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        {"code":"26261","sect":"Central America","sect_slug":"central-america","hits":"1214","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/en\/202207\/centroamerica\/26261","link_edit":"","name":"The Animal Farm","slug":"the-animal-farm","info":"A drug-dealing murderer founded a zoo for wild beasts. A millionaire banker who financed a drug cartel breeds crocodiles out of love. The presidential family, named Lobo (meaning wolf in Spanish) is involved with the zoo owners. Honduras lives by the law of the jungle: whoever bites first \u2014or hardest\u2014 leads.","mtag":"Corruption","noun":{"html":"\u003Cspan class='tint-text--dark' data_href='\/user\/profile\/cdada'\u003E Carlos Dada\u003C\/span\u003E","data":{"carlos-dada":{"sort":"cdada","slug":"carlos-dada","path":"carlos_dada","name":"Carlos Dada","edge":"0","init":"0"}}},"view":"1214","pict":{"cms-image-000037691-jpeg":{"feat":"1","sort":"37691","name":"cms-image-000037691.jpeg","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000037691.jpeg","path":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000037691.jpeg","back":"","slug":"cms-image-000037691-jpeg","text":"&lt;p&gt;Uno de los cuatro hipop\u00f3tamos que habitan el zool\u00f3gico Joya Grande, permanece en una de las piletas. Estos animales pasasn sumergidos la mayor parte del d\u00eda en los estanques, en dos grandes j\u00e1ulas. Foto El Faro, por V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a&lt;\/p&gt;","capt":"\u003Cp\u003EUno de los cuatro hipop\u00f3tamos que habitan el zool\u00f3gico Joya Grande, permanece en una de las piletas. Estos animales pasasn sumergidos la mayor parte del d\u00eda en los estanques, en dos grandes j\u00e1ulas. Foto El Faro, por V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\u003C\/p\u003E"},"cms-image-000037692-jpg":{"feat":"0","sort":"37692","name":"cms-image-000037692.jpg","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000037692.jpg","path":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000037692.jpg","back":"","slug":"cms-image-000037692-jpg","text":"&lt;p&gt;Joya Grande was built over 20 hectares of land, in the middle of the Santa Cruz de Yojoa mountains.\u00a0A neighing horse sculpture decorates the quickly-eroding island in the lagoon\u2019s center. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro&lt;\/p&gt;","capt":"\u003Cp\u003EJoya Grande was built over 20 hectares of land, in the middle of the Santa Cruz de Yojoa mountains.\u00a0A neighing horse sculpture decorates the quickly-eroding island in the lagoon\u2019s center. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro\u003C\/p\u003E"},"cms-image-000037693-jpg":{"feat":"0","sort":"37693","name":"cms-image-000037693.jpg","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000037693.jpg","path":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000037693.jpg","back":"","slug":"cms-image-000037693-jpg","text":"&lt;p&gt;The 21 Bengal tigers in Joya Grande are, without a doubt, the main draw for tourists. Each consumes between 15 and 20 pounds of chicken per day \u2014 a hight cost that used to be paid with illicit cash. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro&lt;\/p&gt;","capt":"\u003Cp\u003EThe 21 Bengal tigers in Joya Grande are, without a doubt, the main draw for tourists. Each consumes between 15 and 20 pounds of chicken per day \u2014 a hight cost that used to be paid with illicit cash. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro\u003C\/p\u003E"},"cms-image-000037694-jpg":{"feat":"0","sort":"37694","name":"cms-image-000037694.jpg","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000037694.jpg","path":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000037694.jpg","back":"","slug":"cms-image-000037694-jpg","text":"&lt;p&gt;Cabin 18 was El Se\u00f1or\u2019s favorite, says the manager, referring to Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga. On his occasional visits to the park he would stay in the wooden cabin with a privileged view of Big Boy, his favorite giraffe. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro&lt;\/p&gt;","capt":"\u003Cp\u003ECabin 18 was El Se\u00f1or\u2019s favorite, says the manager, referring to Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga. On his occasional visits to the park he would stay in the wooden cabin with a privileged view of Big Boy, his favorite giraffe. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro\u003C\/p\u003E"},"cms-image-000037695-jpg":{"feat":"0","sort":"37695","name":"cms-image-000037695.jpg","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000037695.jpg","path":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000037695.jpg","back":"","slug":"cms-image-000037695-jpg","text":"&lt;p&gt;This undated image is courtesy of the newspaper La Tribuna\u2019s archive. It shows Fabio Lobo, the oldest son of Honduran ex-president Porfirio Lobo in Rome. Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga, former leader of the Los Cachiros cartel, confessed in U.S. court that his criminal organization had killed 78 people. He said he\u2019d given ex-president Porfirio Lobo (2010-2014) and his son Fabio hundreds of thousands of dollars. Rivera Maradiaga stated that ex-president Lobo named his son Fabio as the contact person with Los Cachiros. Photo: AFP\/Courtesy of La Tribuna&lt;\/p&gt;","capt":"\u003Cp\u003EThis undated image is courtesy of the newspaper La Tribuna\u2019s archive. It shows Fabio Lobo, the oldest son of Honduran ex-president Porfirio Lobo in Rome. Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga, former leader of the Los Cachiros cartel, confessed in U.S. court that his criminal organization had killed 78 people. He said he\u2019d given ex-president Porfirio Lobo (2010-2014) and his son Fabio hundreds of thousands of dollars. Rivera Maradiaga stated that ex-president Lobo named his son Fabio as the contact person with Los Cachiros. Photo: AFP\/Courtesy of La Tribuna\u003C\/p\u003E"},"cms-image-000037696-jpg":{"feat":"0","sort":"37696","name":"cms-image-000037696.jpg","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000037696.jpg","path":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000037696.jpg","back":"","slug":"cms-image-000037696-jpg","text":"&lt;p&gt;A circus gifted the Joya Grande zoo with a 25 year-old dromedary, the average age these animals live. Veterinarian Mar\u00eda D\u00edaz worries about the animal\u2019s knee and belly wounds. She was placed in charge of the safari park when it was seized. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro&lt;\/p&gt;","capt":"\u003Cp\u003EA circus gifted the Joya Grande zoo with a 25 year-old dromedary, the average age these animals live. Veterinarian Mar\u00eda D\u00edaz worries about the animal\u2019s knee and belly wounds. She was placed in charge of the safari park when it was seized. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro\u003C\/p\u003E"},"cms-image-000037697-jpg":{"feat":"0","sort":"37697","name":"cms-image-000037697.JPG","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000037697.JPG","path":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000037697.JPG","back":"","slug":"cms-image-000037697-jpg","text":"&lt;p&gt;One out of five albino tigers rests in its cage. Each feline in the Joya Grande Zoo eats between 15 and 20 pounds of chicken, pork, and horse per day. Photo by V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a, El Faro&lt;\/p&gt;","capt":"\u003Cp\u003EOne out of five albino tigers rests in its cage. Each feline in the Joya Grande Zoo eats between 15 and 20 pounds of chicken, pork, and horse per day. Photo by V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a, El Faro\u003C\/p\u003E"},"cms-image-000037698-jpg":{"feat":"0","sort":"37698","name":"cms-image-000037698.jpg","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000037698.jpg","path":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000037698.jpg","back":"","slug":"cms-image-000037698-jpg","text":"&lt;p&gt;Lions are among the more than 50 felines inhabiting the Joya Grande zoo. The zoo was born out of a loan by businessman and millionaire Jaime Rosenthal\u2019s Banco Continental to Los Cachiros. Rosenthal is also accused in the United States for money laundering. Photo by V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a, El Faro&lt;\/p&gt;","capt":"\u003Cp\u003ELions are among the more than 50 felines inhabiting the Joya Grande zoo. The zoo was born out of a loan by businessman and millionaire Jaime Rosenthal\u2019s Banco Continental to Los Cachiros. Rosenthal is also accused in the United States for money laundering. Photo by V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a, El Faro\u003C\/p\u003E"},"cms-image-000037699-jpg":{"feat":"0","sort":"37699","name":"cms-image-000037699.JPG","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000037699.JPG","path":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000037699.JPG","back":"","slug":"cms-image-000037699-jpg","text":"&lt;p&gt;This was the construction site of a mall Los Cachiros were building in the municipality of Tocoa, Colon department. It was abandoned in 2013 when Honduran authorities finally took action against the Rivera Maradiaga family. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro&lt;\/p&gt;","capt":"\u003Cp\u003EThis was the construction site of a mall Los Cachiros were building in the municipality of Tocoa, Colon department. It was abandoned in 2013 when Honduran authorities finally took action against the Rivera Maradiaga family. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro\u003C\/p\u003E"},"cms-image-000037700-jpg":{"feat":"0","sort":"37700","name":"cms-image-000037700.jpg","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000037700.jpg","path":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000037700.jpg","back":"","slug":"cms-image-000037700-jpg","text":"&lt;p&gt;Big Boy, Rivera Maradiaga\u2019s favorite animal, the one he used to watch from this window in Cabin #18. Photo by V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a, El Faro.&lt;\/p&gt;","capt":"\u003Cp\u003EBig Boy, Rivera Maradiaga\u2019s favorite animal, the one he used to watch from this window in Cabin #18. Photo by V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a, El Faro.\u003C\/p\u003E"}},"pict_main__sort":37691,"date":{"live":"2022\/07\/08"},"data_post_dateLive_YY":"2022","data_post_dateLive_MM":"07","data_post_dateLive_DD":"08","text":"\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThis feature was \u003Ca href=\"\/es\/201709\/centroamerica\/20882\/Una-finca-de-animales.htm\"\u003Epublished in Spanish\u003C\/a\u003E on Sep. 18, 2017.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cem\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E1.\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EIt\u2019s undeniable: this man loves animals. Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga recently confessed to 78 murders and to building a zoo in western Honduras with drug trafficking proceeds. He said so in a New York court. He didn\u2019t confess as a defendant, but as a witness in Fabio Lobo\u2019s trial, another self-proclaimed drug dealer and son of Honduras\u2019 ex-president Porfirio Lobo Sosa. But, let\u2019s be clear: the witness, Rivera Maradiaga, was the kingpin; the accused, a rookie.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ERivera Maradiaga\u2019s zoo is still open to the public, and children under three enter for free. It\u2019s an eccentricity erected in the midst of a green valley. The 20-hectare manor is surrounded by hills in the middle of nowhere, or to be exact, an hour south of San Pedro Sula, one of the world\u2019s most violent cities.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe zoo is home to 538 specimens in need of care and food. The safari park built by Rivera Maradiaga is so big that almost 70 local families make a living harvesting the beasts\u2019 food.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThere are more than 50 big cats: dozens of lions and tigers \u2014five white or albino tigers among them\u2014, pumas, jaguars, ocelots\u2026 and a handful of tamed kittens that freely meander the park. Four hippopotamus are also distributed in three nearby areas connected by a channel feeding the water pools where they spend most of their days. The confinement includes a bunch of dromedaries and camels, several alpacas, ostriches, Amazonian tapirs, primates, bison, wildebeests, emus.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E    \u003Cfigure class=\"pict pict_land pict_move_posc 0 cs_img cs_img--curr rule--ss_c\" data-shot=\"pict\" data-hint=\"pict\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"pict__pobj text-overflow\"\u003E\u003Cimg src=https:\/\/elfaro.net\/get_img?ImageWidth=3000&ImageHeight=2000&ImageId=37692 class=\"pobj\" style=\"max-width: 100%\" rel=\"resizable\" alt=\"Joya Grande was built over 20 hectares of land, in the middle of the Santa Cruz de Yojoa mountains.\u00a0A neighing horse sculpture decorates the quickly-eroding island in the lagoon\u2019s center. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro\" \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E \u003Cfigcaption class=\"pict__text cs_img_caption folk_content typo_buttons line--ss_s0c line--ss_s0c--auto block full-width text-overflow rule--ss_l relative\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"__content block-inline full-width align-top tint-text--idle relative\"\u003E Joya Grande was built over 20 hectares of land, in the middle of the Santa Cruz de Yojoa mountains.\u00a0A neighing horse sculpture decorates the quickly-eroding island in the lagoon\u2019s center. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro \u003Cdiv class=\"photographer text_italic rule--ss_l tint-text--idle\"\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/figcaption\u003E \u003C\/figure\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EFour crocodiles of the acutus species, known as American crocodiles and native to Central America, swim in an artificial pond. It seems like they\u2019re constantly preying on a small benchless island. It is in that mound where, hanging from a tree, five paranoid spider monkeys live as castaways, well aware of their assassins in the water. They can see their lurking eyes peeping over the surface.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EBlue and red macaws fly, without entirely deploying their wings, inside the aviary along with cockatoos and toucans. The luckiest pheasants, guinea and Japanese fowls wander freely amongst visitors. Here, the inability to fly is an advantage.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ENo highway leads to Joya Grande (which literally translates as Big Jewel). To visit the zoo from Santa Cruz Yojoa, visitors must travel eight kilometers by rural, dirt roads. Their website offers a terse set of directions: \u201cFollow the signs.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EAlong with his brother, Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga ran the drug cartel known as Los Cachiros. The kingpin built this zoo because he loved animals, and because he knew that drug dealers have extravagant taste. But above all, he did it because he could. By registering his animal collection as a zoo, Rivera Maradiaga could legally buy and import new species. It\u2019s not that anyone in Honduras would have given him trouble; he did it to make transactions with the exporting countries easier, by the book. That\u2019s why, since he built it, the kingpin\u2019s whim has been open to the public.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe zoo has natural boundaries, but they\u2019re monitored regardless. In the past, Rivera Maradiaga\u2019s men could see anyone approaching the land from an observation tower erected in one of the hillsides. Today, that tower is the tourists\u2019 reception lobby, and a small private army providing security sweeps the periphery day and night in small vehicles. Besides the park, they also provide security to the pasturelands where the cows and horses who will become the felines\u2019 food, graze.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe safari park has seven cabins and four RVs. There are two pools, a zipline, restaurants, caf\u00e9s, a go-kart track, a miniature train, paintball, and an artificially-built lagoon where visitors can cruise in rented pedal or rowboats. A small island emerges from the middle of the lagoon; in it, a huge sculpture of a neighing white horse stands on its two back legs. It cuts a strange figure in a zoo full of felines. Horses, it so happens, are another obsession of the Se\u00f1or of Joya Grande. Two other horse sculptures, one red and the other dappled, rise in the entrance, welcoming newcomers.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThis manor of exotic creatures is just as much an imitation of the eccentricities of the Colombian kingpin Pablo Escobar as an homage. Los Cachiros went as far as to pick, as a brand, the same colors and font that Escobar chose for his Naples Estate. They even placed a tree\u2019s silhouette as the main feature in the logo of Joya Grande.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E    \u003Cfigure class=\"pict pict_land pict_move_posc 0 cs_img cs_img--curr rule--ss_c\" data-shot=\"pict\" data-hint=\"pict\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"pict__pobj text-overflow\"\u003E\u003Cimg src=https:\/\/elfaro.net\/get_img?ImageWidth=3000&ImageHeight=2000&ImageId=37693 class=\"pobj\" style=\"max-width: 100%\" rel=\"resizable\" alt=\"The 21 Bengal tigers in Joya Grande are, without a doubt, the main draw for tourists. Each consumes between 15 and 20 pounds of chicken per day \u2014 a hight cost that used to be paid with illicit cash. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro\" \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E \u003Cfigcaption class=\"pict__text cs_img_caption folk_content typo_buttons line--ss_s0c line--ss_s0c--auto block full-width text-overflow rule--ss_l relative\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"__content block-inline full-width align-top tint-text--idle relative\"\u003E The 21 Bengal tigers in Joya Grande are, without a doubt, the main draw for tourists. Each consumes between 15 and 20 pounds of chicken per day \u2014 a hight cost that used to be paid with illicit cash. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro \u003Cdiv class=\"photographer text_italic rule--ss_l tint-text--idle\"\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/figcaption\u003E \u003C\/figure\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe Rivera Maradiaga brothers also adopted some traditions from northern Mexico, commissioning a corrido in their honor. It soon became one of the biggest hits in Honduras: \u201cEl Corrido de Los Cachiros.\u201d The musical grounding is identical to Jos\u00e9 Alfredo Jim\u00e9nez\u2019 classic \u201cCaminos de Guanajuato,\u201d later picked up by Los Tigres del Norte. It\u2019s that classic song that begins like this: \u201cWorthless is life, life is worth nothing.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ERivera Maradiaga lived more than 300 kilometers from the safari, in Tocoa, Col\u00f3n, but every once in a while he\u2019d sleep in his private cabin within his zoo. He used to fly in by helicopter. Each morning he ate breakfast on the balcony and, before touring his property to admire his cats, he would stop to pet Big Boy, the only giraffe in all of Honduras.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EBig Boy was the man\u2019s favorite animal, the same man who confessed to several crimes in New York. The giraffe arrived five years ago, after a circus donated him from Guatemala. He\u2019s nine years old and feeds from green grass and leaves from the nance --a yellow round fruit-- tree. The zoo\u2019s employees complement Big Boy\u2019s diet with seven pounds of veggie concentrate and twenty of carrot, onion and lettuce. Big Boy is tamed and allows people to pet him. Everyone here talks about Big Boy, but no one will utter the kingpin\u2019s name. He\u2019s known simply as El Se\u00f1or.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EWe asked for a cabin on the night we got to Joya Grande. The manager offered a simply-built wooden two-room cabin with a porch and a balcony. \u201cThis used to be El Se\u00f1or\u2019s cabin,\u201d he said, emphasizing \u003Cem\u003EEl Se\u00f1or\u003C\/em\u003E, as if talking about Che or Rub\u00e9n Dar\u00edo. \u201cThat\u2019s where he stayed when he came here.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe moon was not visible on that gray-skied April night, and the air was hot and humid. Roars from the big felines drowned out an onomatopoeic symphony of who-knows-how-many excited species. Here, beasts reign at night. Barely visible in the pitch-black night, a family of zebras, father, mother and son, sleep just a few meters from our balcony, motionless and indifferent to the rest of the animals\u2019 jamboree. The morning, on the other hand, arrived calmly, with sporadic, lazy howls. Right in front of the balcony, Big Boy stretched his long neck.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe rate for a cabin with two double beds is $200 per night. For half that price, guests can sleep in one of the RVs scattered near the cabins, each with a full-sized bed and a small cot offered as a twin bed. The prices are far too high for a Honduras home to the poor.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E    \u003Cfigure class=\"pict pict_land pict_move_posc 0 cs_img cs_img--curr rule--ss_c\" data-shot=\"pict\" data-hint=\"pict\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"pict__pobj text-overflow\"\u003E\u003Cimg src=https:\/\/elfaro.net\/get_img?ImageWidth=3000&ImageHeight=2000&ImageId=37694 class=\"pobj\" style=\"max-width: 100%\" rel=\"resizable\" alt=\"Cabin 18 was El Se\u00f1or\u2019s favorite, says the manager, referring to Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga. On his occasional visits to the park he would stay in the wooden cabin with a privileged view of Big Boy, his favorite giraffe. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro\" \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E \u003Cfigcaption class=\"pict__text cs_img_caption folk_content typo_buttons line--ss_s0c line--ss_s0c--auto block full-width text-overflow rule--ss_l relative\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"__content block-inline full-width align-top tint-text--idle relative\"\u003E Cabin 18 was El Se\u00f1or\u2019s favorite, says the manager, referring to Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga. On his occasional visits to the park he would stay in the wooden cabin with a privileged view of Big Boy, his favorite giraffe. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro \u003Cdiv class=\"photographer text_italic rule--ss_l tint-text--idle\"\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/figcaption\u003E \u003C\/figure\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe lodging, however, doesn\u2019t justify the price. The cabins are filthy, as if no one has cleaned them since El Se\u00f1or left. It\u2019s almost as if all the cheap-looking white furniture used as night tables, tarnished by cigarette burns and all sorts of liquids, had been there forever, collecting stains. New odors and textures have been accumulating on the cheap quilt with giraffe or leopard skin patterns. At some point, someone thought a pair of shabby plastic giraffe and leopard figurines were the finishing touch on the monument to tackiness. A nod to Walmart narcostyle.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EAs it happens, people that pay to sleep here don\u2019t necessarily do it out of love for animals or for the experience of sleeping with surround-sound roars. Two couples from San Pedro Sula arrived one night. Short after, they came out of their cabin wearing bathing suits, holding glasses and a bottle of whisky in their hands. They walked 10 meters to an outdoor hot tub. An hour and several drinks later, the four of them returned to their rented cabin. Somewhere in the valley cats growled. The fantasy was complete: Cachiros for a night with the animal kingdom at their feet. Nar-co-land wannabes. Joya Grande.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E2.\u00a0\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EEmil J. Bove III, an assistant federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, is asking the questions. Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga answers.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Where are you from?\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Honduras.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Where in Honduras?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Tocoa, Col\u00f3n.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Where do you live now?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Prison.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014How did you end up in prison?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014I turned myself in to the DEA.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Did you plead guilty to federal charges?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Yes.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014What are some of the crimes for which you pled guilty?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Murder, money laundering, leading a group of drug and arms traffickers.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014How many murders did you confess to, in relation to your guilty plea?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201478.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Did you also admit to attempted murders?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Yes.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014How many?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Fifteen.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ELos Cachiros were the kings of organized crime in Honduras from 2003 to 2013. They became the main link between the southern narcos \u2014Venezuelan and Colombian\u2014 and the very powerful Mexicans, especially Joaqu\u00edn \u201cEl Chapo\u201d Guzm\u00e1n\u2019s Sinaloa Cartel. They partnered with big businessmen and had the politicians, military, and police in their pockets. They even survived the 2009 coup against President Manuel Zelaya and the isolation from the international community that followed. If global trade closed its doors to Honduras, drug trafficking grew. So did the number of Hondurans interested in making a narco-buck.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EEven if Los Cachiros never made it to the Forbes lists, the cartel\u2019s estimated wealth at its peak was thought to be $1 billion. With this revenue, they would\u2019ve held the seventh place in the list of the wealthiest businesses in Central America. With their fall in 2013, Honduran authorities seized some of their legal enterprises like the harvesting of African palm from the Agu\u00e1n region, construction companies that laundered millions of dollars with state contracts, a mining company, several real estate businesses, and the zoo, Joya Grande.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ELos Cachiros rose quickly. The brothers\u2019 criminal careers started when, as children, they helped their father grow marihuana and steal cattle. The cartel\u2019s name carries a family heirloom: In the Olancho department, where the Riveras are from, all men baptized as Isidros are nicknamed \u201ccachiros.\u201d The Rivera family have been worshippers of San Isidro Labrador for as long as anyone can even remember. Devis Leonel and Javier Rivera Maradiaga are the sons of Isidro Rivera \u2014Don Cachiro\u2014 and grandsons and great grandsons of yet other Isidros Rivera. The Rivera Maradiagas had a younger brother, Isidro the Cachirito, killed in 2003 during a bar fight between narcos over a woman.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ECachirito\u2019s death was key in the organization\u2019s history. His murderer, Jorge An\u00edbal \u201cCoque\u201d Echeverr\u00eda, was the leader of the Atlantic Cartel, for whom Los Cachiros worked back then. Driven by a thirst of vengeance and power, the brothers hunted Coque down. In 2004, after two failed murder attempts that left him badly injured, they finally got him. Legend has it that a convalescent Coque was deported from Panama and placed in the hospital wing of a maximum-security prison in San Pedro Sula. A man covered head-to-toe in casts laid on the gurney next to his. That same night, he tore his casts off, took out a weapon and killed Coque. The mercenary simply walked out of prison.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe capo is dead; long live the capos. Los Cachiros launched a war within the cartel to purge all Coque loyalists and assumed the undisputed leadership of the Atlantic Cartel, which they renamed after the family\u2019s namesake. Soon after, they bought the entire political system, controlled cocaine traffic from Venezuela and Colombia all the way to Mexico, and expanded their business by partnering with other drug traffickers in the region. Anyone in their way took a dose of lead.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E    \u003Cfigure class=\"pict pict_land pict_move_posc 0 cs_img cs_img--curr rule--ss_c\" data-shot=\"pict\" data-hint=\"pict\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"pict__pobj text-overflow\"\u003E\u003Cimg src=https:\/\/elfaro.net\/get_img?ImageWidth=3000&ImageHeight=1859&ImageId=37695 class=\"pobj\" style=\"max-width: 100%\" rel=\"resizable\" alt=\"This undated image is courtesy of the newspaper La Tribuna\u2019s archive. It shows Fabio Lobo, the oldest son of Honduran ex-president Porfirio Lobo in Rome. Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga, former leader of the Los Cachiros cartel, confessed in U.S. court that his criminal organization had killed 78 people. He said he\u2019d given ex-president Porfirio Lobo (2010-2014) and his son Fabio hundreds of thousands of dollars. Rivera Maradiaga stated that ex-president Lobo named his son Fabio as the contact person with Los Cachiros. Photo: AFP\/Courtesy of La Tribuna\" \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E \u003Cfigcaption class=\"pict__text cs_img_caption folk_content typo_buttons line--ss_s0c line--ss_s0c--auto block full-width text-overflow rule--ss_l relative\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"__content block-inline full-width align-top tint-text--idle relative\"\u003E This undated image is courtesy of the newspaper La Tribuna\u2019s archive. It shows Fabio Lobo, the oldest son of Honduran ex-president Porfirio Lobo in Rome. Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga, former leader of the Los Cachiros cartel, confessed in U.S. court that his criminal organization had killed 78 people. He said he\u2019d given ex-president Porfirio Lobo (2010-2014) and his son Fabio hundreds of thousands of dollars. Rivera Maradiaga stated that ex-president Lobo named his son Fabio as the contact person with Los Cachiros. Photo: AFP\/Courtesy of La Tribuna \u003Cdiv class=\"photographer text_italic rule--ss_l tint-text--idle\"\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/figcaption\u003E \u003C\/figure\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ETheir luck ran out in 2013 when U.S. President Barack Obama publicly named them Central America\u2019s most dangerous criminal organization. They started moving around a lot, attempting to rat out their powerful partners before the partners got them killed. After the Honduran government seized their properties the brothers struck a deal with the DEA, turning themselves in to survive.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ELos Cachiros guaranteed the U.S. authorities that they had ministers, generals, police commissioners, and congressmen on their payroll. They even partnered with or bribed Honduras' presidential families, among them, former president Porfirio Lobo\u2019s son: Fabio Lobo, ex-president Lobo himself, and the brother of Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez, the current president. Juli\u00e1n Pacheco, the current Secretary of Public Security, was also in bed with them.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ENews that Los Cachiros had turned themselves in to the DEA broke, making the most powerful Honduran families tremble. Before that, anxiety had already made its way to Joya Grande, where 70 employees and more than 500 animals were left stranded after the fall of El Se\u00f1or.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E3.\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EPetite veterinarian Mar\u00eda D\u00edaz tours the zoo wearing shorts, a cap, marathon-running shoes and a safari shirt with Joya Grande\u2019s logo. Since the zoo opened its doors for the public, D\u00edaz has been the chief veterinarian at Joya Grande. She became its highest authority the morning of September 19, 2013, when Honduran prosecutors \u2014flanked by soldiers\u2014 notified her that the property had been seized, and that until further notice she was in charge. Now she has the concession to operate the zoo. D\u00edaz has a high-pitched, slightly coarse, but pleasant voice that seems incapable of shouting. Animal caretakers, guards and administrative staff looking for guidance, need to keep up with her as she strides through the zoo at a quick pace. She has stark, efficient answers for everyone. Now that El Se\u00f1or is gone, it is crystal clear who runs things here.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EWhen I met her, the vet opened a small doorway and led us to a patio off-limits to zoo visitors. One of the oldest houses in the manor stood half-dilapidated next to it. This building has become a warehouse for everything she finds in her strolls through the park: wires, pipes, screws\u2026 \u201cIt\u2019ll all turn out to be useful for repairs, to fix a crate or strengthen a mesh.\u201d D\u00edaz walked toward a roofed plot next to the patio where she stroked an old quarantined dromedary camel. The animal had lived all its life in a circus, and arrived at Joya Grande a few days earlier, with an enormous, infected wound in its knee. Purple, like dead tissue. And white pus. \u201cDon\u2019t let it sit,\u201d D\u00edaz told the local campesino who now works as a caretaker.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe vet asked that an antibiotic be applied to the animal\u2019s infected knee. She requested a blue liquid that comes in a spray can and scares nesting flies from the wound. With a dry snout, the camel drooled and shrieked when the drug touched its skin. The new tenant looked beaten and sick, especially next to the rest of the zoo\u2019s muscled and healthy dromedaries. It\u2019s already 25 years old, a little over the average lifespan in captivity. Dr. Diaz merely intends to give the animal a better life in its last days. It\u2019s an act of futureless love, one that the zoo will not profit from. Why did she take it in? \u201cBecause the circus could no longer keep it. It\u2019s too old. They always bring them here because I\u2019m unable to say no.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E    \u003Cfigure class=\"pict pict_land pict_move_posc 0 cs_img cs_img--curr rule--ss_c\" data-shot=\"pict\" data-hint=\"pict\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"pict__pobj text-overflow\"\u003E\u003Cimg src=https:\/\/elfaro.net\/get_img?ImageWidth=3000&ImageHeight=2000&ImageId=37696 class=\"pobj\" style=\"max-width: 100%\" rel=\"resizable\" alt=\"A circus gifted the Joya Grande zoo with a 25 year-old dromedary, the average age these animals live. Veterinarian Mar\u00eda D\u00edaz worries about the animal\u2019s knee and belly wounds. She was placed in charge of the safari park when it was seized. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro\" \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E \u003Cfigcaption class=\"pict__text cs_img_caption folk_content typo_buttons line--ss_s0c line--ss_s0c--auto block full-width text-overflow rule--ss_l relative\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"__content block-inline full-width align-top tint-text--idle relative\"\u003E A circus gifted the Joya Grande zoo with a 25 year-old dromedary, the average age these animals live. Veterinarian Mar\u00eda D\u00edaz worries about the animal\u2019s knee and belly wounds. She was placed in charge of the safari park when it was seized. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro \u003Cdiv class=\"photographer text_italic rule--ss_l tint-text--idle\"\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/figcaption\u003E \u003C\/figure\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe veterinarian\u2019s 15-year-old daughter stands next to her. The teenager already knows she\u2019ll follow her mother\u2019s steps. She fell in love with animals in Joya Grande, where she grew up. Taking the dromedary\u2019s head in her hands, the girl caresses and soothes the animal. She smiles, and it smiles back. The zoo is her favorite place. This is where she spends weekends and holidays. If Joya Grande\u2019s future rests on veterinarians who love animals, the zoo will live a long life. \u201cMy problem with her,\u201d D\u00edaz says, pointing at her daughter, \u201cis that she wants to go into a jaguar\u2019s cage, but I won\u2019t allow it. When he was a cub he lived inside the house with us. She slept with him and fed him with a baby bottle. But the jaguar is grown now, and I don\u2019t want him to hurt her.\u201d They\u2019re like the Central American version of Marsh Tracy and her daughter Paula, the characters in Daktari, a TV show where they took care of animals in Africa. Dr. D\u00edaz and her daughter do the same. But they do it in Honduras, where the wild beasts are the superior primates.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EBorn and raised in Guatemala, Mar\u00eda D\u00edaz married an Honduran vet she met in college. Together, they moved to Villanueva, a small town few kilometers south of San Pedro Sula. In Villanueva, D\u00edaz opened a small veterinary clinic where she looked after neighbors\u2019 pets. How did a cat-and-dog vet become an expert in big felines? \u201cA man came by one day. He wanted to see if I could examine his cats, who were sick. I said yes. They were four lions.\u201d She doesn\u2019t want to say who that Villanueva neighbor was, or how he got the lions, but that\u2019s how she started her involuntary specialization in exotic animals. That mystery man, remembers D\u00edaz, put her in touch with the zoo owners. \u201cThey asked him if he knew anyone who could look after their animals. He said I could, and that\u2019s how I got here.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EBy then, Rivera Maradiaga already had all the required paperwork for his beast farm. It started out as a small animal collection, but with D\u00edaz\u2019s arrival, they sought out more alliances with zoos in the region. The veterinarian would travel to Guatemala and Mexico looking for animal donations. She\u2019d speak with circus administrators who could no longer keep their beasts. Visitors paid an entrance fee to tour the safari, but soon enough Rivera Maradiaga managed to broaden the offer by opening cabins and RVs \u2014now called \u201cLuxury Rolling Homes\u201d\u2014 where guests from all over the country could stay. They wanted to have the best zoo in Honduras; so they built it. Rivera Maradiaga also built a hotel with lower fares than in Santa Cruz, the closest urban destination. That hotel was also raided and impounded. Today, it\u2019s also run by Dr. D\u00edaz, who offers package deals that include lodging and Joya Grande tickets. \u201cThis was always conceived as a business,\u201d D\u00edaz says.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe zoo opened to the public without a proper design, and it kept growing that way. It never had an architectural plan to collect and keep the animals. \u201cAt the very beginning, there was a lot of money for its operation,\u201d says D\u00edaz. The money, confessed the cachiro, came from drug trafficking. The Rivera Maradiaga brothers sent bricklayers to Guatemala City, where they had to copy La Aurora Zoo\u2019s building designs for replication in this span of land surrounded by dirt roads in the middle of Honduras. If there was so much money, why didn\u2019t they hire experts to build cages? \u201cBecause that\u2019s the way they work,\u201d says D\u00edaz. \u201cThey already had the bricklayers they trusted, and that\u2019s who they wanted for the job.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe lack of expertise is evident. Some cages are too small, while others allow animals to move comfortably. Almost all the felines\u2019 crates are minimally built: they have cement floors and iron-rod fences covered by double mesh. The rods stand out. They\u2019re like buildings with a never-ending collection of columns because the builder \u2014who knew nothing about engineering\u2014 was afraid it could collapse. The cages\u2019 excessive rods even prevent the cats from poking claws out.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E    \u003Cfigure class=\"pict pict_land pict_move_posc 0 cs_img cs_img--curr rule--ss_c\" data-shot=\"pict\" data-hint=\"pict\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"pict__pobj text-overflow\"\u003E\u003Cimg src=https:\/\/elfaro.net\/get_img?ImageWidth=3000&ImageHeight=2000&ImageId=37697 class=\"pobj\" style=\"max-width: 100%\" rel=\"resizable\" alt=\"One out of five albino tigers rests in its cage. Each feline in the Joya Grande Zoo eats between 15 and 20 pounds of chicken, pork, and horse per day. Photo by V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a, El Faro\" \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E \u003Cfigcaption class=\"pict__text cs_img_caption folk_content typo_buttons line--ss_s0c line--ss_s0c--auto block full-width text-overflow rule--ss_l relative\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"__content block-inline full-width align-top tint-text--idle relative\"\u003E One out of five albino tigers rests in its cage. Each feline in the Joya Grande Zoo eats between 15 and 20 pounds of chicken, pork, and horse per day. Photo by V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a, El Faro \u003Cdiv class=\"photographer text_italic rule--ss_l tint-text--idle\"\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/figcaption\u003E \u003C\/figure\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EOne of the shoe boxes is home to a huge, beautiful castrated lion that has lost its mane and can barely move. Similar feline cages sit left and right of his urban habitat.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThree Bengal tigers play on an ample terrace over a big water pool in one of the largest constructions. Despite their sedentary captivity, they show strong muscles. One tiger pounces over another that recedes until it falls into the pool, roaring in the water and bringing its front paws down. The preying tiger throws itself into the water too. The game\u2019s over as soon as two caretakers approach with two huge chunks of butchered horse. Immediately, the beasts come out of the pond licking their whiskers, ready to tear the meat chunks down to the bare bone. Each of these felines eats between 15 and 20 daily pounds of whichever animal meat they\u2019re offered. There hasn\u2019t been a single serious accident since the zoo opened, claims D\u00edaz. Not a single caretaker or visitor has been devoured. Ever. Very few zoos in the world boast a security record as pristine as Los Cachiros\u2019 animal farm.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E4.\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe dismembered body of broadcast journalist An\u00edbal Barrow was found in The Siboney, the American crocodile-inhabited swampy region of Villanueva in July 2013. Days earlier, Barrow was kidnapped in San Pedro Sula by a group of mercenaries under Los Cachiros\u2019 orders. Two gunshots took his life and his body was sprayed with gasoline; they tried to burn him. But they couldn\u2019t, so they tore Barrow apart and threw the pieces to a small lagoon next to the swamps for the crocodiles to devour. Apparently, the gasoline discouraged the animals and the police found the rotting bag two weeks later after following directions of one of the murderers whom they had already captured. The detainee explained that the mercenaries kept one of the journalist\u2019s arms for their bosses to see. Barrow was one of the 78 murder victims from Devis Leonel Rivera\u2019s confession.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ENah\u00fam Palacios, director of Televisora del Agu\u00e1n, was another journalist victim of Los Cachiros. He covered land disputes between peasants and landowner Miguel Facuss\u00e9. Palacios was ambushed in 2010 in Tocoa, Los Cachiros\u2019 hometown. Shots from an AK-47 killed him. Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga confessed to ordering his murder as well.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe brothers also murdered Juli\u00e1n Aristides Palacios, the Honduran anti-drug prosecutor. According to Rivera Maradiaga\u2019s testimony in New York, the crime was a deal among narcos.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014In 2009, did you and other drug dealers in Honduras discuss the General (Juli\u00e1n) Artistides?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Yes.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014With which drug traffickers did you talk about General Aristides?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Fredy N\u00e1jera, Neftal\u00ed Duarte Mej\u00eda, Moncho Matta, Luis Valle, Arnulfo Valle\u2026\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cem\u003E(Pause\u003C\/em\u003E.\u003Cem\u003E)\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E(Luis and Arnulfo Valle were the Valle Cartel leaders and they controlled drug trafficking to Guatemala. They were captured and extradited to the United States in October 2014 as part of Washington\u2019s anti-drug offensive. Ram\u00f3n Matta Ballestero was the biggest drug dealer in Honduran history, and probably in Central America\u2019s. Moncho Matta, or Juan Ram\u00f3n Matta, is his son. His father was Colombian Pablo Escobar\u2019s partner. In the \u201880s his wealth was valued at more than $2 billion. Those were the days when the CIA and the U.S. Army carried out secret operations with Iran to finance the activities of Nicaragua\u2019s Contras. Matta founded his own airline, called SETCOM, which never carried commercial flights. He chartered flights for the CIA and Department of State, as well as for his enterprise. The biggest drug dealer in Central America was a U.S. contractor. He also owned coffee and tobacco plantations and cattle farms that employed around 5,000 people. Taking for granted his immunity, he helped Mexican capo Rafael Caro Quintero orchestrate the murder of DEA agent Enrique Camarena Salazar. That\u2019s the crime that got him and kept him in prison since 1998. Honduras\u2019 Office of Seized Acquisitions and Goods impounded 17 of Ram\u00f3n Matta Jr.\u2019s properties in 2014.)\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cem\u003E(Play\u003C\/em\u003E.\u003Cem\u003E)\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014You mentioned someone by the name of Fredy N\u00e1jera. Does he hold a political position in Honduras?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Yes.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Which one?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Representative.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014After the talks with the men you just described, what was the agreement?\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014The agreement was to kill him.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Did you and other drug traffickers pay to have general Aristides killed?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Yes, sir.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Do you know how much was paid?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Between 200 and 300,000, approximately.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Who committed the murder?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014A group of police officers.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Members of Honduras\u2019 National Police?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Yes, sir.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EAfter General Aristides Palacios\u2019 murder, Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga and his brother Javier went to Tegucigalpa to meet with then presidential-candidate Porfirio Lobo Sosa, also known as \u201cPepe Lobo.\u201d His campaign had already received generous donations from Los Cachiros. This time, according to the narco\u2019s testimony, the brothers asked Lobo to guarantee that \u2014if he won\u2014 he wouldn\u2019t allow extradition to the United States. Later on, assures Rivera Maradiaga, his organization donated an extra quarter of a million dollars. Lobo admits to the meetings with Los Cachiros, but not to any promises or campaign contributions.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EPorfirio Lobo won Honduras\u2019 presidency at the end of 2009 and governed up until early 2014. During all those years, Los Cachiros multiplied their drug-dealing operations and extended their assassins\u2019 reach. In 2012, according to his confession, they tried to murder representative Fredy N\u00e1jera, the same man Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga mentioned in New York as his accomplice and liaison with president Lobo. The congressman survived the attack, but five bodyguards were killed in his attempted murder. All of them are part of Los Cachiros\u2019 murder tab of 78 people.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ESonia Marlen Ram\u00f3n Montes was one of the Rivera Maradiaga brothers\u2019 last victims. They hunted her down across several borders until they finally found her in November 2013 in Rivi\u00e8re-des-Prairies, a Montreal neighborhood where she lived as a refugee after fleeing Francia, her hometown, a small village in northern Honduras. She was the last living member of her family. La Tribuna newspaper explained the crime:\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cLos Cachiros\u2019 powerful hand reached Canada, where the victim had found refuge, after fleeing the criminal group\u2019s ferocious persecution. Ramos Montes was the last living member of the Montes clan. All her kin, parents, siblings, offspring, nieces and nephews were wiped out, allegedly by Rivera Maradiaga\u2019s organized criminal group, Col\u00f3n\u2019s Almighty. Her murder was initially linked to an act of vengeance over a vendetta that didn\u2019t originate in Montreal or Canada, but in Honduras. This vendetta led to the death of 15 people, all of them members of the same family, apparently stemming from an agricultural conflict (...).\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E5.\u00a0\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThree decades ago, Jaime Rosenthal Oliva invested over $5 million dollars to house almost 10,000 crocodiles in a farm close to El Siboney swamps, where journalist An\u00edbal Barrow\u2019s remains were found.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe 80-year-old is considered the wealthiest man in the country. He owns one of the 10 largest fortunes in Central America, which consolidated through the financial services he offered at Banco Continental, where Los Cachiros laundered their money.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe bank was founded during the so-called Honduran boom of the 1970s. Since then, it\u2019s been the center of the Rosenthal empire, including insurance companies, a cement plant, sugar mills, a football club, the newspaper El Tiempo, a cable TV provider, the largest meatpacking company in the country, and several agribusinesses.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EIn the \u201880s, wearing the Liberal Party\u2019s colors, Rosenthal ventured into the political big leagues. He was Honduras\u2019 vice president in 1986, as revolutions and counter-revolutions ripped through Central America. Honduras hosted U.S. military bases and its partners the anti-Sandinistas, better known as the Contras. In the midst of all the political and martial turbulence, Vice President Rosenthal opened a crocodile farm.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EHe hired Ofran Kobi, a renowned Israeli crocodile hunter, who learned his trade in African rivers and moved to San Pedro Sula, where he spent two years hunting American crocodiles all the way to the borders with Guatemala and Nicaragua. He would transport them in small aircraft to the farm. On one day like any other in 1989, as he told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, he landed near a guerrilla camp where the Nicaraguans demanded to see his freight. When they saw the Israeli wasn\u2019t transporting drugs or weapons, but live crocodiles, they were startled and detained him for questioning. He recalls being a prisoner in the Contras\u2019 camp for several days until Vice President Rosenthal flew in by helicopter to set them free \u2014 both the crocodiles and him. Shortly afterwards, due to differences with President Azcona Hoyo, Rosenthal stepped down as vice president.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EIn his Haaertz interview, Kobi told his version of the Honduran farm\u2019s inception: \u201cRosenthal was a Romanian Jew who traveled to Honduras after the Second World War and built his empire. His story with crocodiles starts with his daughter, who studied abroad in the United States. She fell in love with a boy there. In order to lure her back home, Rosenthal asked his daughter\u2019s boyfriend if there was anything he wanted. The American boy responded: \u2018a crocodile farm.\u2019\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThere are some inconsistencies in the recollection of the Israeli Tarzan. All of Jaime Rosenthal\u2019s biographical references claim that he was born in San Pedro Sula and not in Europe. The Romanian was his father, Yankel, who set foot in Honduras as a 16-year-old in 1929. He married Esther Oliva, a Salvadoran. Soon after, Jaime was born. Contrary to Kobi\u2019s declarations, family legend has it that the passion for crocodiles dates long before Patricia, Jaime Rosenthal\u2019s daughter, left for college in the Unites States and fell in love. It came even before the first Honduran Rosenthal was born. It came from the patriarch. Young Romanian Yankel Rosenthal started his American life hunting crocodiles in Honduran rivers. That was his first source of income, the start of the family\u2019s economic activity. Los Cachiros got their start stealing cattle; the Rosenthals, hunting crocodiles.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EUp to two years ago, the farm was open to visitors, who could tour a section of the almost 30-hectare property nestled in a colossal Honduran mahogany and teak plantation of 750 hectares. The farm was also home to seven lions and a small pack of monkeys, but the family\u2019s business was crocodile breeding for meat and skin sales. It wasn\u2019t even a successful business; the farm\u2019s annual \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2015\/11\/04\/a-tale-of-10000-sanctioned-and-starving-crocodiles\/\"\u003Ecost was one million dollars\u003C\/a\u003E and always lost money. A couple years ago, Rosenthal told Forbes magazine that he intended to sell crocodile skin to big fashion houses worldwide: Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Cartier. Months later, Honduras\u2019 richest man was detained.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EToday, Rosenthal is under house arrest in San Pedro Sula, accused by Honduran courts of tax evasion and forgery. This trial has allowed him to circumvent extradition to the United States, where he was accused in 2015 of laundering Los Cachiros\u2019 money through his Banco Continental. Both his son Yani and his nephew Yankel \u2014named after the Romanian grandfather\u2014 are accused of the same crimes. They both turned themselves in to U.S. authorities.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EIn \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.insightcrime.org\/news-analysis\/why-elites-do-business-with-criminals-in-honduras\"\u003Ean interview\u003C\/a\u003E with the U.S. news outlet Insight Crime, Rosenthal revealed that he conducted business with Los Cachiros since they were kids. The patriarch Isidro Rivera sold him beef from stolen cows for his meatpacking factory. As the Riveras\u2019 businesses grew, explained Rosenthal, his bank gave the brothers several loans. The Honduran millionaire asserts that he never knew his clients were drug dealers.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EA family that started out selling two or three cows and in a few years became a corporation owning mining companies, real estate firms and construction companies, didn\u2019t raise any red flags in Banco Continental in their due diligence before granting them loans. With time, the Rosenthal family\u2019s bank came to manage a good part of Rivera Maradiaga\u2019s accounts. The Rivera family was such a good client that Rosenthal\u2019s bank authorized a loan for a quite unusual business: a zoo in the middle of nowhere, in a valley eight kilometers away from the small village of Santa Cruz de Yojoa.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ELos Cachiros\u2019 fall scandalized Hondurans. Not because their fall confirmed what many already knew \u2014that drug trafficking and organized crime had infiltrated the country\u2019s political and economic systems, the armed forces and the police\u2014 but because up to two years ago it was unthinkable that a man like Jaime Rosenthal could be detained and his properties seized.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E    \u003Cfigure class=\"pict pict_land pict_move_posc 0 cs_img cs_img--curr rule--ss_c\" data-shot=\"pict\" data-hint=\"pict\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"pict__pobj text-overflow\"\u003E\u003Cimg src=https:\/\/elfaro.net\/get_img?ImageWidth=3000&ImageHeight=4501&ImageId=37698 class=\"pobj\" style=\"max-width: 100%\" rel=\"resizable\" alt=\"Lions are among the more than 50 felines inhabiting the Joya Grande zoo. The zoo was born out of a loan by businessman and millionaire Jaime Rosenthal\u2019s Banco Continental to Los Cachiros. Rosenthal is also accused in the United States for money laundering. Photo by V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a, El Faro\" \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E \u003Cfigcaption class=\"pict__text cs_img_caption folk_content typo_buttons line--ss_s0c line--ss_s0c--auto block full-width text-overflow rule--ss_l relative\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"__content block-inline full-width align-top tint-text--idle relative\"\u003E Lions are among the more than 50 felines inhabiting the Joya Grande zoo. The zoo was born out of a loan by businessman and millionaire Jaime Rosenthal\u2019s Banco Continental to Los Cachiros. Rosenthal is also accused in the United States for money laundering. Photo by V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a, El Faro \u003Cdiv class=\"photographer text_italic rule--ss_l tint-text--idle\"\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/figcaption\u003E \u003C\/figure\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThere\u2019s a popular Honduran saying: The narco reaches as far as the gringo wants him to. The crocodile collector and tycoon\u2019s luck ended when someone in Washington decided the new U.S. priority in Honduras was to fight drug trafficking. Rosenthal was one more domino piece that, pushed by Los Cachiros\u2019 cooperation, has fallen.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EBy the end of July, Yani Rosenthal pled guilty to laundering Los Cachiros\u2019 money. He\u2019s awaiting his sentence, which can add up to 10 years in U.S. prison. In court, prosecutors explained how part of the money laundering scheme worked. One of the family\u2019s companies, partnering with Inversiones Continental, bought Los Cachiros\u2019 cattle at auctions. As time passed, the Rosenthals and the Riveras only developed more sophisticated financial transactions. But their relationship was, in essence, exactly the same their parents had forged: one sold the cows and the other bought them.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe Honduran state seized several of the Rosenthal group\u2019s enterprises and froze their bank accounts. The Continental crocodile farm didn\u2019t make the cut, so it was kept by family members who no longer have access to their own financial resources. This carried its consequences. By October 2015, 500 employees from the crocodile farm hadn\u2019t been paid in over a month. 9,000 crocodiles and seven lions had spent the same amount of time without food. The reptiles became international news when they started committing cannibalism. That\u2019s when Honduras\u2019 wealthiest man\u2019s crocodile farm started receiving donations for the animals. Since then, the crocodiles are fed cow and chicken entails and corpses from the fish that die trapped in the El Caj\u00f3n dam.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E6.\u00a0\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe ex-president\u2019s son, Fabio Lobo, tried to keep Los Cachiros\u2019 animal farm. Poisoned with adrenaline, he wanted to keep playing narco when everything around him had collapsed. President Obama had already publicly said that Los Cachiros were the most dangerous cartel in Central America. The Honduran government, making sure they had media present, had seized several of their properties, among them the zoo. The entire country saw it on TV. It was a public scandal. But Lobo Jr. didn\u2019t get the message.\u00a0\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E    \u003Cfigure class=\"pict pict_land pict_move_posc 0 cs_img cs_img--curr rule--ss_c\" data-shot=\"pict\" data-hint=\"pict\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"pict__pobj text-overflow\"\u003E\u003Cimg src=https:\/\/elfaro.net\/get_img?ImageWidth=3000&ImageHeight=2000&ImageId=37699 class=\"pobj\" style=\"max-width: 100%\" rel=\"resizable\" alt=\"This was the construction site of a mall Los Cachiros were building in the municipality of Tocoa, Colon department. It was abandoned in 2013 when Honduran authorities finally took action against the Rivera Maradiaga family. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro\" \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E \u003Cfigcaption class=\"pict__text cs_img_caption folk_content typo_buttons line--ss_s0c line--ss_s0c--auto block full-width text-overflow rule--ss_l relative\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"__content block-inline full-width align-top tint-text--idle relative\"\u003E This was the construction site of a mall Los Cachiros were building in the municipality of Tocoa, Colon department. It was abandoned in 2013 when Honduran authorities finally took action against the Rivera Maradiaga family. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro \u003Cdiv class=\"photographer text_italic rule--ss_l tint-text--idle\"\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/figcaption\u003E \u003C\/figure\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EWhen at the end of 2013 the Office of Seized Acquisitions and Goods opened a bidding process for the administration of Joya Grande, Fabio Lobo presented an offer and pressured public officials to grant him the concession. Before he got it \u2014and he nearly did\u2014 he fell into a trap.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe Rivera Maradiaga brothers had struck a secret deal with the DEA. They agreed to coordinate certain operations and give testimony incriminating public figures in exchange for keeping some of their family properties and getting their parents out of Honduras.\u00a0\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EBy the end of 2013, when Porfirio Lobo had barely a month left in his presidency and Hondurans speculated about when Los Cachiros would be apprehended, Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga made a phone call to the president\u2019s son. It was part of the arrangement with the DEA. He told Lobo Jr. that, despite the public accusations and his seized properties, they needed to keep working together. According to the legal file, Rivera Maradiaga summoned the president\u2019s son to a meeting in which he offered the chance to partner with him to bring to Honduras an \u201cimportant\u201d shipment of drugs from Colombia. The recipient, he said, was El Chapo Guzm\u00e1n. Lobo Jr. agreed to provide security for the shipment without knowing that, on behalf of the DEA, the cachiro was taping the call.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EWeeks later, under Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez\u2019 new administration, the cachiro requested a second meeting with Fabio Lobo to go over the shipment\u2019s security. El Chapo, he said, would send an envoy to oversee the operation. Fabio Lobo met with both men, without knowing that the \u201cenvoy\u201d was an undercover DEA agent. Lobo offered protection from army officials and police forces. They agreed on a price: $1 million for him and between $100,000 and $200,000 for each officer involved. The \u201cenvoy\u201d asked if he could still provide protection now that his father was no longer president. Fabio Lobo guaranteed that he could.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThere was a third meeting per request of the undercover agent. Fabio Lobo arrived with several police officers whose instructions were to give a detailed explanation of the security of the operation. The trap worked. According to the court files, during that meeting in June 2014, the officers laid out a map of Honduras and pointed out each police checkpoint. Then they drew a secure route to transport the cocaine. Right there each police chief took $100,000 as payment and an extra $200,000 to bribe subordinates, thus providing maximum armed security for transporting the cocaine on its route through Honduras.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe DEA got what it wanted. Fabio Lobo was detained in Haiti in May 2015 and taken to the United States, where he was charged for conspiracy to traffic cocaine. He pled guilty. Six of the Honduran police officers present in the June meeting with the DEA agent were also captured. They are all detained and await trial in the United States.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EAt the beginning of September last year, Judge Lorna Schofield addressed Fabio Lobo from a New York courthouse: \u201cYou were Honduras\u2019 acting president\u2019s son. You used your connections, facilitating strong government support for a drug trafficking organization (...) You abused your position to perpetrate this crime.\u201d She dictated his sentence: 24 years in a U.S. prison.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EEx-president Lobo, the convicted felon\u2019s father, hasn\u2019t been accused yet, despite the fact that Los Cachiros insist they paid him millions worth of bribes. Immediately after the accusations were issued, Porfirio Lobo Sosa called to a press conference where he said he was the victim of a vendetta orchestrated by the drug traffickers. \u201cThe first repossession of the criminal band\u2019s properties was during my tenure,\u201d he said. That happened in March 2017. Since then, under counsel from his attorneys, he hasn\u2019t spoken publicly again.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ELast July he agreed to talk in his office, under the condition that I not quote him except for the parts he approved. Despite the pressure he\u2019s under, and with a son in prison, the ex-president still brandishes the same smile with which he posed in campaign rallies and in the great majority of the pictures taken during his tenure. Some of those very same images, where he\u2019s hugging his son Fabio and Los Cachiros, are now parading through New York\u2019s courthouses.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EPepe, as everyone in Honduras calls ex-president Porfirio Lobo, kept his folksy and direct rural-politician mannerisms. He wears jeans and a long sleeve shirt opened to the chest, where a gold chain is visible. At his age, wrinkles that have populated his face and dark circles under his eyes demonstrate that the last months haven\u2019t been the most peaceful in his life.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ELos Cachiros declared in U.S. court that they gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to Lobo\u2019s campaign, in addition to bribes to prevent extradition and guarantee state contracts. They said they did business with 80-year-old Ram\u00f3n Lobo, overlord and representative from Col\u00f3n, and the ex-president\u2019s brother. They also say that both his son and nephew took part in drug trafficking operations.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EAmong all the accusations against him, Lobo only pleads guilty to being a non-exemplary father. Fabio, he says, is one of the 11 kids he had to look after, besides his obligations as head of state. This was a son he only saw once every six months, but who, he suspects, used his name to gain influence.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe Lobo clan comes from the countryside. Every once in a while, the ex-president goes back to the country to work with his sons in the family estate they\u2019ve kept in the department of Olancho, a woodworking and cattle province in northeast Honduras. Ex-president Manuel Zelaya comes from the same province too, as does Isidro Rivera, patriarch of Los Cachiros.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EWhen a mutual acquaintance introduces two strangers from rural villages, it\u2019s easy for them to trust each other. That\u2019s what Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga clearly stated before legal authorities in the United States. He said he met Fabio Lobo through another Lobo, Jorge, the accused\u2019s cousin. They met for the first time when Fabio offered Los Cachiros state concessions in exchange of a \u201cfee\u201d of 20 percent on every deal. Rivera Maradiaga was not only not bothered, but he responded that they had a slush fund with more than $1 million for bribes. That\u2019s how their relationship took off.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EBecause of those declarations, the Honduran Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office investigated public bids and state-awarded contracts with ties to the cartel\u2019s enterprises. They found 22.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ERivera Maradiaga also had this to say about the Lobo cub:\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Los Cachiros controlled the landing strip in the Cort\u00e9s department?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Yes.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Did the accused [Fabio Lobo] ever help any cocaine shipment land there?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Yes, sir.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E(...)\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Where were the drugs coming from?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014From Apure, Venezuela.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014How many kilograms had they sent, approximately?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Approximately between 400 and 410 kilos.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014What kind of drug are we talking about?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Cocaine.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E(...)\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Did you and the accused meet inside the drug-transporting vehicle?\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Yes, sir.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Why did you want the accused to be with you in the vehicle that escorted the truck full of cocaine?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014If we ran into any sort of problem, I would feel safer knowing that the accused could talk to the police (...) If there was any trouble, he\u2019d take care of it.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E(\u2026)\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014How much, would you say, did you get from that cocaine shipment?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Approximately 20 percent.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Can you estimate how much money was 20 percent of 400 kilograms, at the time?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014Approximately between $800,000 and $1 million dollars.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014And how did you repay the accused?\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u2014I gave him a gray armored Mitsubishi Lancer, an AR-15 rifle, and between $20,000 and $30,000 dollars in cash.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe president\u2019s son liked the game. He frequently asked to go to the landing strips, including once when he received a shipment in a private airstrip in Farallones, Col\u00f3n. According to Rivera Maradiaga, the runway was Miguel Facuss\u00e9\u2019s property, another of Honduras\u2019 most wealthy and powerful men who died of natural causes in the middle of this decade. Los Cachiros were well aware that having the president\u2019s son there lowered their risks. Fabio Lobo traveled everywhere surrounded by a Presidential General Staff-appointed convoy. But in a country where the DEA maintains radar systems and anti-drug trafficking operations, something went wrong on his trip to Farallones. The co-pilot forgot to turn off his GPS and a gringo radar specialist spotted the aircraft.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe police found nothing when they inspected the shipment. Someone from the police team told the cachiro and the cocaine vanished. To protect the stash, Rivera Maradiaga picked Fabio Lobo up from a hotel, and both of them \u2014with the president\u2019s son\u2019s military and police security detail\u2014 safeguarded the shipment to its final destination.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EI asked ex-president Lobo about the irony that his son was taken down by DEA activities he had helped expand. \u201c[The DEA agents] didn\u2019t give me any details of their operations. We don\u2019t have the ability to fight drug traffickers. That\u2019s why we need the United States. They are very powerful,\u201d he replied.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EBack in New York, Rivera Maradiaga swore that he also recorded a conversation with Tony Hern\u00e1ndez, the brother of Honduras\u2019 current president, Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez. According to his testimony, the president\u2019s younger brother offered to resume payment for several pending contracts with the state. Lacking access to the recordings, Hern\u00e1ndez denies the meetings ever took place. But his older brother, the president, told the press that he would not try to defend him if it turns out he had ties with drug dealers. \u201cNo one is above the law,\u201d he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EHonduran politicians and businesspeople are more concerned about the judicial consequences of Los Cachiros\u2019 statements than their political ramifications. Up until now, the information revealed by the cartel\u2019s chiefs has not affected the political aspirations of anyone, not even of the alleged close collaborators. Rivera Maradiaga said, for example, that his organization gave millions of dollars to representatives \u00d3scar and Fredy N\u00e1jera and to Tocoa\u2019s mayor, Ad\u00e1n Funes. All three belong to different political parties \u2014the National and Liberal Parties, and Libre\u2014 and all three denied the cachiro\u2019s accusations. A few days later, all three of them won the primaries in their respective parties on their way to reelection. President Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez did too.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E7.\u00a0\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ETwo men attempt to tie a bale of leaves to a pole at the same height as Big Boy\u2019s head. They\u2019re two of his personal caretakers. Their only job is to tend to the star of the Los Cachiros zoo.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E    \u003Cfigure class=\"pict pict_land pict_move_posc 0 cs_img cs_img--curr rule--ss_c\" data-shot=\"pict\" data-hint=\"pict\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"pict__pobj text-overflow\"\u003E\u003Cimg src=https:\/\/elfaro.net\/get_img?ImageWidth=3000&ImageHeight=2000&ImageId=37700 class=\"pobj\" style=\"max-width: 100%\" rel=\"resizable\" alt=\"Big Boy, Rivera Maradiaga\u2019s favorite animal, the one he used to watch from this window in Cabin #18. Photo by V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a, El Faro.\" \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E \u003Cfigcaption class=\"pict__text cs_img_caption folk_content typo_buttons line--ss_s0c line--ss_s0c--auto block full-width text-overflow rule--ss_l relative\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"__content block-inline full-width align-top tint-text--idle relative\"\u003E Big Boy, Rivera Maradiaga\u2019s favorite animal, the one he used to watch from this window in Cabin #18. Photo by V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a, El Faro. \u003Cdiv class=\"photographer text_italic rule--ss_l tint-text--idle\"\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/figcaption\u003E \u003C\/figure\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cSometimes El Se\u00f1or would come here with his friends,\u201d says a Joya Grande employee looking at men working a few steps away. She asks to be called Esperanza. \u201cHe\u2019d fly here in a helicopter and only stay for a short while. He only stayed for the night.\u201d Esperanza has worked here since she was 16 and is still very young. She only spoke to \u201cEl Se\u00f1or\u201d a couple of times, she says. \u201cWe knew what he was up to, but nobody meddled. Life is just fine here, and there\u2019s no need to run your mouth. If he were here, everything would already be paved.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EEsperanza is one of the few Joya Grande employees who talks about the zoo in the era of Los Cachiros. Most of the workers dodge questions alluding to them. But several men and women do remember the traumas of September 19, 2013. That day, dozens of soldiers and policemen cordoned off the property\u2019s entrances and evacuated the premises. It was a swift and efficient operation, but the property\u2019s forfeiture sowed uncertainty and dread. \u201cWe weren\u2019t told anything, and we kept working, business as usual. But after that, we did notice that no visitors came,\u201d says Esperanza.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EHonduras\u2019 Office of Seized Acquisitions and Goods (OABI for its initials in Spanish) took over the property and decided to keep all personnel. The zoo kept its doors open to the public. \u201cPeople stopped coming and it was up to us to pick up the zoo and start from scratch,\u201d recalls veterinarian Mar\u00eda D\u00edaz.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ESoon after, the OABI started the bidding process for the concession for the zoo. One of the office\u2019s directors pragmatically suggested that the vet participate in the tender: no one could run that place packed with wild animals like she could. \u201cI made a proposal that they accepted,\u201d says D\u00edaz, \u201cI was walking over to get the authorization when they told me I couldn\u2019t have it anymore, because Pepe Lobo\u2019s son wanted it, too.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EBut Fabio Lobo has already been apprehended by the DEA, and Honduran authorities finally awarded doctor D\u00edaz the concession. The OABI also seized the Santa Cruz hotel, and included it in the tender deal along with the zoo. Nowadays, when Joya Grande\u2019s administrators offer lodging in Santa Cruz for a lower price, they pull up lodging photos from Google. The first ones that come up show hooded soldiers cordoning off the property.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EDespite all the changes, in barely two years Dr. D\u00edaz has brought the status of Joya Grande up, making it an attraction in the region. They host up to four thousand visitors some weekends. Both pools, the big and the kiddy pool, are full with families that spend memorable days here. Amazed, children stroll in front of animals\u2019 cages. Big Boy and the tigers are the most popular for selfies or for the Franciscan tradition of talking to animals. There are no sad children in Joya Grande.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EHow do you explain a kid that all this, as beautiful as it is, was built by a man who confessed to 78 murders? D\u00edaz, the pragmatic Honduran Daktari, ventures an answer: \u201cThere\u2019s no need for them to know. The only thing we care about are the animals.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003E*Translated by Alejandra Ibarra Chaoul\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E"}

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