Former Honduran president found guilty of massive drug trafficking during US trial

The jury took two days to deliberate. Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was in power from 2014 to 2022, was found guilty Friday by a U.S. jury of conspiracy to commit drug and weapons trafficking and weapons possession. A jury in Manhattan federal court returned its verdict after a two-week trial.

Under the presidency of Juan Orlando “Joh” Hernández, Honduras has received more than $50 million in U.S. anti-drug aid, as well as tens of millions of dollars in security and military aid. The tiny country, located in the center of the isthmus that divides the American continent, is an easy route for drug trafficking. But soon military police, created to combat human trafficking and trained by the United States, were also accused of attacks on human rights activists and political opponents who opposed neoliberal and conservative policies from Orlando. Before suspicions reach directly the highest summit of the Honduran state. JOH, although agreeing to extradite the traffickers to the United States, appears to have been engaged in costly negotiations over who to turn over and who not to hand over to American authorities who make millions of dollars from the cocaine trade.

He would work “hand in hand with the head of the Sinaloa cartel”

In 2019, American justice sentenced the president’s brother Juan Antonio Hernandez Alvarado, also known as Tony Hernandez, to life imprisonment. The same sentence was handed down in 2021 to Geovanny Fuentes Ramirez, a violent cocaine trafficker who met with Hernandez several times to discuss their partnership. Most recently, Juan Carlos Bonilla Valladares, also known as El Tigre, the former head of the Honduras National Police, pleaded guilty to participating in a cocaine importation conspiracy and will be sentenced on June 25. The former president’s cousin, Mauricio Hernandez Pineda, a former member of the Honduran National Police, has admitted to participating in the cocaine importation plot and is expected to be sentenced on May 2.

The US Department of Justice has accused the former president and his “associates” of allowing more than 400 tons of cocaine to be trafficked into the US through Honduras during his time in office. JOH accepted millions of dollars in bribes to protect this trade and ensure his rise and then his political omnipotence from at least 2004 until the end of his second term in 2022. He was arrested and extradited to the United States in 2022. April 2022, three months after leaving office. The Drug Enforcement Administration accused the former president of working “hand in hand with the head of the Sinaloa Cartel,” the powerful Mexican organization long led by “El Chapo.”

“Juan Orlando Hernandez abused his position as President of Honduras to run the country as a narco-state, where violent drug traffickers were allowed to operate with impunity and the people of Honduras and the United States were forced to ‘suffer the consequences,’” Attorney General Merrick Garland indicted. The president’s economic and repressive policies have pushed tens of thousands of residents into illegal immigration.

Hernandez, 55, faces life in prison. U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel will announce details of his sentencing on June 26. “I’m innocent, tell the world I love you,” he said after the verdict was announced to members of his family and three generals who had come to testify on his behalf. His lawyers plan to appeal. In Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, former first lady Ana García de Hernández said her husband’s “unfair” sentence had no evidence and was “revenge on these criminals” who she said were attacked as president. She promised to release “more information so the world knows who we are up against,” referring to the United States government.

Hondurans demonstrating outside Manhattan District Court on the final day of the trial are calling for Ana Garcia’s extradition.