Out of the 180 nations listed in the Transparency International’s 2023 corruption Index, it ranked 154th making it one of the lowest performing countries in the Latin American region.
Throughout the years, operating system of kleptocratic networks emerged, dominating the country’s political, social, and economic spheres.
Corruption today is committed not only for individual gain but at a scale that resembles a bureaucracy, benefitting a large swathe of members.
The National Anti-Corruption Council found that from 2014 to 2016, a civil society organization diverted $300 million from the public health system to private businesses.
[5] By October 2023, prosecutors indicted two former conservative presidents for diverting $12 million of public funds to bankroll their political campaigns.
[7] The growth in power and influence of criminal organizations, particularly, drug traffickers, contribute to the persistence of systemic corruption in Honduras.
[2] The systemic corruption in the country has led to the inability of the government to fund and support public health, education, clean water, housing, and other rights.
In addition, the misappropriation of funds not only reduces the efficiency of government spending but it also increases public mistrust of its revenue collection, which leads to tax evasion.
[2] There is a view that anti-corruption reform in Honduras has very little chance of success since corrupt interests are scaled across all levels of authority.
President Xiomara Castro also created the International Commission against Corruption and Impunity (Comision Internacional contra la Corrupcion e Impunidad en Honduras).
This commission, which was established through a memorandum with the United Nations, aimed to learn from past experiences and make lasting progress in addressing corruption in the country.
Two of the high-profile cases it handled were the murder of the environmental and human rights activist, Bertha Caceres, and the 2009 assassination of Aristides Gonzales, the Honduran anti-drug czar.
[2] In 2020, however, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez allowed the mandate of this commission to expire, setting back its capability to help institutions deter and investigate high-level corruption.