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By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon, Thread Video
Honduras - The Source - The Root - etc Pulse

SDNY COURTHOUSE, March 11 – During the trial that convicted Tony Hernandez, the brother of Honduras' president Juan Orlando Hernandez (JOH), on all four counts of guns and narcotics trafficking and false statements, the Honduran National Police came up again and again in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

  Now on March 11, in the Honduras drug trafficking trial of Geovanny Fuentes Ramirez, government witness Leonel Rivera admitted again to being involved in the killing of journalist Anibal Barrow - but said he didn't remember killing the journalist's doctor girlfriend, even though her murder is listed in the annex to his cooperation agreement. Inner City Press live tweeted, here:

Defense lawyer: Let's talk about your murder of journalist Palacios

Leonel Rivera: Si, senor.

 Defense: He worked at a TV station, and spoke against Midence? Leo Rivera: Si senor. Defence: Midence was a narco and a politician, right?

Leo Rivera: Yes. Defense: After he said nasty things, you paid him 50,000 lempiras to say nice things about Midence?

Leo Rivera: I don't remember. Defense: You told the US that, right? Leo Rivera: No memory. Defense: Then Palacios kept saying bad things about Midence and you sent people to shoot him and his girlfriend?

Leonel Rivera: I don't remember. Defense: Yorleny Sanchez?

 Leonel Rivera: I don't remember. Defense lawyer: Bring up Exhibit 10, Annex A, number 24. You admitted killing her. Leonel Rivera: I don't remember. I said it was 78. Defense: Did you give the names?

 Leonel Rivera: Some of the dead, I didn't even know.

 Defense: If you didn't know Ms Sanchez, how did you know you were supposed to take responsibility for her murder?

Leo Rivera: I take responsibility for Palacios. I don't know if there were others killed with him.

Defense: Did the US tell you, his girlfriend, a doctor, was also killed? Leonel Rivera: I didn't know. Defense: What about journalist Anabel Barrow? [Inner City Press: see here.]

Defense: After you were named by OFAC, your brother showed you a photo of a journalist reporting on it? Leonel Rivera: Yes.

Defense: So you ordered the murder? Leonel Rivera: Yes.  D: You hired a hit man? Carlos Lara?  Leo Rivera: Yes.

Defense: They kidnapped and killed Barrow. Leo Rivera: It was the wrong person they murdered. Defense: Did you pay money for it anyway? Leonel Rivera: No, senor.

Judge Castel tells jurors they're done for the day. "It look nice out there - enjoy it," he says.

  At the end of 2020, Honduran journalist  Pedro Canelas was shot and killed. On December 19, in the southern city of Dulce Nombre de Culmí, an unidentified individual on a motorcycle approached Canelas’ car while he was parked outside a convenience store and shot him. Canelas was transferred to a local hospital, where he died hours later. Canelas owned Radio Bambi, a radio station where he also worked as a news presenter covering local politics and social issues. In the narco-state of Honduras, the JOH government assisted and praised by UN Guterres.

  On June 29 SDNY Judge P. Kevin Castel held a bond hearing on Otto Rene Salguero Morales. Inner City Press live tweeted it, now here.

 Inner City Press will continue to cover this and related cases. All questions to the UN, where Antonio Guterres and spokesmen bragged of getting $50,000 from JOH's Honduras, presumptively some Chapo funds, have gone unanswered. Stephane Dujarric won't even take the questions, including about his role in working with Sri Lanka war criminal Palitha Kohona and UNCA to oust Inner City Press, story here, Kohona here), from one dictatorship to another the UN continues.

   As to David Romero, it is said that the Committee to Protect Journalists' Natalie Southwick emailed the Honduran Secretariat for the Protection of Human Rights asking for comment on Romero but did not receive a reply. While CPJ did conclusorily reply to Inner City Press' request for action about UN censorship, nothing has been done.

  Inner City Press wrote, to CPJ's Joel Simon and others, "This follows up on my previous requests to you for CPJ. I am still banned from the UN and its Zoom room / briefing, 720 days and counting. None of Inner City Press' daily written questions, about Cameroon, Honduras, Burundi, Sri Lanka, Yemen, and UN finances are being answered. No response to application for accreditation submitted to Antonio Guterres' head of Communications Melissa Fleming.  Trigger for this question on deadline: today former Sri Lanka ambassador Palitha Kohona published an article admitting to having used UN Correspondent Association and correspondents you work with in order to get Inner City Press ousted and banned from the UN. See here.    Question: what are you going to do about this?"

   A CPJ staffer replied, "Hi Matt,  Thank you for reaching out, and apologies for the delayed response. Given the impact of COVID-19 on the press and the staggering number of recent attacks on the press, our team has been stretched thin and we ask for your patience as we are working through a high volume of urgent cases at this time. This is indeed a very concerning article, and we’ve shared this information with our colleagues on the research side to see if they can look into this further and see what, if anything, we can do."

  That was on June 24. Four weeks later, nothing at all was done. CPJ is in the bag with the UN of Guterres. Protection of journalists? We'll have more on this.

The case is US v. Diaz Morales, 15-cr-00379 (Castel).