The island of Roatán is one of the most idyllic places in the Caribbean, with beautiful beaches, crystal-clear waters, and luxurious hotels. Although it belongs to Honduras, English is widely spoken there. In 2024, it was selected as one of the best places in the world by Time magazine and is home to the world’s second-largest coral reef. Soon, it will likely also host a U.S. military base.
Part of the island is already known as Próspera Island, and it has become a truly lawless paradise for billionaires—a kind of parallel, corporate, private mini-state operating outside the regulations that govern the rest of the country, in exchange for money. It is sheltered within what are known as Special Employment and Economic Development Zones (ZEDEs, by their Spanish acronym).
There are no labor rights, no authorization from the Honduran state is required to start a business, there are no bureaucratic delays to begin operations, taxes are minimal, and there is “total freedom.” While corporations in Honduras pay approximately 25% in income taxes, in Próspera that rate is reduced to 1%. Honduras has ceded legal, political and economic sovereignty over part of its territory.
Since it began operating in 2020, Próspera has expanded its boundaries to absorb 4% of Roatán’s total territory, functioning as a privatized sovereign micro-state.
On its official website, visitors are invited to discover Próspera Island:
“Explore our next-generation special economic zone, powered by a unique decentralized governance system.”
“Próspera is designed from the ground up to make doing business easy. Our platform offers online business registration and management, fair taxes, and a regulatory system built for innovation.”
Users are encouraged to join “Próspera’s digital governance platform” to experience “a new standard of efficiency and transparency.”
Like a sovereign state, it offers:
- Obtain a visitor pass or residency in Próspera.
- Access the jurisdiction to visit and build.
- Start a business in minutes.
- Launch a business in fewer than eight clicks for as little as $379.
- World-class rule of law.
- Benefit from legal flexibility designed for innovation, adaptability, and private property protection.
Business opportunities include AI, cryptocurrency, fintech, technology, biotechnology, real estate, health care, education, hospitality, commerce and event management, among others. Unapproved gene therapies and life-extension medical studies have already been conducted there. The city offers gene therapy services for $25,000, subdermal chip implantation, and cybernetic enhancements. “Próspera’s mission is to enable wealth creation for everyone.”
And it is not the first of its kind. Other special economic zones exist in places such as Dubai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong. For these projects, governance is the key concept they seek to expand globally, “across multiple jurisdictions.”
Where will the next projects be located? Which countries will permanently cede portions of their territories? Yes, permanently, because part of the ZEDE agreements stipulates that any potential legal disputes would be resolved privately. The Honduran state no longer has authority to make claims. In fact, the billionaires involved sued Honduras for $11 billion before the ICSID (part of the World Bank Group)—an amount greater than the country’s external debt and close to half of its annual GDP.
Foreign Interference and Geopolitics
Próspera Island originated from a proposal by Venezuelan entrepreneur Erick Brimen, inspired by an idea from Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Romer. Romer suggested that developing countries could cede sparsely populated territories to “alternative institutional regimes” in order to stimulate economic growth in those regions. Curiously, such proposals are never directed at developed nations.
Brimen, together with a group of entrepreneurs, created Honduras Próspera Inc. The company was registered in Delaware, under the name Pronomos Capital, with an initial capitalization of $120 million provided by investors linked to Silicon Valley, including Sam Altman (OpenAI), Marc Andreessen (Netscape) and Peter Thiel (Palantir).
“Peter Thiel is a friend of mine. He is an extraordinary collaborator,” said U.S. President Donald Trump. Thiel is a financier of the Republican Party and several politicians, including Vice President J. D. Vance. “These ‘freedom cities’ will reopen the frontier and reignite the American imagination. We will create an ultra-simplified federal regulatory framework specifically for freedom cities,” Trump added.
The Próspera Island project was ultimately approved in December 2019 during the administration of Juan Orlando Hernández (who served two terms from 2014 to 2022). Amid criticism regarding the loss of national sovereignty, the project was later blocked by his successor, Xiomara Castro: “We repealed the ZEDE law because it was a project designed to destroy our sovereignty and sell our territory.” The project had also been challenged by the Supreme Court. However, President Porfirio Lobo later removed four justices who had ruled against the law and, in 2013, approved a slightly modified version.
Presidential elections were then held in 2025, resulting in the election of Nasry “Tito” Asfura, described as the political heir of Hernández and Trump. Following a contentious vote count that lasted more than three weeks and was challenged by the Libre Party, the National Electoral Commission declared Asfura the winner by less than one percent of the vote.
According to the text, Trump played a decisive role in that electoral process: “The people of Honduras have a clear choice. They cannot support the current communist government or false opposition figures like Salvador Nasralla, who will only bring more poverty, misery, and destruction to your beautiful country. I can work perfectly well with National Party candidate Nasry Asfura. He is a strong man, a patriot, and together we will rebuild Honduras’ economy and security. The radical left must be stopped.”
Trump also reportedly stated: “I will grant a full and complete pardon to former President Juan Orlando Hernández, who has been, according to many people I respect enormously, treated very harshly and unfairly.” The pardon of Hernández, who had been sentenced in 2024 to 45 years in prison for drug trafficking and weapons conspiracy after allegedly facilitating the introduction of 500 tons of cocaine, was reportedly granted three days after the election controversy.
Pressure on Honduran voters allegedly included threats regarding remittances sent by family members abroad. According to the account presented in the text, voters were warned that, if the left won the election, the United States would freeze or tax remittances, using a key source of popular economic survival as a form of electoral coercion.
The Honduras Gate Scandal in Próspera Island
On April 29, the Spanish media outlet Canal Red released audio recordings attributed to former Honduran President Hernández, involving current political figures such as President Nasry Asfura and Vice President María Antonieta Mejía. The recordings allegedly describe an international network of political influence involving three leaders of the global right: U.S. President Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Argentine President Javier Milei.
“We’re going to create another Palmerola in Roatán,” Asfura is heard saying in one recording, referring to the military base located approximately 80 kilometers from Tegucigalpa. “Roatán will be the central point for a new American military base,” says another recording attributed to Vice President Mejía. According to the recordings, just as Palmerola served to confront insurgencies in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala, the new project would position Honduras as part of a broader strategy of hemispheric defense, BRICS containment, and opposition to left-wing governments.
The recordings also allegedly discuss privatizing strategic infrastructure; transferring the Interoceanic Railway megaproject to U.S. transnational corporations; dismantling and privatizing the National Electric Energy Company; privatizing health care; expanding extractive industries; making legal reforms related to expropriation and anti-terrorism measures; and replacing national sovereignty with foreign investment.
In one recording, Hernández instructs Asfura: “We’re going to set up a cell, Mr. President. From here, from the United States, an information operation so they can’t trace us in Honduras. It will be like a Latin American news site.” In another, Hernández states: “The support of the Israeli lobby, the direct backing of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the commitment of the most conservative Republican sectors were key.” The recordings also claim financial support from Argentine President Javier Milei. Hernández says Milei “is contributing US$350,000.” Milei has positioned himself as a leading example of libertarian governance worldwide. A close ally of the United States and Israel, he once stated in New York: “I am proud to be the most Zionist president in the world.” Trump played a role in helping Milei avoid defeat in Argentina’s 2025 mid-term elections: “If he loses, we won’t be so generous with Argentina. If he loses, we’re leaving.” Thiel visited Milei at the presidential palace and later purchasing a residence in Buenos Aires.
Argentina is portrayed as a central component of a broader “Southern Cone Laboratory,” linked to Argentina-Israel cybersecurity and security agreements signed in April 2026 and supported by U.S. strategic interests aimed at containing the BRICS bloc. The text argues that Israel’s presence in Central America reflects a model of a “Global Security State” designed to protect governments lacking democratic legitimacy through social control technologies. As Peter Thiel is quoted: “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”
The recordings also reveal plans targeting political figures in Mexico, Colombia and Honduras, including members of the Zelaya family.
Naturally, Hernández denied the authenticity of the recordings, posting on X: “Those audios published by @DiarioRedAmLat are fake; clearly that is not my voice. Do not insult people’s intelligence.”
However, according to the text, Drop Site News commissioned Earshot, an independent non-profit specializing in audio analysis, to examine the recordings. Earshot reportedly concluded on May 19 that the files were authentic recordings of Hernández and Asfura and were probably not generated using artificial intelligence. A separate analysis conducted by Phonexia reportedly classified the recordings as human speech. According to the report: “With less than a 10% probability of AI generation and more than 80% confidence, the engine firmly classifies the sample as human speech.”
The recordings also reveal plans to remove National Electoral Council member Marlon Ochoa through “prison or death,” exposing what the text describes as a strategy to eliminate political opponents. According to the allegations, the strategy involved three stages: Persecution and threats against opposition figures involved in electoral oversight; purchase of parliamentary votes to remove them from office; and reinstatement of figures linked to Juan Orlando Hernández into positions of power.
Given the political significance of the allegations, Bertha Oliva, general coordinator of the Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH), together with other human rights defenders, filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office concerning the Honduras Gate recordings.
According to Oliva, the 37 recordings reveal a systematic effort to gain absolute control over Honduran state institutions, including the Supreme Court and the National Congress. “There is a script designed to gradually destroy the country’s democratic system,” she said. She also argued that denunciations should continue both nationally and internationally because, in her view, not only Honduras but also the broader region and the world are at risk.
Speaking strictly off the record due to fears currently felt by citizens, a source in Honduras told CovertAction Magazine: “It will not be the battle of competing narratives that provides it. Only an international investigation, conducted by an independent body and under judicial mandate, can bring us closer to the historical truth behind the audio recordings related to events such as JOH’s release, his role behind the scenes in the current government, the extent of U.S. interference in the elections of Honduras and Latin America, and the allegations surrounding the reported electoral fraud.”
From the perspective of the popular imagination, the Honduran people already know the answers.
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About the Author
Hernán Viudes is an independent journalist and a graduate from The Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires. He lives in Argentina and enjoys music, culture and football.
Hernán can be reached at hernanviudes@gmail.com.
