Honduras learns from the country’s war on drugs

Santo Domingo.- Honduras’ vice president on Monday said drug use and trafficking have become one of his country’s most pressing problems, and revealed that since the authorities forced a decline in drug-laden flights by planes using Dominican airspace, aircraft have opted to use the Central American country instead.

Victor Hugo Barnica, who’s also head of Honduras Anti-Narcotics Agency, visited National Drugs Control Agency (DNCD) president Rolando Rosado, to share experiences and work so that both nations wage a joint fight against international drug trafficking.

"Honduras has become a nation of drug transit and that’s why we’ve come to Dominican Republic to study their experience, to apply punitive policies such as running the DNCD and prevention such as those conducted by the National Drugs Control Agency," Barnica said.

"Since the decline of furtive incursions by planes loaded with drugs to Dominican airspace, which is practically zero, these aircraft have moved into our country of Honduras to introduce their drugs, and that’s why we seek the cooperation of the DNCD and other institutions in the Dominican Republic," the Honduran official said.

While the vice president of Honduras offered these statements in the DNCD, at 8:00 am, the Honduran press reported the death of a deputy minister of government and a Catholic prelate who died in an attack allegedly perpetrated by drug gangs until now not identified.