Washington, United States
The US is ready to work with the President of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, as said Juan González, President Joe Biden’s chief adviser to Latin America, following allegations linking the president to drug trafficking.
“He is currently the President-elect of Honduras, we are going to work with his government, we are going to look for areas of common interest,” González said in an interview broadcast by CNN in Spanish this Sunday, when asked if it head of state is a “valid interlocutor” for Washington.
The presidential adviser pointed out that the US Department of Justice “works independently” and clarified that the executive cannot “direct what they can and cannot do.”
“We need to work with the governments, but not just the governments, of course the Honduran Secretary of State (Lisandro Rosales) will be here this week, Ricardo (Zúñiga, Washington’s special envoy for Central America’s Northern Triangle) and I’m going to meet him, look for areas of collaborative work, ”he added.
González’s statement contradicted a statement by State Department spokesman Ned Price, who warned on March 9 that Washington cannot have close ties with leaders who do not fight corruption, in response to a question about the implications of the charges against Hernández.
The official also referred to El Salvador and acknowledged that its president, Nayib Bukele, has managed to lower the country’s insecurity index, which he says has “had an impact on immigration.”
However, he refuted the ruler’s argument “that uncertainty can be reduced at any cost”.
“To be honest, we disagree. We believe that any government policy should respect the institutions, it should respect the freedom of the media to criticize you, ” the official said, referring, among other things, to Bukele’s decision to break into parliament, accompanied by members from the army and the police are pushing for approval of a loan for their fight against gangs. EFE