Ex-Honduran envoy to Colombia takes blame for party

The former Honduran ambassador to Colombia accepted blame Sunday for a party held at his embassy that reportedly involved prostitutes, but said he was away on vacation when it took place. "Yes, a party was organized at the mission on December 20 and I take full responsibility," Carlos Rodriguez Andino said in an interview published on the website of the La Tribuna newspaper. According to Honduran media reports, the ambassador's bodyguard and close friend Jorge Mendoza had organized a holiday party at the embassy in Bogota that turned into a booze-fueled orgy with prostitutes. Reports said the prostitutes stole embassy computers and cell phones, and defecated on the desks of the ambassador and the commercial attache, after they were asked to leave without being paid. Rodriguez said he was on vacation and out of the country when the party took place and had cut ties with Mendoza. Rodriguez was forced to resign Saturday after Honduran Foreign Minister Arturo Corrales received a report drafted by a special commission appointed to investigate the incident. Colombian police said they are also probing the matter after receiving word of "irregularities" at the embassy, located in an upscale neighborhood, on the morning of December 21. The police chief for the northern part of Bogota, Jose Baquero, said officers were seeking to question two prostitutes who were taken to the embassy in a vehicle about the party and the alleged theft.