“In Honduras, you need force, you need logistics, you need blood. If you want the people under control, you have to crush them. Squeeze them”. These words, attributed to former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, can be heard in a voice note sent in March 2026 from Hernández to the current president of Honduras’ National Congress.
It is one of 37 audio files released between April and May of 2026 by an international journalistic collaboration known as Hondurasgate. The voices in these files appear to be those of powerful Honduran political figures, including current and former presidents. They contain shocking assertions about the corrupt and violent means Hernández and his colleagues seem willing to use to tighten their grip over political power in the country.
But the content of the conversations is also transnational. There is content about the dubious circumstances surrounding US president Donald Trump’s decision to pardon Hernández in 2025 after his conviction on drug trafficking crimes, about collaboration with Israel and Argentina, and attempts to politically damage governments in other Latin American countries.
This article explores the background of the issues raised by the Hondurasgate files, and the allegations made.
Juan Orlando Hernández, 2015 (Photo: Brookings Institution / Flickr [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0])
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US-Honduras relations
Given the connection between Honduras and the US seen in the Hondurasgate files, some background of these ties is in order.
The US has a long history of intervention and interference in Honduras. In the early 20th century the US sent troops and warships to Honduras on several occasions. This was done in order to ensure the continuation of governments and policies in that country that would be amenable to the interests of powerful US fruit companies, namely the United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) and Standard Fruit (now Dole). In this sense, Honduras was known as one of the “original” banana republics.
After World War II, Honduras became a key base for US military interventions throughout Central America. US presence and influence continued throughout the course of the Cold War. Honduras was used, for example, as the staging ground for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) coup in Guatemala in 1954, and as a base for training and providing military support for rebels in Nicaragua, most notably in the 1980s.
The end of the Cold War made such direct military interventions in and around Honduras less tenable, but US presence has remained strong in the region. It remains a military hub for the US – the Soto Cano Air Base in central Honduras is the largest US military base in Central America.
Along side this presence are ongoing US economic and political interests in Honduras, although the weight of exports has shifted from fruit to textiles and apparel. Poorly-paid labourers in sweatshops make the country an attractive destination for US clothing manufacturers. Many of these factories are produced in specially designated Export Processing Zones (EPZs), where corporations pay little or no taxes to the Honduran government.
Military response to protests against the coup, 2009 (Photo: dn / Flickr [CC BY-NC-SA 2.0])
Left to right?
Not long after the turn of the century, Honduran alignment with US interests shifted to a degree. In 2005, Manuel Zelaya was elected president of Honduras. Although initially seen as a business-friendly candidate, the policies he implemented after taking power seemed to be more supportive of the working class. He raised the minimum wage, for example, and increased access of low-income families to land. In 2008 Honduras joined Venezuela’s Petrocaribe program, giving the country access to cheaper, subsidized oil supplies.
In June 2009, Zelaya was toppled in a coup d’etat by the military and removed from the country. The US government does not appear to have actively supported the coup, but it did work to prevent Zelaya from being restored to power afterwards. Amid an environment of oppression, elections were quickly organized, bringing Porfirio Lobo Sosa to power in 2010.
Lobo Sosa began dismantling Zelaya’s social and labour reforms, and reintroducing business-friendly and US-friendly policies. One of these policies was a 2013 law establishing Zones for Employment and Economic Development (ZEDE). ZEDEs were to be special autonomous development zones designed to promote investment. The law allowed for semi-autonomous governance, special tax regimes, flexible labour and land-use rules, and investor-friendly commercial codes. ZEDEs often included foreign advisors.
One ZEDE project known as Próspera, was created on the island of Roatan. It was funded by, among others, Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel and fellow billionaire Marc Andreessen. Próspera has been criticized as a “neocolonial” project in which tech billionaires seek to build privatized corporate cities of “unbridled power, tech fantasy, and resource hoarding, where the government is run by AI and cryptocurrency is the main currency”.
The presidency of Juan Orlando Hernández
The post-coup president of the National Congress, Juan Orlando Hernández, won presidential elections in 2013, and took power in 2014, representing the National Party. He was re-elected in 2017 in elections that were widely criticized as being marred by violent suppression and fraud, and remained as president until 2022. Hernández continued the pro-business and pro-US policies of his predecessor, receiving large amounts of US military aid.
Much of this aid was ostensibly for the purposes of stopping the flow of illicit drugs from Colombia through Honduras to the US. But during his second term, allegations arose that Hernández was conspiring with major drug-trafficking organizations to facilitate such shipments of cocaine, using state power and official corruption to protect and enable traffickers, and to obstruct law enforcement investigations.
In line with US interests, Hernández also strengthened ties with Israel. Honduras increasingly voted in support of Israel in the United Nations, and expanded cooperation with Israel in a host of sectors, including the military. Israel appears to have been a key country providing spyware and other forms of surveillance technologies to Honduras. In 2021, Honduras became the fourth country to move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Over the course of his presidency, the evidence of Hernández’ involvement in drug trafficking had become too great to ignore. He was arrested after his second term ended in 2022, and was extradited to the US. In 2024 Hernández was found guilty of drug trafficking and weapons charges and sentenced to a 45-year prison sentence.
Left to right again?
The wife of Zelaya, Xiomara Castro, became president of Honduras in 2022. She represented the Libre party, which had been born from the movement resisting the 2009 coup. Castro’s term in office saw a return to more left-leaning policies, with her administration expanding social spending and raising the minimum wage.
In 2022, Congress unanimously repealed the ZEDE law, on the basis that the exemption from some national laws for these special economic zones violated the Honduras’ sovereignty. The corporate city of Próspera subsequently filed a claim with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) for damages totaling 10.7 billion USD. This prompted the withdrawal of Honduras from the ICSID. In 2024, the Honduran Supreme Court declared that ZEDEs are unconstitutional.
Such moves resulted in some political tensions between the US and Honduras during the Joe Biden administration. There was also a shift in relations between Israel and Honduras. The Castro administration considered returning its embassy in Israel to Tel Aviv, and as Israel’s genocide in Gaza escalated, Castro expressed support for Palestine. Honduras recalled its ambassador from Israel for consultations in 2023 in response to the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.
As Castro’s term ended, presidential elections were scheduled for November 2025. Donald Trump had come to power in the US, and his administration actively sought to influence the outcome of these elections. Trump openly promoted Nasry Asfura, a construction industry magnate who was the candidate for the National Party, formerly led by Hernández. Trump threatened to cut off US aid to Honduras if Asfura did not win. Then, two days before the elections were held, Trump suddenly announced that he would pardon Hernández, providing little explanation or justification. Days later, Hernández walked free.
In an extremely close race marred by US interference and allegations of fraud, Asfura was eventually declared president-elect in December 2025. Before even assuming office in January 2026, Asfura visited the US and then Israel, signalling a renewed strengthening of ties with these countries.
US Secretary of State Mark Rubio meeting Nasry Asfura, 2026 (Photo: U.S. Department of State / Wikimedia Commons [Public domain])
The Hondurasgate recordings
It is in this context that, on 30 April 2026, the Spanish television outlet Canal RED, in collaboration with anonymous Honduran journalists, began releasing a series of 37 audio recordings of what appear to be conversations between Hernández, Asfura, and other prominent Honduran political figures. The collaboration was named Hondurasgate, using the “-gate” suffix taken from the 1970s US Watergate scandal in the 1970s to signal a political scandal.
The audio files, recorded between January and April 2026, were extracted from WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram. Hernández denies that it is his voice on the recordings, but Hondurasgate has published forensic voice analysis that it claims shows with a high degree of confidence that the voices have not been digitally created or altered. A third-party expert analysis commissioned by Drop Site News found with “moderate confidence” that the voices in the recordings matched those of Hernández and Asfura and were “likely not AI generated”. The moderate degree of confidence was due to the poor quality of the original audio.
Although the authenticity of the files cannot be verified with 100% certainty, it seems quite probable that they are indeed recordings of the people in question. The following discussion of the content of the audio files is based on the assumption that they are.
The consolidation of power
This article began with a quote from Hernández. It was one of several references to the use of violence. One threat of violence was directed, for example, at Marlon Ochoa, a member of the National Electoral Council who had attempted to expose and denounce election fraud in the 2025 elections. The voice recordings show death threats against Ochoa, who fled the country in April 2026. Hernández can be heard saying “If he is no longer in Honduras, you need to confirm that for me so I can start moving to find him using the intelligence contacts we have in the United States.” The recordings also reveal discussions of vote buying in Congress in political trials initiated to remove officials including Ochoa, as well as attempts to ensure that the electoral authorities that will handle future elections will be led by officials loyal to Hernández.
Multiple perceived opponents appear to have been targeted. In a March 2026 voice note to Hernández, Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, the Army Forces Chief who led the 2009 coup, can be heard saying “Mr. President, I already have a group inside the Armed Forces to begin the political hunt. I just need you to confirm the list, the names, and we move”.
Marlon Ochoa, official at the 2025 elections (Photo: OEA-OAS / Flickr [CC BY-NC-ND 4.0])
There was also discussion of what appears to be a plan for Hernández to return to power. In a voice note sent to Asfura in March 2026, Hernández can be heard saying, “I want to believe that you [Asfura] aren’t going to push me aside because, thanks to me, you’re sitting in that chair. Mr. President, it’s going to be me. And I expect your support. Because that’s what we discussed with President Trump”. The following month, Hernández says of himself, “Good news, good news. Juan Orlando is coming back for presidency. Hold on to that”.
Transnational connections
As can already be seen, references to the US and its political leaders appear in multiple recordings. US economic interests and military interests are also featured. There is discussion, for example, of plans to expand the ZEDE on the island of Roatan, where there would also be a new US military base constructed. Asfura also mentioned plans to accelerate the development of a rail corridor in Honduras that would connect the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. In a February 2026 voice note to Hernández, Asfura says that they were “handing it to General Electric”, the US conglomerate.
There are also multiple references to Israel. Hernández credits Israel for securing his pardon from Trump, and helping to facilitate his future return to Honduras. In a voice note from January 2026, he says “The Israeli prime minister is going to back us. We’re very grateful to him – they had a lot to do with it. In fact, they had everything to do with my release and the negotiation”. In March he also talks of “pardon money”, which he says came from a “council of rabbis” who back Israel.
The discussion in the files was not only about consolidating power in Honduras. It showed broader ideological ambitions that involved confronting left-leaning governments in countries such as Mexico and Colombia.
Hernández and Asfura discussed, for example, the details of the establishment of a “Latin-American news site”, which would be based in the US, such that it could not be traced to Honduras. According to Hernández, it would be run by a person from the team of the US president, with the support of some US Republicans. Focusing initially on the Zelaya family, as well as Mexico and Colombia, the site would produce “news” aiming to “attack and remove the cancer of the left from Honduras and from all Latin America”. Hernández claimed to be receiving financial backing for this news site from Argentinian president Javier Milei, and a “big friend of ours from Mexico”.
Hernández with Israeli president, Reuven Rivlin, 2015 (Photo: Mark Neyman, Government Press Office of Israel / Wikimedia Commons [CC BY-SA 3.0])
A muted scandal
In many ways, the Hondurasgate is a scandal that has failed to materialize. Coverage in Honduran media outlets can be considered polarized, with media outlets that position themselves in opposition to the National Party, such as El Libertador, heavily covering Hondurasgate, while others more aligned with the ruling party, such as El Heraldo, barely mentioning it. Others have questioned whether or not the authenticity of the files has been confirmed.
Outside of Latin America, media attention has been largely muted. The Hondursgate recordings were covered in some detail by one of the leading Spanish newspapers, El Pais. On the other hand, the UK’s BBC, which had the opportunity to interview Hernández in May 2026, did not even mention the allegations raised in the Hondurasgate recordings.
It is true that challenges remain in verifying with greater certainty whether the voices in the audio files are those of the people Hondurasgate alleges. But given the relatively high probability that the allegations are true, and the shocking, consequential nature of the assertions in the files, further attempts to question and verify – not silence – are surely warranted.
Writer: Virgil Hawkins
Graphic: Mohammad Istiaq Jawad
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