Former President of Honduras Testifies in Drug Trafficking Trial: What You Need to Know

What you should know

• The drug trafficking trial against the former president of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernández took another turn this Tuesday when the former president testified to defend himself against the accusations of the federal Prosecutor’s Office, which accuses him of several drug trafficking crimes.
• In the morning, Hernández testified to questions from the defense and highlighted the bills approved during his term as president of Congress to fight drug trafficking, the confiscation of assets with illicit origin or the extradition treaty with the United States.
• The Prosecutor’s interrogation of Hernández will continue this Wednesday for about 45 minutes to give way to the presentation of the final arguments by both parties and then the jury will be instructed, which will retire to deliberate on Wednesday afternoon.

NEW YORK — The drug trafficking trial against the former president of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernández took another turn this Tuesday when the former president testified to defend himself against the accusations of the federal Prosecutor’s Office, which accuses him of several drug trafficking crimes.

On Tuesday, the prosecution presented Hernández with several photos showing him with notorious drug traffickers, in line with their strategy, which until now has been based on the testimony of these confessed drug traffickers, who are serving sentences in this country and who have assured in the trial who bribed the politician in exchange for support to continue their business.

In the morning, Hernández testified to questions from the defense and highlighted the bills approved during his term as president of Congress to fight drug trafficking, the confiscation of assets with illicit origin or the extradition treaty with the United States.

In this sense, the twenty drug traffickers who were extradited to the United States during his two terms as President of the Republic (from 2014 to 2022) stood out.

Hernández mentioned the large cartels that operated in Honduras when he became president – Los Cachiros, Los Valle Valle, Don H, Los Montes, Los Ardón – and claimed not to know their leaders personally and not to have accepted bribes from them, including from the cartel. of Sinaloa, in an attempt to deny the Prosecutor’s star witnesses.

In addition, he spoke about the reforms he implemented in the National Police, and about his own brother, Tony Hernández, who is serving a life sentence in the United States and who, according to drug traffickers, was an intermediary in the delivery of the Sinaloa cartel’s bribe for Hernández’s presidential campaign. in 2013.

In the afternoon, and in his turn of cross-examination, the Prosecutor’s Office did everything possible to link Hernández with the drug traffickers, for which they confronted him with several photos: one of them shows him with the children of Geovanny Fuentes Ramírez, sentenced to life imprisonment. for drug trafficking in 2022 – by the same judge who is now prosecuting JOH – and another with Arnulfo Valle, from the Los Valle Valle cartel.

On both occasions, Juan Orlando Hernández, who remained calm during the interrogation, claimed not to know them and recalled having taken “thousands of photos” with many other people throughout his public life.

But so far the Prosecutor’s Office has not presented evidence of recordings or videos to unequivocally prove its accusation of drug trafficking against Hernández.

The US Government, represented by the Prosecutor’s Office, has based the testimonies of drug traffickers or former drug traffickers who have testified in exchange for a reduction in their sentence or a visa to live in the North American country, which is why the defense has requested on several occasions that charges against his client were dismissed, which was rejected by Judge Kevin Castel.

The Prosecutor’s interrogation of Hernández will continue this Wednesday for about 45 minutes to give way to the presentation of the final arguments by both parties and then the jury will be instructed, which will retire to deliberate on Wednesday afternoon.

2024-03-06 07:25:16
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