US forbids entry of former Honduran president accused of corruption

Former Honduran President Porfirio Lobo Sosa blacklisted from entering the United States

WASHINGTON, July 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The US government announced that former Honduran president Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo has been barred from entering the country on accusations of accepting bribes from drug traffickers in exchange for political favours.

Lobo, who ruled Honduras between 2010 and 2014, and his wife, Rosa Elena Bonilla Ávila, cannot enter the United States “for participating in significant corruption,” said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“While in office, president Lobo accepted bribes from the drug trafficking organization Los Cachiros in exchange for political favours,” Blinken said in a statement.

“As first lady, Rosa Lobo committed significant acts of corruption through fraud and embezzlement of public resources for personal benefit,” he added.

Blinken noted that while these acts “have undermined the stability of democratic institutions in Honduras,” the former president has yet to be convicted and the former first lady has been released from prison pending a new trial.

For the same reasons, their children, Fabio Porfirio Lobo and Ambar Naydee Lobo Bonilla, and the youngest, whose name was not informed, were also banned from entering the United States.

The State Department had previously included former President Lobo and his wife on a list of “corrupt and undemocratic” Central American leaders and former governors, known as the Engel List, released earlier this month. — NNN-AGENCIES