The United States courts sentenced former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández to 45 years in prison on Wednesday, after he was found guilty of drug and arms trafficking on March 8.
At a hearing in New York, Judge Kevin Castel sentenced Hernandez, 55, to an $8 million fine and five years of supervised release after serving his sentence.
The sentence is slightly higher than the minimum stipulated – 40 years for the three charges – demanded by the defense, but lower than the life sentence requested by the prosecution.
Dressed in a prison uniform, Hernandez stood and listened to the judge’s sentence in a courtroom packed with Hondurans who came to the court in the southern district of Manhattan to attend this historic day.
His defense lawyer Renato Stabile announced that he will appeal the sentence with the ultimate goal of “annulling the conviction” and “holding a new trial,” as he had unsuccessfully claimed until now.
For this reason, he requested that his client remain for the time being in the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center, to the surprise of the judge, since it is famous for its terrible conditions.
“Juan Orlando Hernández’s role was to use his political power as president of Congress and as president of Honduras to limit the risk of drug traffickers in exchange for money,” the judge justified when reading the sentence. This money would have helped him reach the presidency, where he remained for two terms, from 2014 to 2022, according to the prosecution.
The president has tried to assert before the judge what he presents as achievements during his two governments in the fight against organized crime, and his collaboration with US governments and specialized anti-drug agencies.
But from Washington, Attorney General Merrick Garland sent a message to sailors: “The Department of Justice will hold accountable all those who engage in violent drug trafficking, regardless of how powerful they are or the position they hold.”
A loyal collaborator of the government of Republican Donald Trump (2017-2021), Hernández boasted of Washington’s praise for his government’s work in the fight against drug trafficking.
“Bad mouth taste”
For Honduran human rights activist Lida Perdomo, the sentence leaves “a bad taste in her mouth,” as she expected to receive “at least two life sentences.”
In his turn to speak, the accused, who arrived walking with the help of a cane due to an accident playing soccer, cried out to the judge: “I am innocent and I was accused unjustly and improperly.”
Hernández lashed out against the “selective justice of the prosecutors” who based their accusation “on testimonies” of drug traffickers interested in obtaining benefits for their prison situation and “did not present any evidence.”
“I appeal to common sense: they (the drug traffickers) who testified at the trial will go free and I will be imprisoned for life,” he said, noting that this undermines “the credibility of the American judicial system.”
From Honduras, his wife and daughters, who could not accompany her husband because their visas were revoked, denounced the “media and judicial lynching” of the convicted man.
“400 tons of cocaine”
Prosecutors accused Hernandez of creating a “narco-state” and turning Honduras into a “superhighway” through which much of the drug coming from Colombia passed.
Between 2004 and 2022 – from his positions as deputy, president of Congress and then president of the Republic -, Hernández participated in and protected a network that sent more than 400 tons of cocaine to the United States, with a value in the local market of 10 billion dollars, according to the prosecution.
In exchange, he would have received millions of dollars from drug cartels, including Mexican drug trafficker Joaquín “Chapo” Guzmán, sentenced to life imprisonment in the United States.
Extradited to the United States in April 2022, after leaving the presidency, Hernández is credited with the famous phrase: “We are going to shove drugs under the faces of the gringos and they are not going to even notice,” according to a witness in A judgment.
Other defendants in the same case, including his brother Tony Hernández and his close collaborator Geovany Fuentes, have already been sentenced to life imprisonment in New York.
Also in the same case, former Honduran police chief Juan Carlos Bonilla, known as “El Tigre,” and police officer Mauricio Hernández Pineda pleaded guilty to drug trafficking, avoiding sitting in the dock with the former president.
Since 2014, fifty Hondurans accused of drug trafficking have been extradited or voluntarily surrendered to the United States justice system. MAAZ
