President of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernandez (far right) has been accused of defrauding the country's health system from about $90 million. In this picture, he is joined by President of Guatemala Otto Perez Molina and U.S. President Barack Obama in the White House to discuss the situation of immigrant children traveling alone to the United States in 2014. File Photo by UPI/Alex Wong/Pool |
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TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, July 2 (UPI) -- The Supreme Court in Honduras has ordered the arrest over corruption of the vice-president of Congress, Lena Gutierrez, for apparent health care system fraud.
Gutierrez and 15 others, including her father and two brothers, were charged with fraud, crimes against public health and falsification of documents late Tuesday. The warrants were issued to prevent them from leaving the country.
Gutierrez and her family are linked to the AstroPharma company that allegedly embezzled and defrauded the government out of about $120 million by selling poor-quality medicine at inflated prices.
Prosecutors argue Gutierrez, a member of the governing National Party, and her family own AstroPharma and were involved in the scheme, but a lawyer for the family said they sold their shares in the company years ago.
The arrest warrants follow an ongoing anti-corruption movement in Honduras.
For months protesters have taken to the streets to demand the resignation of President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who is accused of taking nearly $90 million of more than $300 million that were apparently skimmed from Honduras' public health system during his 2013 election campaign.
Corruption is not the only problem in Honduras, which has one of the highest murder rates in the world.
The U.S. Department of State issued an updated alert in March on Honduras' security situation, which "continues to warn U.S. citizens that the level of crime and violence in Honduras remains critically high, although it has declined in the past two years. "
"The U.S. Embassy has recorded more than 100 murders of U.S. citizens since 2002. Many cases over the last 14 years are still awaiting trial. The vast majority of serious crimes in Honduras, including those against U.S. citizens, are never solved," according to the State Department.