MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

'Honduras Gate' audios linking Milei to a disinformation network stir controversy, and denials

Hernández says Milei “is supporting with $350,000” a project that, according to that account, sought to set up a “news site” operated from the US; the audios also mention Benjamin Netanyahu

A set of leaked audios, released in late April by left-leaning Spanish media outlets and dubbed “Honduras Gate,” has stirred political controversy in Latin America by alleging a regional disinformation network and naming Argentine President Javier Milei as one of its financiers. The recordings' authenticity is in dispute: the main figure named called them false, and the others mentioned denied or did not respond to the accusations.

The material —37 audios attributed to private conversations on WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram dated between January and April 2026— was published by Diario Red and Canal Red, founded by former Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias, together with the site Hondurasgate.ch. In the recordings, a voice attributed to former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández says Milei “is supporting with $350,000” a project that, according to that account, sought to set up a “news site” operated from the United States so as “not to be tracked” and to prepare “files” against the governments of Claudia Sheinbaum in Mexico and Gustavo Petro in Colombia, as well as against the Zelaya family in Honduras.

The authenticity of the audios, however, has not been independently confirmed. Hernández denied on the social network X that it is his voice and held that the recordings “are false.” Iglesias himself acknowledged to the Argentine newspaper Perfil that “the only evidence is what is said in the audio” and that “the rest is speculation.” The firm Phonexia, whose tool was used in the analysis, said it is “a human voice,” without certifying whose it is or the authenticity of the content. Honduras's National Congress announced it would send the material to laboratories in the United States.

In Argentina, the Casa Rosada neither confirmed nor denied the financing commitments mentioned in the recordings, nor clarified whether there was direct contact between Milei and Hernández; nor is there any record of fund transfers. The case, nonetheless, prompted parliamentary debate over possible regional political interference. Hernández, sentenced in the United States to 45 years in prison for drug trafficking and pardoned by President Donald Trump in December 2025, days before the Honduran elections won by Nasry Asfura, is presented as the alleged operator of the scheme; the audios also mention Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Among the reactions, Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum publicly questioned Milei over the alleged operation, while Honduran political figure Rixi Moncada, of the Libre party, denounced foreign interference in her country's elections. So far, the main international news agencies have not independently corroborated the content of the recordings.