A lawsuit in the U.S. reveals alleged connections between high-ranking officials in Honduras and the Cartel of the Suns, the drug network associated with the Venezuelan regime.
At the center of the hemispheric security crisis shaking Latin America, Honduras has now come under the scrutiny of Washington due to a high-stakes accusation: the alleged infiltration of the Cartel of the Suns, the narco-terrorist network linked to power in Venezuela, into the highest echelons of Honduran political power. This is not just rumor or rhetorical war; the accusation has been publicly made by U.S. lawmakers and is backed by intelligence and reports from federal agencies. In August 2025, Congressman Carlos A. Giménez was blunt: “Honduras is a pariah state under the control of the criminal Cartel of the Suns and the corrupt Zelaya family.” According to Giménez, the presidential campaign of Rixi Ramona Moncada Godoy, candidate from the LIBRE party and former Minister of Finance, is believed to have been funded by this transnational criminal structure led by Nicolás Maduro and Diosdado Cabello. The allegations suggest that Honduras is a political ally of chavismo and could ultimately serve as an operational platform for Venezuelan drug trafficking to the United States.
The Cartel of the Suns, named after the sun insignias carried by Venezuelan generals, is identified by U.S. security agencies as a state criminal structure dedicated to international cocaine trafficking from Colombia, using Venezuela as a logistic platform with operational branches in Central America and the Caribbean. Reports from the DEA and the U.S. Department of Justice indicate that this narco-terrorist network has extended its influence through the co-option of allied governments, including Honduras, where it has allegedly facilitated money laundering schemes, protection of drug trafficking routes, and political financing. In the Honduran case, this infiltration is thought to have been achieved through alliances with the LIBRE Party led by Manuel Zelaya, husband of President Xiomara Castro, both implicated in multiple journalistic investigations for alleged ties to corruption and organized crime. Although official candidate Rixi Ramona Moncada Godoy lost the 2025 elections—where Nasry Asfura emerged victorious—the political impact of this case has not faded. Moncada rejected the results and denounced an alleged “electoral coup,” while sectors of the U.S. Congress and security analysts have pointed to her as a functional piece of a regional strategy backed by Venezuelan funds, aimed at sustaining a power model described by critics as narcosocialist.
This context of alleged transnational narco-terrorism serves as the backdrop to a federal civil lawsuit filed on October 16, 2025 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama by American businessman Murray Paul Farmer and his company DRC, Inc. against Rixi Ramona Moncada Godoy and other state officials in Honduras. The litigation, identified as case No. 1:25-cv-00418, claims more than 106 million dollars in damages and alleges defamation, tortious interference with contractual relations, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and acts linked to international terrorism, under U.S. law.
The legal action originates from a reconstruction contract following Hurricane Mitch (1999), funded by USAID, and describes a pattern of systematic obstruction of payments, institutional harassment, and reprisals against Farmer—a U.S. citizen—after he refused to make illegal payments or bribes, according to the complaint. What follows is a detailed analysis of the judicial file, supported by public documents and verified official sources, that helps to gauge the political, legal, and geostrategic implications of the case.
Background: The Reconstruction Contract and Initial Corruption
It all starts with Hurricane Mitch in 1998, which devastated Honduras, destroying 70% of its infrastructure and causing losses of 3.8 billion dollars. The U.S. Congress approved nearly 1 billion in aid through the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act of 1999, managed by USAID. Honduras received 293 million, with the Honduran Social Investment Fund (FHIS) as the executing entity. Under bilateral agreements from 1961 and 1999, U.S. contractors like DRC enjoyed diplomatic immunity and protection from criminal proceedings in Honduras.
DRC, Inc., a company based in Alabama (though incorporated in South Carolina), won a contract on June 21, 2000, to build potable water systems, sewage, and sanitation in 21 remote communities, benefiting over 300,000 poor Hondurans. The contract, signed in the presence of Honduran President Carlos Flores Facussé and the director of FHIS, Moisés Starkman Pinel (who held the rank of Secretary of State), was televised live. DRC completed the projects between 2000 and 2003, despite demands for bribes from FHIS and USAID officials, such as Starkman, Carlos Flores, and Mauricio Cruz. USAID conducted over 20 audits, none of which found fraud in DRC, but confirmed irregularities in FHIS, leading to the withdrawal of U.S. funds in 2002.
Without full payments, DRC sued USAID in the U.S. (which was dismissed for lack of a direct contract) and won an arbitration in Honduras in 2009 for 51 million dollars plus interest. The Honduran Supreme Court confirmed this in 2022 as a “final and unappealable ruling” for 106,206,460.51 dollars. However, under the LIBRE government (elected in 2021), the defendants blocked payment, claiming non-existent fraud.
The Defendants and Their Role in the Obstruction
The lawsuit names:
Rixi Ramona Moncada Godoy: Former Minister of Finance and presidential candidate of LIBRE in 2025. Accused of defamation and obstruction, Moncada publicly stated in February 2023: “I take full responsibility for not delivering a single lempira.” Her ties to Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua are highlighted, and Giménez accuses her of financing the Cartel of the Suns. In September 2025, she reiterated on TikTok that the ruling was “corrupt.”
Manuel Antonio Díaz Galeas: Attorney General (PGR), who sent ex parte letters to the Central Bank of Honduras (BCH) ordering non-payment, threatening with criminal charges.
Rebeca Santos: President of the BCH, who followed the orders.
Johel Antonio Zelaya Álvarez, Luis Javier Santos, and Miguel Chirinos: Prosecutors who fabricated charges against Farmer in July 2025, alleging that the projects “never existed”—despite certifications from USAID and USACE.
These actions violated bilateral treaties and constituted “international terrorism” under the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act (18 U.S.C. § 2333), as they involved threats to life, violations of U.S. laws, and cross-border effects in Alabama.
The Connection to the Cartel of the Suns and Venezuela
The lawsuit explicitly links LIBRE with Venezuela: Xiomara Castro is the wife of Mel Zelaya, ousted in 2009 and an ally of Chávez/Maduro. Zelaya’s relatives, such as his brother Carlos, have been recorded accepting bribes from narcos like Los Cachiros (650,000 dollars in 2013, half for “Comandante” Zelaya). Zelaya’s father was convicted for the Los Horcones Massacre in 1975. In 2021, the U.S. sanctioned former president Porfirio Lobo for narco-corruption; his son Fabio was sentenced to 24 years in prison for cocaine trafficking (he was released after cooperating with Justice).
Representative Giménez, in August 2025, denounced: “Rixi Moncada’s campaign is an instrument of the Zelayas’ narcosocialist network, funded by the Cartel of the Suns.” In December 2025, Moncada alleged electoral fraud, claiming Trump interference, but sources like RT and X posts indicate that LIBRE sought to perpetuate Venezuelan control. The DEA has documented how Honduras, under Castro, became a “narco-state,” with a 30% increase in cocaine shipments to the U.S. since 2021.
Impact in the U.S. and Legal Repercussions
Farmer, a resident of Mobile, Alabama, suffered defamation that destroyed his reputation, causing losses of 25 million in business. He received death threats, including “We’ll give you the William Walker treatment” (a filibuster executed in 1860). In July 2025, he fled Honduras through the jungle after a fabricated arrest warrant, violating the Immunities Treaty.
The lawsuit invokes jurisdiction under diversity (28 U.S.C. § 1332) and the ATA, arguing that the acts are not sovereign but criminal, thus making sovereign immunities inapplicable (Samantar v. Yousuf, 2010). It seeks compensatory, punitive, and treble damages (totaling 318 million).
The case is moving forward in federal court; subpoenas were served in October and November 2025. Rixi Moncada, after losing the election, has intensified fraud allegations but has not publicly responded to the lawsuit. Giménez continues pushing for Magnitsky sanctions against Zelaya and Moncada.
A Regional Pattern of Narco-Politics?
Under the mandate of the LIBRE party—valid until January 24, 2026—Honduras has reoriented its foreign policy and institutional discourse towards an explicit alignment with Venezuela and Nicaragua, adopting a narrative of confrontation against the United States under the label of “anti-imperialism.” In this context, Rixi Moncada disqualified the Engel List—the American tool to sanction corrupt officials in Central America—as an “imperialist policy,” reinforcing the break with anti-corruption cooperation mechanisms initiated from Washington. The Honduran shift occurs at a time when the U.S. is redefining its regional strategy: in November 2025, Donald Trump granted a pardon to former president Juan Orlando Hernández, condemned for drug trafficking, while simultaneously tightening political, financial, and judicial pressure against Nicolás Maduro’s regime, directly impacting its allies in the hemisphere.
This process is seen as part of a strategy to dismantle the so-called “Bolivarian axis,” understood as an ideological alliance and a network of political and financial protection for transnational organized crime structures. The civil lawsuit filed in the United States aims to expose money laundering schemes linked to drug trafficking in political campaigns and state structures, seriously undermining the legitimacy of governments allied with chavismo, including Xiomara Castro de Zelaya’s in Honduras.
For Murray Paul Farmer, the legal proceedings represent the possibility of repair after more than 25 years of litigation, pressures, and reprisals; while for the United States, it constitutes a new front in the legal offensive against narco-terrorism and its political ramifications in Latin America.
The case highlights once again how U.S. federal courts are establishing themselves as key venues to address responsibilities that local judicial systems have not been able—or have not wanted—to clarify.
Sources: Federal court lawsuit (case 1:25-cv-00418); public statements by Congressman Carlos A. Giménez (X, August-September 2025); reports from the DEA; official results of the Honduran elections of 2025 (CNE). This report is based on public documents and verifiable sources, and does not prejudge any guilt.