Two members of one of the region’s most powerful families, Yankel and Rosenthal, were arrested in the United States in October and accused of laundering drug trafficking money. The Honduran government has used their arrest as an excuse to try to take over a fortune of over US$1billion. The closure of the Continental Bank and other businesses has led to the dismissal of over 10,000 employees in the last month. Now it seems likely that the Rosenthals will be released, and the Honduran government will have to return money it has already placed in other banks that are friendly to it. Gerardo Torres reports from Central America for teleSUR