Update: Honduran Investigators Find No Real Threat at Puerto Cortés; 21-Year-Old Not Detained
La Prensa reports the man behind the weekend alert allegedly wrote his messages with an artificial intelligence platform. An earlier report had said a man was arrested.
See where this is ›PUERTO CORTÉS, Honduras —
Honduran authorities found no evidence of a real and immediate threat to Puerto Cortés after the bomb alert that led the U.S. Embassy to warn Americans away from the port city over the weekend, the newspaper La Prensa reported Nov. 2. The 21-year-old Honduran man at the center of the case was investigated but not detained, the paper said.
See where this is ›This changes what was first reported. An ACAN-EFE report carried by Prensa Libre, and our Oct. 31 story based on it, said the Security Ministry had arrested a man. La Prensa now reports authorities decided there were not enough grounds to hold him.
The man, whom La Prensa did not name, is from Puerto Cortés and reportedly lives in the barrio La Roma. He allegedly used an artificial intelligence platform to write messages about placing explosives on an access bridge to the port, the paper said. Authorities searched his home Thursday, Oct. 29.
FBI officials stationed in Tegucigalpa passed on the information, according to the report, and Interpol's Honduran office and the Dirección Policial de Investigaciones led the inquiry with the Public Ministry. Security Secretary Gerzon Velásquez spoke about the case, the paper said. Investigators found no sign the man had the technical knowledge, resources or logistics to build or place a device, and no plan showing an attack was being prepared.
The embassy's advice had covered 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 30, through the same hour Sunday, Nov. 1. Authorities said the finding does not close the file, and they are still examining the information they collected.
What we don't know yet: Whether the man will face any charge. La Prensa is the only report we found of the no-detention finding, and Watchman News could not confirm it separately or find a statement from the embassy that its advice has ended.
