriefEx-Guatemalan Congressman Arrested in Honduras
BRIEF

Ex-Guatemalan Congressman Arrested in Honduras

GUATEMALA / 10 DEC 2012 BY GEOFFREY RAMSEY EN

Honduran authorities arrested a former Guatemalan congressman and a former top Honduran legal official in the city of San Pedro Sula on suspicion of participation in drug trafficking. Two other Guatemalans, one with possible connections to the Guatemalan government's aviation board, were also captured. 

On December 6, police in the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula arrested Juan Luis Gonzalez -- who was congressional representative for the Guatemalan Republican Front (Frente Republicano Guatemalteco - FRG) from 2000 to 2004 -- along with the former regional coordinator from the Honduran prosecutor's office, Rafael Fletes, and two Guatemalan pilots, elPeriodico reports.

One of the pilots, Howard Gilberto Suhr Castellanos, was allegedly on the payroll of the Guatemalan government's Civilian Aeronautics agency, elPeriodico says.

For his part, Fletes denied the charges in a press conference. 

El Tiempo in Honduras reports that the men were captured after a two week long investigation carried out by counternarcotics agents in Honduras, which linked them to a recent seizure of 10.5 tons of methamphetamine in the north-central department of Yoro. Some 80 other suspects have been arrested as part of the case, including Honduran deputy police commissioner Normando Rafael Lozano Lopez.

InSight Crime Analysis

Gonzalez was in the army and is also a helicopter pilot. While in office, he represented Alta Verapaz, a province known for its importance in the drug trafficking trade. For years, the area was run by Ottoniel Turcios, who in 2010 was captured in Belize and sent to the United States to face trial. Gonzalez was thought to be connected to the Turcios' network, although he denied any connection to this group. Turcios' organization was replaced by the feared Mexican organization, the Zetas.  

The allegations highlight the vulnerability of political parties, security forces, government and legal institutions in Guatemala and Honduras to organized crime. The reach of drug traffickers in Guatemala was underscored recently by the United Nations' backed anti-impunity commission, known by its Spanish acronym CICIG, which released a report identifying 18 judges suspected of having criminal ties.

Drug trafficking groups in Honduras exercise a similar degree of control over elements of the government, especially the country's notoriously corrupt police force. The government's efforts to clean up the police there have been slow and seen little progress, and recently the Honduran Supreme Court declared them unconstitutional.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

COVID AND CRIME / 30 MAR 2021

The seizure in Mexico of COVID-19 vaccine smuggled aboard a private plane linked to a Honduran textile magnate marks the…

EXTORTION / 25 MAY 2021

A settling of scores in Guatemala left at least eight people dead after the son of a long-dead druglord took…

ELITES AND CRIME / 1 DEC 2021

Ground to a halt in Guatemala City’s unrelenting morning traffic, a small team of government investigators began to worry they…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela Coverage Continues to be Highlighted

3 MAR 2023

This week, InSight Crime co-director Jeremy McDermott was the featured guest on the Americas Quarterly podcast, where he provided an expert overview of the changing dynamics…

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela's Organized Crime Top 10 Attracts Attention

24 FEB 2023

Last week, InSight Crime published its ranking of Venezuela’s ten organized crime groups to accompany the launch of the Venezuela Organized Crime Observatory. Read…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime on El País Podcast

10 FEB 2023

This week, InSight Crime co-founder, Jeremy McDermott, was among experts featured in an El País podcast on the progress of Colombia’s nascent peace process.

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Interviewed by Associated Press

3 FEB 2023

This week, InSight Crime’s Co-director Jeremy McDermott was interviewed by the Associated Press on developments in Haiti as the country continues its prolonged collapse. McDermott’s words were republished around the world,…

THE ORGANIZATION

Escaping Barrio 18

27 JAN 2023

Last week, InSight Crime published an investigation charting the story of Desafío, a 28-year-old Barrio 18 gang member who is desperate to escape gang life. But there’s one problem: he’s…