Honduran Former First Lady Arrested on Embezzlement Allegations

Mar 1, 2018
9:29 AM

Honduran former first lady, Rosa Elena Bonilla de Lobo, wife of Honduran former president (2010-2014) Porfirio Lobo Sosa, is escorted as she arrives at a corruption court in Tegucigalpa on February 28, 2018. (ORLANDO SIERRA/AFP/Getty Images)

Honduran former first lady Rosa Elena Bonilla, wife of ex-president Porfirio Lobo, was arrested in her home by military police yesterday, on embezzlement allegations. According to investigators for the National Anti-corruption Council, Bonilla, 48, deposited over half a million dollars of state funds into her own bank account in January 2014, at the end of her husband’s presidential term. Bonilla’s brother-in-law Mauricio Mora was also arrested under alleged corruption charges. Authorities did not mention if Lobo was present during the home search.

According to the Associated Press, corruption cases involving Honduran public officials rarely end in convictions. Bonilla’s arrest comes less than two weeks after the leader of the anti-corruption panel Juan Jiménez Mayor stepped down, citing that he had been abandoned by the OAS amid rising hostility from the Honduran government.

HEADLINES FROM THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE

NORTH AMERICA

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Tensions increased between ICE and Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf as she alerted residents of possible immigration raids that were going to be conducted in the area. Mayor Schaaf’s warning comes after more than 150 people have been arrested from previous federal sweeps in the region.

THE CARIBBEAN

Two private Jamaican flour companies filed a complaint to the national Anti-Dumping Commission over flour-dumping from Trinidad and Tobago into the local Jamaican market. “Dumping” a commodity means selling it in a foreign market for less than it costs to produce it in that market.

CENTRAL AMERICA

Three top-ranking Salvadoran army officials allegedly ordered the extrajudicial killings of gang members, according to intercepted phone conversations by the attorney general’s office. Defense Minister General David Munguía Payés recently denied the existence of any secret death squads.

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NORTHERN ANDES

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SOUTHERN CONE

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