'Fifagate' unleashes third straight corruption scandal in Honduras.
| Autor | Rodriguez, George |
Last year was prolific in large-scale corruption scandals in Honduras. The first was the scam that collapsed the impoverished Central American nation's social security system (NotiCen, July 2, 2015). Then came the arrest, in the United States, of a member of the powerful Rosenthal family accused of involvement in money laundering (NotiCen, Dec. 3, 2015). More recently, "Fifagate" has sent shock waves through the country.
The scandal within the top--and, until recently, seemingly untouchable--echelons of the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) did not take long to unveil Honduran participation in a high-level bribery network involving mostly Latin American soccer officials, including a former president of Honduras.
May 27, 2015, saw the arrests, in Switzerland, of 18 FIFA officials, mostly Caribbean and Central and South American soccer chiefs (NotiCen, July 9, 2015). New detentions took place on Dec. 3, again in Switzerland, and this time a Honduran was detained. The charges include bribery, fraud, money laundering, and racketeering.
The news broke in Honduras on that same day: Alfredo "El Turco" ("the Turk") Hawit, the president of the Federacion Nacional Autonoma de Futbol de Honduras (FENAFUTH) and of the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF), was in custody and about to be extradited to the United States.
Local media reported that Hawit, as well as Rafael Leonardo Callejas--a former Honduran president (1990-1994) and Hawit's immediate predecessor as head of FENAFUTH (2002-2015)--were on a list of 16 Latin American suspects in a US Justice Department investigation into a corruption mega-scandal in world soccer's top institution. US authorities requested their extradition, according to the reports.
After having initially said he was not accepting extradition, Hawit was flown directly from Switzerland to the US on Jan. 13. Callejas had taken the lead a month before when he boarded a private airplane to the United States and turned himself in, voluntarily. In separate court appearances, they pleaded not guilty.
According to local media reports, the men are accused of having received some US$600,000 in bribes for marketing and broadcast rights of qualifying games for the 2018, 2022, and 2026 World Cup championships.
Many casualties
Callejas and Hawit are two of many casualties in an ongoing investigation of what, according to The New York Times, US officials have described...
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