There are surnames that seem to summarize the recent history of a country, adding one misfortune after another in just four letters. This is Lobo, the last name of the former president of Honduras, Porfirio Lobo, who ruled the country between 2010 and 2014 and whose son was killed by an armed commando on Wednesday night in Tegucigalpa when he was leaving a nightclub. With his murder, Porfirio Lobo, 75, adds two dead children, another convicted in the United States for drug trafficking and his wife imprisoned for misappropriation after a trial that must be repeated.
Said Lobo Bonilla, 23, the driver and two other friends who were with him were intercepted by five men dressed as police officers a few meters from Morazán Boulevard, where the largest number of entertainment venues in Tegucigalpa are concentrated. Another brother, the youngest, Luis Fernando Lobo, was spared because he was traveling in another vehicle. “I don’t know where this comes from. We had not received threats, but you can see that they are expert people,” said Jorge Lobo, another of the brothers, after the attack.
Among the deceased is also Luis Zelaya, 23, nephew of the former head of the Armed Forces Romeo Vásquez, who went to the scene of the crime and confirmed that the young people were taken out of the vehicles, put against the wall “and killed, with headshots.” The other victims are the driver of the vehicle, Salomón Velásquez and Enrique Rodríguez.
The images captured by the security cameras leave no doubt that the attack was well planned and involved at least five men wearing special police equipment and long weapons who managed to carry out the massacre in just 106 seconds. The youths were leaving the parking lot of the nightclub when several men appeared from a van who blocked their way, got them out of the vehicle, put them next to a wall and shot them at a short distance.
Denis Castro, former director of Forensic Medicine, confirmed upon seeing the images that it was a “well-planned” crime. The massacre took place after 2 in the morning, local time, at the exit of the parking lot of the Torre Morazán building, a central avenue in the capital known for its bars and nightclubs.
The police chief attributed the murder to gangs, while President Xiomara Castro’s entourage insinuated that they are attacks focused on destabilizing the country. Currently, criminal violence in Honduras leaves an average of between 10 and 13 deaths per day, according to police sources and human rights organizations, but the case of the Lobo family is paradigmatic.
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On May 20, 2015, Fabio Lobo, another son of the former president, was arrested in Haiti and captured by the DEA and sentenced to 24 years in prison, plus five on parole for conspiring to import and distribute cocaine in the United States. According to information from the New York Prosecutor’s Office, Lobo had been linked to The Cachirosone of the main drug trafficking organizations in Honduras that collaborates with the DEA.
The poster of The Cachiros It was directed by Eriberto and Devis Rivera Madariaga, two brothers who surrendered to the United States authorities in January of this year. As heard in a New York courtroom, Lobo also had a close friendship with Ramón Matta, son of legendary drug lord Ramón Matta Ballasteros.
The tragedy for the former president’s family continued with the death of his son Javier Lobo, who died in Olancho, where he lived and worked in the fields with his grandparents. According to the doctors who treated him, Cristian Javier, 37, died of alcohol poisoning. The Honduran left behind five children and his mother, who currently resides in the United States. In 2014, Javier Lobo had been arrested in compliance with an arrest warrant against him issued by the courts after violating the alternative measures he had for the accusation of mistreating his ex-girlfriend, who filed the complaint with the Ministry Public.
Apart from her children, Rosa Elena de Lobo, Rosita, as the former president calls her, was sentenced to 58 years in prison for the crimes of fraud and misappropriation of public funds. Bonilla Lobo remains in prison for the so-called ‘Lady’s Petty Cash’ case, according to which the former First Lady diverted funds for her own use through a money laundering network of public money destined for works. Rosa de Lobo received prison permission this Thursday to attend the funeral of her son.
According to the first investigations, the MS-13 gang is behind the murder that has shocked Honduras due to the speed and the names of the dead. “The murder is attributed to members of the Mara Salvatrucha. The intention is to cause chaos, instability and terror,” said the director of the National Police, Gustavo Sánchez. President Xiomara Castro condemned the murder that she attributed to “the death squads”, and some voices around her pointed out that there are attempts to destabilize her government with massacres like the one on Thursday.
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