TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — The president of Honduras says that political opposition groups connected to criminal networks are trying to overthrow his government.
President Juan Orlando Hernández also said Monday that ex-President Manuel Zelaya and former presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla are involved in “a conspiracy” with gangs to usurp him.
He said: “Without a doubt, we are confronting an assault on power by gangs and drug traffickers.”
The president spoke two days after U.S. prosecutors alleged that his government received $1.5 million in drug trafficking proceeds to help secure power in 2013.
Hernández has denied the accusations.
The allegations were revealed over the weekend in documents related to an upcoming case against the president’s brother, Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández, who was arrested last year in Miami on charges of smuggling cocaine into the U.S.
The Associated Press
