Honduras has threatened to abandon a bilateral extradition treaty, furthering a pattern of cold shoulder toward the United States by Latin American leaders.
Anti-American rhetoric is on the rise in the region, with presidents of America's friends as well as rivals openly accusing it of U.S.-led plots and coups.
Honduran President Xiomara Castro ordered her government to terminate the U.S.-Honduras extradition treaty after U.S. Ambassador Laura Dougu expressed concern about meetings between Honduran military officials and Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, a powerful ally of President Nicolas Maduro.
“There are plans being made for my administration and it's important that the public knows them,” Castro said.According to Reuters.
“I will not allow the extradition documents to be used to blackmail or intimidate the Honduran military. We are defending our own army, not a coup.”
Padrino has been indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice for running a drug trafficking operation through Belize, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico.
Castro's military threat comes a week of heightened tensions between the United States and Mexico, with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador declaring a “suspension” of ties with the U.S. embassy after Ambassador Ken Salazar said proposed judicial reforms “pose a risk to the functioning of Mexico's democracy and to the economic integration of the United States, Mexico and Canada.”
“I think these people are showing their true colors and I think it's time for the United States to wake up and recognize who is their friend and who is not, who is willing to work with them and who is not willing to work with them,” said Eddie Acevedo, chief of staff and senior adviser at the Wilson Center.
Regional leaders such as Castro, Lopez Obrador and Colombian President Gustavo Petro have been ideologically consistent in distancing themselves from the United States, and they all accept to some degree the historical vision of the United States as a postcolonial, interventionist power in Latin America.
But Castro's motivations may be more personal than historical.
In 2009, Castro's husband, Manuel “Mel” Zelaya, was ousted as president of Honduras in a coup.
Although the Obama administration was critical of the coup itself, the United States was quick to recognize the quick elections that followed it, which many Latin American countries saw as a de facto endorsement of the coup.
The president who won that election, Porfirio Lobo Sosa, and his successor, Juan Orlando Hernández, both have direct ties to the transnational drug trade. Hernández is serving a 45-year sentence in the United States for drug trafficking. Lobo's son, Fabio, is serving a 24-year sentence, and Lobo himself has been under U.S. sanctions on corruption charges since 2021, although related corruption charges were dropped in Honduras this year.
In 2022, the Biden administration heavily promoted Castro's election, sending Vice President Harris as guest of honor to a stadium-packed inauguration ceremony.
But that doesn't mean Zelaya will let bygones be bygones.
“Mel Zelaya is [Nicaraguan President Daniel] Ortega and Maduro's economic opportunities [El Salvadorean President Nayib] “With the U.S. elections looming and immigration high on the agenda, Bukele sees an opportunity to distance himself from the United States and work with Russia and China without fear of strong U.S. retaliation,” said Carl Meacham, a former Republican senior staff member for Latin America on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“After the coup, the U.S. abandoned him, so revenge was inevitable. Now, with his wife in power, they're back with a vengeance, exposing the short-sightedness of U.S. policy during the Lobo and Hernández eras.”
Castro threatened to tear up the extradition treaty that would have allowed Padrino to face trial in the United States – ironically, that was the same treaty that allowed the US to detain Hernández.
A State Department spokesman told The Hill that the treaty remains in effect.
“Extradition is a valuable law enforcement tool that benefits both Honduran and U.S. people. We urge the Honduran government to reconsider this decision, as it will have a negative impact on joint Honduran and U.S. efforts to combat drug trafficking and bring criminals to justice,” the spokesman said in an emailed statement.
But leaders like Castro and Lopez Obrador are taking advantage of another year of tense elections in the United States to spew anti-American rhetoric to score political points at home and to capitalize on larger geopolitical pressures to weaken U.S. influence around the world.
Castro's first big move on the international stage was to recognize Communist China in 2023 and sever long-standing diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
China’s interests in Latin America are multifaceted. Its economic interests as a market and source of raw materials in Latin America and as a gateway to U.S. markets are intertwined, if not secondarily, with its political and security interests.
But China is not the only great power with its eye on Latin America, a region that has rarely been a priority for U.S. foreign policy under either Democratic or Republican administrations.
“Our future is tied to this region and in recent years we have seen malign powers like Russia, China and Iran gain a foothold and we must be able to counter this,” Acevedo said.
“From Russia's perspective, they see this as a very big return on a very small investment, right? Further destabilization in the Western Hemisphere will only have an even bigger impact on the United States. Further immigration from Venezuela will have an even bigger impact on the United States. The Kremlin and [Russian President Vladimir] “Putin's goal is to further disrupt and destabilize the region and undermine U.S. interests,” he added.
