A former Dinant Corporation contractor has been caught transporting drugs. While this link to Dinant is quite thin, it’s worth remembering that:
In a March 19th, 2004 cable published by Wikileaks, US Ambassador to Honduras Larry Palmer outlines an incident in which a drug plane carrying 1,000 kilos of cocaine originating from Colombia, landed on the Farallones property of Dinant Corporation's Executive President, Miguel Facussé (now deceased). The cable reports that "Facusse's property is heavily guarded and the prospect that individuals were able to access the property and, without authorization, use the airstrip is questionable. In addition, Facusse's report obviously contradicts other information received from the law enforcement source ..."
Dinant is of course the corporation at the heart of Bajo Aguan land conflict. The company is accused of land grabbing and several human rights abuses, including targeted assassinations, of campesinos involved in the ensuing conflict. The campeinsos have also accused Dinant of drug trafficking before, but, as Karen Spring writes,
Its difficult to see drug trafficking busts in Honduras as 'successful' operations. Many Hondurans and international observers see drug war efforts as cherry-picking - nailing some drug traffickers and cartels while leaving others fully operative, if not empowered by the elimination of the competition. The War on Drugs and militarization has grave consequences for Honduran communities, particularly as it is used as a pretext to target and criminalize indigenous populations and communities that defend their natural resources and territories.
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