Tegucigalpa Honduras. Anti-corruption advocates in Honduras have again raised concerns about the threat of illicit campaign financing ahead of the 2025 elections, as organized crime groups continue to exploit loopholes in existing laws to influence the electoral process.
The Network for the Defense of Democracy in Honduras (Red por la Defensa de la Democracia – RDD) demanded increased transparency and improved oversight of campaign funds in a report released January 29, calling the upcoming elections a key moment for the country to restore leadership and strengthen state institutions.
“The lack of transparency in the use of resources by candidates for popular election is a critical issue that threatens the integrity of the electoral process, the vicious cycle between individuals who have been extradited, drug trafficking, and the financing of political campaigns,” the report said.
Across Latin America, Hondurans have some of the lowest levels of confidence in the electoral process and their political parties, according to polling from the 2024 Latinobarómetro.
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Each of the country’s three main political parties – Liberal, Libre, and National – have been suspected of receiving questionable campaign funds in the past.
Between 2017 and 2023, for example, the Clean Politics Unit (Unidad de Política Limpia), which is responsible for overseeing the financing of political campaigns, found that almost 77% of the money received by the Liberal Party during the 2017 and 2021 election cycles came from “unknown sources,” while the National and Libre parties received 50% and 40%, respectively.
Organized crime groups have a long history of meddling in Honduran politics. In September 2024, InSight Crime published a video of Carlos Zelaya, the brother-in-law of President Xiomara Castro, meeting with a number of top Honduran drug traffickers to discuss campaign contributions for her ultimately unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 2013.
Zelaya admitted he attended the meeting, but denied he or the campaign received any contributions from illicit actors.
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A Broken System Lacks Traceability
Despite the video and other evidence presented in several US drug trafficking cases of former Honduran officials, last year the National Electoral Council (Consejo Nacional Electoral – CNE) increased the limits for political campaign finances at the presidential, deputy, and local government levels.
The ceiling for presidential candidates is now 500 million lempiras (nearly $20 million), up from just under 400 million lempiras during the previous election.
While small compared to many other countries, experts consulted by InSight Crime criticized that as being far too high for Honduras, as well as discretionary and lacking the necessary oversight.
“It gives presidential candidates too much room to spend or receive money without having to worry about exceeding the limits in place,” said Alejandra Fuentes, a lawyer at Transparency International who specializes in corruption and transparency.
This creates ample space for money from organized crime groups to enter into the electoral process and co-opt those running for office, she added. The $650,000 contribution that five traffickers offered to give Zelaya in 2013, for example, is only about 3% of the limit established for this year’s election cycle.
What’s more, drug traffickers often make those payments in cash, and therefore, they are unlikely to be registered, making them all but impossible to trace.
“There is no physical or legal way to track cash, and the team overseeing these contributions does not have the expertise or technical capabilities to do so,” a former investigator with the now-defunct Mission to Support the Fight against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (Misión de Apoyo Contra la Corrupción y la Impunidad en Honduras – MACCIH), who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons, told InSight Crime.
To cite but one example, the leaders of the Cachiros drug trafficking dynasty allegedly provided $1 million to fund the campaign activities of former congressman Midence Oquelí Martínez Turcios.
If convicted, Orquelí Martínez would join the former president of Honduras, an ex-police chief, and several other former congressmen and local mayors who have been found guilty in US courts of receiving bribes to facilitate the drug trade.
“In the end, drug trafficking and organized crime groups undermine the rule of law and the state begins to function in their favor,” Fuentes told InSight Crime.
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No Accountability
Since each of Honduras’ major political parties has been accused of receiving funds from organized crime groups in past election cycles, few have any incentive to change the laws.
“Nobody wants to improve the issue of political financing because it is in everyone’s interest that these loopholes continue to exist so that they can benefit from them in some way,” said Fuentes.
What’s more, there are rarely any consequences for breaking campaign finance laws, including those that require candidates to disclose their funding levels and sources.
Only 66% of the 4,879 candidates who ran in the 2021 general elections presented detailed reports of their finances, according to an analysis by the Clean Politics Unit.
On paper, electoral authorities sanctioned over half of the candidates whose finances went unreported or had inconsistencies – including more than 1,200 mayoral and 474 congressional hopefuls – but the unit found that officials did not actually follow through on implementing any of those penalties.
The lack of prosecutions has made for a symbiotic relationship between politicians and drug traffickers.
“When candidates seeking office do not have the support of business leaders or other sources of financing, they use drug trafficking money,” the former MACCIH investigator told InSight Crime.
“And this is not free, it is in exchange for impunity.”
