Leaked audio recordings suggest U.S. President Donald Trump, the Israeli government and Argentine President Javier Milei have teamed up to spread fake news in an effort to destabilize Mexico and other progressive left-leaning Latin American governments.
The allegations — first published by the Spanish digital newspaper Diario Red in late April — also point to former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, current Honduran President Nasry Asfura and his vice president, María Antonieta Mejía, as well as the president of the Honduran Parliament, Tomás Zambrano.
Hernández is considered the key cog in the alleged disinformation plot, described as a network of opaque financing and psychological warfare operations whose aim is to undermine the administrations of Claudia Sheinbaum in Mexico, Lula da Silva in Brazil and Gustavo Petro in Colombia.
So far, the accusations have swirled mainly around the internet, with little attention given to them by mainstream media and no notable official investigation. President Sheinbaum herself seemed unmoved by the possibility of a multinational smear campaign aimed directly at her, declaring, according to El País, “It won’t affect us, not at all.”
According to the investigation conducted by Diario Red, audio recordings from Jan. 30, 2026, reveal that Hernández requested US $150,000 of Honduran public funds to establish a digital journalism unit in the United States with the intention of spreading misinformation about Sheinbaum and other heads of state he considered leftist.
Diario Red says the office aims to mass-produce fake news and fear narratives that could pave the way for political and military interventions, which would complement Trump’s threats of ground interventions in Mexico.
The plot purportedly has the support of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who lobbied Trump to grant Hernández a pardon, and sectors of the global far right.
Trump pardoned Hernández on Dec. 1, 2025, eight months after the latter had been sentenced to a 45-year prison term in New York for drug trafficking.
The price of this pardon, according to Diario Red, is turning Honduras into the base of operations for the MAGA-Milei-Netanyahu axis in the region.
Pie de Página, an independent Mexican media outlet, earlier this month described Hernández’s pardon as “the purchase of a regional henchman to finance attacks against Mexico and Colombia without sovereign restrictions.”
In the leaked recordings revealed by Diario Red, Asfura — who was endorsed by Trump ahead of the Nov. 30, 2025, elections in Honduras — agreed to transfer funds to Hernández “from a friend’s account,” before asking what the money was for.
Hernández allegedly replied: “We’re going to set up an intelligence cell … in the United States, so they can’t track us in Honduras.”
The revelations indicate direct contact with former U.S. intelligence officials to carry out a purge within Honduran institutions.
The underlying reason for this conspiracy is material, according to Pie de Página, reporting that Mexico is being targeted because of its strategic resources, such as lithium.
Asfura, who was in the U.S. last week, has not commented on the scandal, while Zambrano — the leader of the Honduran Parliament — insists the audios are fake.
On Friday, Diario Red reported that its website, which was given the scandal-implying name of Hondurasgate, suffered nearly 40,000 attempted cyberattacks on May 7, “with a concentration of vectors originating primarily from the United States and Israel.”
With reports from EFE, El País, Pie de Página and Diario Red
