Ex-Honduran leader placed on US list of corrupt officials

By JOSHUA GOODMAN
Associated Press

MIAMI (AP) — The Biden administration last year quietly placed former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández on a classified list of officials suspected of corruption or undermining democracy in Central America. That’s according to the State Department, which made the designation public Monday. Hernández was a notable omission when the list was provided last summer to the U.S. Congress. At the time Hernández was reeling from accusations that surfaced in the drug trafficking trial of his brother that his political ascent had been funded by bribes from drug traffickers. But with Hernández’s stepping down last month, the State Department considered it was no longer necessary to maintain secrecy.