On today's El Boletin: 

🗞️ A drug dealer's sacred mountain 

🗞 Is Honduras still a narco-state?
 

🗞 News 

A Drug Dealer's Sacred Mountain 

Narcostate empowered by foreign investment and extractivism.
 

In the mountain range of El Meredon, in northern Honduras, there is a large mountain that casts a shadow and fear. The fear has a name and a face, but no one in the surrounding communities dares to say it out loud. 

Geovanny Fuentes acquired Cerro Negro in 2012 by threatening local landowners, bribing local authorities, and using drug money. The mountain was acquired under the guise of mining, but everyone knew that his business expertise went beyond that. His lawyer made sure local farmers were properly evicted, but his deadly reputation secured his dominance in the region. 

By 2014, Fuentes was publicly known for his timber business, he owned Agroforestal Fuentes, but privately he was known for his drug trafficking operations. His business was financed by the Canadian textile company Gildan. Fuentes' logging company was not only contracted by Gildan but also financed by loans from the company. With the mask of a businessman, Fuentes was able to use the biomass industry to fuel his drug trade operations. 

The director of Honduras’ Institute of Forest Conservation explained "The drug trade and money laundering have severely damaged our forest. We know that the biomass industry was a cover-up for money laundering. A higher than actual input was declared and since it was all incinerated to produce energy, there was no control. There’s still no control because it’s a mess in there".

The nurseries and various businesses in El Meredon allowed Fuentes to move freely with cocaine imported from Colombia. According to sources and U.S. officials, the national police and military lent their vehicles to transport wood and cocaine up and down El Meredon. 

Fuentes' operations were also financed and facilitated by the Honduran banking system, with major banks such as Proamerica Bank granting illegal mortgages. In collusion with the Honduran land registry and the local municipality, Fuentes was able to acquire and mortgage thousands of acres of land. A year later Fuentes' arrest in 2020, local communities found that their properties were owned by the bank and were about to be auctioned off. 

At a hearing in New York City, Fuentes' was introduced as follows: "Judge, he's 52 years old. He's a citizen of Honduras. He grew up in humble circumstances in a violent country. He studied hard. He's a high school graduate. He worked as a farmer. He started out on a rice farm where he was a rice sweeper. But he worked himself up, judge. He worked for 26 years in the textile industry as a manager. He started at the bottom and worked his way to the top. From 2013 to 2018, he had a biomass company. I'll call it a forestal." He was sentenced to life in prison by a court in the Southern District of New York. 

Fuentes' downfall exposed how the land registry, the local government of Choloma, the national police, the armed forces, the transnational company Gildan, and the banking system all colluded in the region's deforestation and drug trafficking. Yet these systems of collusion remain intact, and local communities continue to live under the constant threat of eviction. 

Is Honduras Still a Narco State? 
 

On July 7, experts joined a Twitter space to discuss the impact and remnants of the narco-state. The discussion was led by our editor-in-chief Jennifer Avila and included Oscar Estrada, journalist, and writer of Tierra de Narcos, and Carlos Cardona, minister of social development and president of the managing board of the institute of property. 

In the discussion, both Estrada and Cardona explained that the current government is working to dismantle the structures created during the Orlando Hernandez administration (currently facing trial in New York for drug trafficking). However, the experts explained that the structures of the narco-state remain highly embedded in the country’s systems of power. The case of Geovanny Fuentes demonstrates how the narco-state expands through multiple institutions and actors.

Cardona explained that “The entire economy of drug trafficking was apparently shaken after the extradition of Juan Orlando Hernández and the other Hondurans, but it’s still operating. It’s like a plague, like a beehive without a queen”.

🌎 Check out the full conversation here! 

🚌 The Other Side Of Migration

🚌 Mexican Authorities found 491 migrants being held at a vacant lot near the city of Puebla. According to Border Report, all but six of them were from Guatemala, the rest were from Honduras. 22y were children and 52 of them were unaccompanied.

Central America News Roundup 🌎

Digital Mercenaries Special 

🇬🇹 Guatemala- The media outlets that create propaganda for Guatemala’s political clan and its connection to President Giammattei

Poll Anria is a political marketing specialist who has had power during the government of Alejandro Giammattei. The Panamanian was president of a company that has increased its contracts with the Secretariat of Communication of the Presidency and is linked to two media outlets that have spread disinformation in favor of Manuel Baldizón Méndez, a politician who was behind the fall of Carlos Pineda and who, along with his family, sought to suspend the election results.

🌎 An investigation by Ocote and CLIP in alliance with Guatemala Leaks. Full story here (In Spanish)

🇭🇳 Honduras- A paradise for disinformers 

They come from Colombia, Spain, the United States, Peru, Mexico, and Israel. They flourish in electoral campaigns. They are political consultants. This investigation reveals unspeakable secrets from international corporations that sold influence and victories in Honduras. Without regulations or transparency, it is unsurprising that Honduras holds the record for the most eliminated social media accounts in the Central American region for its involvement in coordinated and inauthentic disinformation campaigns. 

🌎 By Contracorriente with Labatori0 Ciudadano. Full story here (available in English).

🇳🇮Nicaragua - Nicaraguan regime's 'Lazaro' accounts revive after Meta suspension

A complex network with more than 1,400 pages, groups, and users, dismantled by Meta in 2021, operated by personnel and institutions of the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship in a coordinated manner to distort opinion, distribute propaganda and hate messages, was resurrected and continues its influence operations.

🌎 By Confidencial. Full story here (In Spanish)

🇨🇷Costa Rica- Federico Cruz, ‘Choreco’, presidential advisor in Costa Rica, owes millions to the Treasury and Social Security.

The digital presidential advisor, Federico Cruz,  knowns as “Choreco”, who gives talks abroad about how he helped current President Rodrigo Chaves win the elections with big data and artificial intelligence, owes more than ¢17 million in social security contributions (about US$31,000). Because of his closeness to the candidate, he was also able to buy ¢19 million in bonds (about US$35,000), most with discounts ranging between 35% and 40%. 

🌎 By CRHoy. Full story here (In Spanish).

Also available in English: 
🇦🇷 Argentina -  The Shady Story of Cerimedo, the Advisor to South America’s Trumpist right wing 

The Argentinean consultant, an excentric and provocative character, broke into South American politics in 2020 for his intervention in electoral campaigns in digital media for the far-right. Although his past is a mystery, Cerimedo has installed himself with controversial campaigns that included disinformation in Chile and Brazil. His next goal is to make far-right MP Javier Milei President of Argentina.

🌎 By Chequeado. Full story here (available in English).

Currently, Guatemala is going through dark times as the nation’s courts crack down on journalists, anti-corrupt candidates, and democracy. But a few years ago, Guatemala was an example of transparency in the Central American region after the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) entered the country and began cleaning up its corrupt institutions. 

So how did Guatemala go from being an example of justice and anti-corruption to being one of the most restricted and corrupt places for journalism and transparency? 

Well, this episode of Reveal, a podcast from The Center for Investigative Reporting, dives into how Guatemala got where it currently is. The episode goes back to the mid-2010s and how the Trump administration contributed to the demise of the Guatemala Commission against Impunity.

🎙️Check out the episode here

Message from the editor!

Interested in collaborating or participating in El Boletin/CC English?
Feel free to contact us at CCenglish@contracorriente.red 

Abrazos,

Jorge Paz Reyes 

English Content Editor

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