Martha's analysis is well-grounded with deep experience and insights into Latin American politics.One might add:: Four days after President Trump's second inagural, on Jan. 24, 2005, a Clarement Institute publication asserted that the real source of corruption in Honduras was "the Biden Administration," which had worked with leftist regimes to unleash a "wave of corruption" throughout the region. To remedy this, the Clarement operatives called for Juan Orlando Hernandez to be pardoned --- advice which Trump took. As the Wall Street Journal reported, Hernandez had been convicted in a US court for "conspiring with cartels to ship 400 tons of cocaine to the U.S." Moreover, Politico has reported on Claremont's deep connections with Trump/MAGA figures: Tom Cotton, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee. CIA Deputy Director Michael Ellis, and other key aides at State, the Pentagon, and Homeland Security. None of these luminaries have expressed any discomfort over Donald Trump's putting a convicted drug dealer back on the streets.
Martha alerts us to yet another threat of a rapidly changing world power structure, including the rise of the oligarch. U.S. [and Trump family] recent adventurist interest in Venezuela, Cuba, Honduras, Panama, [and Albania] indeed appears motivated by something other than our national interest. The idea of creating semi-autonomous "development zones" free of pesky sovereign nation oversight and control would be very appealing to venture capitalists, billionaire tech bros and multi-national criminal elements alike. Think of it...strange and dangerous powerful "aliens" mixing, like in the bar scene from Star Wars...complete with unregulated offshore banking, antidemocratic influence seeking ideologues and outright criminal organizations operating with impunity. This is a story that deserves much more media attention.
Doug, thank you for your thoughtful and insightful comments. I especially appreciate how you expanded the discussion beyond Honduras to the broader pattern of emerging power structures where wealth, technology, and political influence increasingly intersect. Your analogy vividly captures why these developments deserve far more public scrutiny. If my article encourages readers to ask harder questions about whose interests are being served in U.S. foreign policy, then I and others who write on this Substack have accomplished exactly what we hoped. Thank you for adding such a valuable perspective to the conversation.
Martha, I believe you have put your finger on a growing tectonic geo-political power shift, which responsible sovereign nations had better figure out how to deal with. I could have also included Greenland, since Trump periodically returns to including Greenland in his neoAmerican empire fever dream.
Doug, his sons have been traveling the globe making 'land deals.' My neighbors are from Albania, and they are not happy that "money and greed" has come to their country. Yes, the list goes on.
Real Estate speculators, Kushner & Witkoff "negotiating" foreign policy / national security deals around the world with multiple side deals and secret foreign interests enmeshed in their globe trotting missions. Don & Erik raking in mega$ with interests in deals related to weaponry & crypto. + More every day, like TG says below, 47 & Co keep so many plates spinning it distracts from the parallel Prjt. 2025 coup d'etat,... It seems the distraction is sort of but not really working, depending on where people are on the spectrum of brainwashed by the Trump-Vance bad fake reality tv show or still cognitively sovereign.
Let me make sure I get this straight. Trump pardons one of the world’s must successful facilitators of cocaine into America. Hernandez is convicted based on overwhelming evidence (and after spending millions of dollars for the investigation and prosecution) and is then pardoned by the same president who has authorized extrajudicial killings of unknown people in small boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific because of alleged ties to drug networks that were facilitated by the guy he pardoned so that an island in Honduras could be turned into a playground for our tech-bro oligarchs?
This administration seems to be trying to keep all th plates spinning so that no one knows where to focus so that project 2025 can be fully applied the way they want to turn the US into a dictatorship. Thank you Martha for bringing this out in the open.
Reminds one of the heart of the Abraham Accords -tying people together through their financial and economic interests ignoring , religious political and legal considerations.
It truly is staggering—and perhaps even more concerning is how normalized it can become when political power, private wealth, and personal interests converge. That was one of the central reasons for writing the article: to show that what may appear to be isolated events often reflects a much broader pattern with implications not only for Honduras, but for democratic governance and the rule of law far beyond its borders. Thank you for reading and for your observation.
Thank you, Louis, and the tentacles continue to expand. The sons are working out "land deals" in Albania, Panama, you name it and they with their techno-bros are trying to develop and invest where the laws do not appear to hold such business ventures back!
My answer to your essay-ending question is, “Nothing.” Too many people are too easily corrupted. You just have try to make the best of anything over which you have no control.
Martha's analysis is well-grounded with deep experience and insights into Latin American politics.One might add:: Four days after President Trump's second inagural, on Jan. 24, 2005, a Clarement Institute publication asserted that the real source of corruption in Honduras was "the Biden Administration," which had worked with leftist regimes to unleash a "wave of corruption" throughout the region. To remedy this, the Clarement operatives called for Juan Orlando Hernandez to be pardoned --- advice which Trump took. As the Wall Street Journal reported, Hernandez had been convicted in a US court for "conspiring with cartels to ship 400 tons of cocaine to the U.S." Moreover, Politico has reported on Claremont's deep connections with Trump/MAGA figures: Tom Cotton, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee. CIA Deputy Director Michael Ellis, and other key aides at State, the Pentagon, and Homeland Security. None of these luminaries have expressed any discomfort over Donald Trump's putting a convicted drug dealer back on the streets.
Martha alerts us to yet another threat of a rapidly changing world power structure, including the rise of the oligarch. U.S. [and Trump family] recent adventurist interest in Venezuela, Cuba, Honduras, Panama, [and Albania] indeed appears motivated by something other than our national interest. The idea of creating semi-autonomous "development zones" free of pesky sovereign nation oversight and control would be very appealing to venture capitalists, billionaire tech bros and multi-national criminal elements alike. Think of it...strange and dangerous powerful "aliens" mixing, like in the bar scene from Star Wars...complete with unregulated offshore banking, antidemocratic influence seeking ideologues and outright criminal organizations operating with impunity. This is a story that deserves much more media attention.
Doug, thank you for your thoughtful and insightful comments. I especially appreciate how you expanded the discussion beyond Honduras to the broader pattern of emerging power structures where wealth, technology, and political influence increasingly intersect. Your analogy vividly captures why these developments deserve far more public scrutiny. If my article encourages readers to ask harder questions about whose interests are being served in U.S. foreign policy, then I and others who write on this Substack have accomplished exactly what we hoped. Thank you for adding such a valuable perspective to the conversation.
Martha, I believe you have put your finger on a growing tectonic geo-political power shift, which responsible sovereign nations had better figure out how to deal with. I could have also included Greenland, since Trump periodically returns to including Greenland in his neoAmerican empire fever dream.
Doug, his sons have been traveling the globe making 'land deals.' My neighbors are from Albania, and they are not happy that "money and greed" has come to their country. Yes, the list goes on.
Real Estate speculators, Kushner & Witkoff "negotiating" foreign policy / national security deals around the world with multiple side deals and secret foreign interests enmeshed in their globe trotting missions. Don & Erik raking in mega$ with interests in deals related to weaponry & crypto. + More every day, like TG says below, 47 & Co keep so many plates spinning it distracts from the parallel Prjt. 2025 coup d'etat,... It seems the distraction is sort of but not really working, depending on where people are on the spectrum of brainwashed by the Trump-Vance bad fake reality tv show or still cognitively sovereign.
Let me make sure I get this straight. Trump pardons one of the world’s must successful facilitators of cocaine into America. Hernandez is convicted based on overwhelming evidence (and after spending millions of dollars for the investigation and prosecution) and is then pardoned by the same president who has authorized extrajudicial killings of unknown people in small boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific because of alleged ties to drug networks that were facilitated by the guy he pardoned so that an island in Honduras could be turned into a playground for our tech-bro oligarchs?
This administration seems to be trying to keep all th plates spinning so that no one knows where to focus so that project 2025 can be fully applied the way they want to turn the US into a dictatorship. Thank you Martha for bringing this out in the open.
Reminds one of the heart of the Abraham Accords -tying people together through their financial and economic interests ignoring , religious political and legal considerations.
Always proximity to power and payola.
Jo, you are absolutely correct!! Thank you for reading the article. Power corrupts.
It truly is staggering—and perhaps even more concerning is how normalized it can become when political power, private wealth, and personal interests converge. That was one of the central reasons for writing the article: to show that what may appear to be isolated events often reflects a much broader pattern with implications not only for Honduras, but for democratic governance and the rule of law far beyond its borders. Thank you for reading and for your observation.
Aligns with my article Bjorn. You expand on their "futuristic" enterprise, mine starts with why Honduran president was pardoned....tanta corrupcion!!
Thank you, Louis, and the tentacles continue to expand. The sons are working out "land deals" in Albania, Panama, you name it and they with their techno-bros are trying to develop and invest where the laws do not appear to hold such business ventures back!
https://www.thenerdreich.com/trumps-weird-freedom-cities-and-the-network-state-cult/
Important context for unseemly acts by the Administration
The level of corruption is staggering.
John, thank you for further nailing what the article presents.
Walt, my best is speaking out. You know me :-) Appreciate you reading mine and others who post on Substack.
My answer to your essay-ending question is, “Nothing.” Too many people are too easily corrupted. You just have try to make the best of anything over which you have no control.