TEGUCIGALPA, (Reuters) – Suspected drug hitmen yesterday shot and killed Honduras’ top anti-drugs official who recently had warned the country was in danger of becoming a “narco-state,” police said.
Julian Aristides, head of the government’s drug control office, was gunned down in broad daylight in a central Tegucigalpa neighborhood.
The two gunmen, who were on a motorcycle, shot him in his car just after he had dropped his young daughter off at school, they said.
Aristides, a former army general, had held the job for six years and was a public face for the Central American country’s anti-drugs efforts.
“They have declared war on us and we accept it. We are going to redouble our efforts in our fight against drug trafficking,” Attorney General Luis Rubi told a news conference.
