Canal Red, a Latin American news outlet, published its second report Friday that details alleged plans by the US and Israel to reinstall former President Juan Orlando Hernandez, convicted on drug trafficking charges, as president of Honduras.
The series of reports, nicknamed Hondurasgate, reveals how the US and Israel allegedly plan to turn Honduras into a proxy state through a network of corruption and repression carried out by the National Party of Honduras.
Canal Red published audio recordings in which high-level officials, particularly from the National Party, discuss plans to imprison or assassinate opposition politicians, allegedly with Israeli funding and US intelligence support.
The key figure in the conspiracy is Hernandez, the former president of the National Party, who governed from 2014 to 2022. Hernandez was later extradited and imprisoned in a maximum-security federal prison in the US state of Virginia on drug trafficking charges.
But he was pardoned and released by President Donald Trump last December as Honduras was undergoing presidential elections marked by serious allegations of electoral fraud against the National Party and its candidate, Nasry Asfura, who was declared president Dec. 24.
Hernandez is being financed by Israel to return to the presidency in 2030 with the sole purpose of turning Honduras into a US military and technological outpost, according to Canal Red’s exclusive report.
Political scientist and Canal Red journalist Valeria Duarte, author of the report, told Anadolu how Israel is allegedly buying off Honduran officials.
“These are representatives who were elected by vote and who are supposed to oversee and ensure the integrity of Honduras’s elections. So yes, this renewed wave of corruption driven by the United States and Israel seeks to bribe legislators and members of the National Electoral Council, while also preparing the logistics for Juan Orlando Hernández’s return,” said Duarte.
Electoral Council representative from the leftist Libre Party, Marlon Ochoa, said that the elections had been co-opted and manipulated to grant victory to Asfura with the support of Trump.
The Hondurasgate reports include audio recordings in which Hernández discusses getting rid of Ochoa -- a very vocal opponent of Asfura and the National Party.
“They’re going to push that trial through no matter what; that guy has to go. We need to have everything under control, no matter how much blood is shed, no matter if they take to the streets with torches—it doesn’t matter, I don’t care about that,” Hernandez is heard saying on audio.
On April 16, the Congress, led by Tomás Zambrano of the National Party, ruled in favor of removing Ochoa as an Electoral Council member, citing alleged failures and omissions in his duties during the 2025 elections.
In a statement published on social media, Ochoa claimed that he is the target of political persecution and the government is planning his imprisonment and death.
Those claims gain weight with Canal Red’s investigation, as Cosette López-Osorio, councilwoman of the National Electoral Council (CNE), is heard discussing assassinating Ochoa.
“Once the impeachment is done, we leave. But if not, we leave and give him a free field. But he’ll go with the ‘reward’ of being left alone here in the CNE. That doesn’t seem right to me. First: prison or death. That’s how I’m going to say it—prison or death,” she said.
In another recording, Hernandez speaks with Zambrano and claims that US intelligence services could help him imprison Ochoa.
“If he’s no longer in Honduras, you have to confirm that for me so I can start moving to track him down with the contacts we have in US intelligence, and once we locate him, we proceed with the capture—or whatever needs to be done,” he said.
Canal Red previously reported that US and Israeli backing, and Hernández’s return to the presidency in 2030, were aimed at securing American military bases in Honduras and handing over key industries to foreign investors, including General Electric.
“Yes, the case of Honduras—the scandal that has just come to light—is really just one piece of a much larger picture. What is actually being discussed is the geopolitical context and the United States’ spheres of influence in Latin America and the Caribbean, securing zones of control,” Duarte added.
