Honduras Intensifies Its Fight Against International Drug Trafficking
With the inauguration of the Combined Interagency Operations Center (CCOI) and the Airspace Sovereignty Protection Law, President Juan Orlando Hernández reassured his commitment to continue the war against international drug trafficking
“Thanks to the new CCOI and the implementation of the new law to protect our airspace we are closing opportunities to organize transnational crime to continue their illegal activities that so much damage has done to society” stated President Hernández.
The CCOI and the new law enhance the capacity of the security forces to fight transnational crime particularly in La Mosquitia, a remote heavy jungle area bordering with Nicaragua, which conditions are attractive for opening new routes for drug trafficking to the United States market.
CCOI counts with the collaboration of the US Southern Command. It is integrated to the 911 Emergency National System, the National Direction of Intelligence and Investigation, the National Police, the Prosecutor General and the Tactic Investigation Agency.
Additionally, the Airspace Sovereignty Protection Law counts with the cooperation of the Northern Triangle countries (Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala), the United States of America, Mexico, Colombia and the interim President of Venezuela, Juan Guaidó.
The initiative will energize the process to identify aircrafts that do not fulfill national and international parameters. It will provide detail information of the location, identification, tracking, interception and signaling of an aircraft that requires protection or if it is suspicious of illegal activities.
The law is in harmony with existing international civil aviation conventions, such as The Chicago Treaty (1944) and the Montreal Treaty adopted in 1971 to prohibit and sanction behaviors that could jeopardize the safety of civil aviation.
With the entry into force of the new law, the activation of the CCOI, and other efforts such as the extradition law approved when President Hernández was leading the National Congress, allowing the extradition of 22 drug lords to the USA, Honduras is at the forefront of the war against transnational crime.
