The former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez, was convicted on Friday March 8 of international drug trafficking by a federal jury in New York and now faces life in prison, after a historic trial before American justice.
Mr. Hernandez, who federal prosecutors say created a narco-state during his eight-year presidency between 2014 and 2022, was convicted of conspiracy to commit drug trafficking and arms trafficking, as well as arms possession. The sentence will be pronounced later by the courts.
“Juan Orlando Hernandez abused his position as President of Honduras to turn the country into a narco-state where violent drug traffickers could operate with virtual impunity, and the people of Honduras and the United States were forced to stand up to them. suffer the consequences “reacted the American Minister of Justice, Merrick Garland, welcoming this conviction.
“I am innocent, tell the world, I love you”launched, after the reading of the verdict, the 55-year-old former head of state, who appeared detained, addressing members of his family and the three generals who came to testify in his favor.
According to the prosecution, “JOH” received millions of dollars in bribes from drug cartels, including the Sinaloa cartel, led by notorious Mexican drug trafficker Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, sentenced to life imprisonment by the American courts in 2019, and now incarcerated in a high security prison.
More than 500 tons of cocaine in the United States
These bribes were allegedly received in exchange for protecting traffickers against extraditions and securing, through military, police and judicial assistance, the transport of drugs from Colombia to the American market.
During his presidency, Honduras became a “highway” for Colombian cocaine, prosecutors charged. They claim that between 2004 and 2022, the network backed by Mr. Hernandez smuggled more than 500 tons of cocaine into the United States. He was extradited in April 2022 to the United States.
The defense cast doubt on the testimony of witnesses, most of them drug traffickers who obtained reduced sentences thanks to their cooperation with American justice.
Witnesses like Devis Leonel Rivera, head of the Los Cachiros cartel, former mayor Alexander Ardon – from the same party as the accused – and Fabio Lobo, son of former president Porfirio Lobo (2010-2014), claimed to have “contributed” to the tune of thousands of dollars to Hernandez’s first election campaign in exchange for protection.
Link between drug trafficking and politics
Throughout the trial, the dozen prosecution witnesses highlighted the close links between drug trafficking and politics in the Central American country.
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With this conviction, Juan Orlando Hernandez joins other former Latin American leaders tried and convicted in the United States, such as the Panamanian Manuel Noriega in 1992 and the Guatemalan Alfonso Portillo in 2014.
In 2023, former Mexican anti-drug official and ex-minister Genaro Garcia Luna was also found guilty in New York of drug trafficking. His prison sentence will be pronounced on June 24.