With Honduras' Narco Allegations, Pressure Rises To Sanction Its Leader

MEXICO CITY — The case made in the U.S. Senate's Honduras bill sounds straightforward: Washington should cut security aid to Honduras and sanction its president over "deeply alarming corruption" and human rights abuses, its authors say.

And in the U.S. House, members recently reintroduced the Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act, named for the Indigenous environmental activist murdered in 2016, which also calls for withholding U.S. funds from Honduras' military and police over corruption.

Accusations have piled up against President Juan Orlando Hernández, other Honduran officials and security forces, ranging from organized crime collusion to civil society repression. U.S. prosecutors even accuse Hernández of taking bribes to help an alleged drug trafficker move tons of cocaine into the United States, which he denies.

For Hernández's critics in the Central American country, the sanctions would be welcome punishment at the highest level of government.

"Not even the arrival of a in , a leading Honduran newspaper that largely supports the president.