The now former Secretary of the National Congress of Honduras and member of the Liberty and Refoundation Party (Libre), Carlos Zelaya

Tegucigalpa, September 1 (RHC)-- The Secretary of the National Congress of Honduras and member of the Liberty and Refoundation Party (Libre), currently in the Government, Carlos Zelaya, presented his resignation this Saturday from the position and as a national deputy.

The official announced his decision after testifying before the Public Ministry in the framework of the trial of former President Juan Orlando Hernández Alvarado (2014-2018), who was recently convicted by a New York court for several crimes linked to drug trafficking.

Zelaya told local media that in 2013, he participated in a meeting attended by one of those involved in the crimes for which Hernández Alvarado was investigated.

He stated that such a meeting was a trap set up by people linked to drug trafficking.  He made it clear that he did not receive money for participating in the meeting.  And he assured that neither President Xiomara Castro nor the current coordinator of Libre, Manuel Zelaya, were aware of his intention to attend.

He indicated that he made the decision to resign in order to, free of immunity, submit himself to any national or international investigation.

Also, the son of the former Secretary of Congress, Minister of Defense, José Manuel Zelaya Rosales, resigned from the portfolio to allow the investigation of the competent authorities.

He expressed that the political mission led by the Libre Party "is above the exercise of a public office, therefore, and so that it is investigated with complete freedom, I have presented my resignation as Minister of Defense to President Xiomara Castro."

In the statement through which he announced his intention to resign, Zelaya Rosales highlighted the honor of his father, who voluntarily appeared before the Attorney General's Office to testify about a video taken at the 2013 meeting, in which "people who were accused of drug trafficking" participated, he said.

Following these events, the coordinator of the Libre party, Manuel Zelaya, called an emergency session of the national coordination, this Sunday at 3:00 p.m. local time at the central headquarters of Libre, located in the Humuya neighborhood of Tegucigalpa, Francisco Morazán.

These events occurred after President Xiomara Castro repudiated on August 27th the interventionist acts of the White House in the internal affairs of Honduras.

After this, the head of State ordered the breaking of the extradition treaty with the United States, based on the consideration that it can be used as a tool of interference in the sovereignty of the country.