(New York) Former President of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernandez (2014-2022) was convicted on Friday of international drug trafficking by a federal jury in New York and now faces life in prison, after a historic trial in court American.
Published at 2:10 p.m. Updated at 4:06 p.m.
Ana FERNÁNDEZ Agence France-Presse
“JOH” was found guilty of criminal conspiracy for drug trafficking and arms trafficking, as well as possession of weapons.
“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 near impunity, and the people of Honduras and the United States were forced to suffer the consequences,” reacted Attorney General Merrick Garland, welcoming this conviction.
“I am innocent, tell the world, I love you,” said, after the reading of the verdict, the 55-year-old former head of state, who was appearing detained, speaking to members of his family and to the three generals who came to testify in his favor.
ILLUSTRATION JANE ROSENBERG, REUTERS
Juan Orlando Hernandez at his trial, March 7
The sentence will be pronounced on June 26. Juan Orlando Hernandez faces life in prison, a sentence which his brother Tony Hernandez and his collaborator Geovanny Fuentes, involved in the same network, have already received before the American courts.
“Super highway”
According to US prosecutors, the defendant participated in and protected a network that shipped more than 500 tons of cocaine to the United States between 2004 and 2022, while he was a member of Congress, President of Congress and then President of the Republic.
In return, he allegedly received millions of dollars from the cartels, including the Sinaloa cartel, led by the famous Mexican drug trafficker Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman, since sentenced to life in prison in the United States.
During JOH’s presidency, Honduras became a “super highway” through which much of Colombia’s drug trafficking flowed to the United States, prosecutors said.
“We’re going to put drugs in their (Americans’) noses and they won’t even notice,” the accused allegedly said one day, according to a witness at the trial.
Juan Carlos Hernandez was extradited in April 2022 to the United States, three months after handing over the presidency to his successor, Xiomara Castro.
Double visage
On the contrary, he presented himself as a white knight in the fight against drug trafficking and an ally of the United States, from whom he had drawn praise for drug seizures and his fight against organized crime under the administration of Donald Trump (2017-2021).
His lawyers cast doubt on the testimony of witnesses, most of them traffickers who obtained reduced sentences thanks to their cooperation with American justice.
Witnesses like Devis Leonel Rivera, head of the powerful Los Cachiros cartel, former mayor Alexander Ardon — from the same conservative party as the accused — and Fabio Lobo, son of former president Porfirio Lobo (2010-2014), claimed having “contributed” thousands of dollars to Hernandez’s first election campaign in exchange for protection.
Former police chief Juan Carlos “Tigre” Bonilla and ex-police officer Mauricio Hernández, who were to be tried with the former president, had pleaded guilty to drug trafficking a few days before the start of the trial. Their sentences will be known in the coming months.
Federal prosecutor Jacob Gutwillig reminded the jury that in public the defendant promoted drug laws and extraditions of traffickers, but “none of that negates what the defendant did behind the scenes.” looks.” “He’s a drug dealer,” he said.
Among the dozen witnesses presented by the prosecution, many highlighted corruption and the close links between politics and drug trafficking.
Since a coup d’état in 2009, “the political elite, which is also the economic elite, has operated with impunity”, emboldened by “the support it received from foreign governments despite knowing that “She was heavily involved in drug trafficking,” American activist Karen Spring of the Honduras Solidarity Network told AFP.
“All state institutions are heavily penetrated by drug traffickers, especially the police and the army,” she says.
With his conviction, Juan Orlando Hernandez joins other former Latin American leaders tried and convicted in the United States, such as Panamanian Manuel Noriega in 1992 for drug trafficking and Guatemalan Alfonso Portillo in 2014 for money laundering.
2024-03-08 19:10:51
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