The Justice of USA finally defined this Wednesday that the former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandezbe sentenced to 45 years in prison in the country and five more on probation -at the end of his time behind bars- for the drug trafficking case for which he had been investigated. Likewise, he must pay a fine of USD 8 millionthat in the next two weeks her lawyer must inform how she will be paid, while Justice has a window of 120 days to announce the prison in which she will spend these years.
In March, the New York court had already found him guilty of three counts of drug and weapons trafficking towards the country during his years at the head of the Central American nation and, now, all that remained was to know the final sentence.
The Prosecutor’s Office had requested a life sentence while his defense appealed for about 40 years.
On Wednesday, the former president appeared at the courtroom where the trial against him would end, dressed in a beige shirt and supported by a cane. Once inside the courtroom, he said a few brief final words in which he insisted on his innocence and again denounced that the trial had been riddled with errors and injustices.
“The most likely thing is that he will be imprisoned for life”an “unfair and improper” decision, he said before the magistrates and added thatand “if not today, the truth will come to light tomorrow and will do a lot of damage to this country and the alliance of countries that fight against drug trafficking”.
For his part, before announcing the final decision, Judge Kevin Castel told him that it was “a man with two faces”, one with which he proclaimed his commitment against drug trafficking and, the second, with which he facilitated the entry of the equivalent of ten million dollars in drugs. He then argued that the ruling would send a message “to the educated and well dressed”, in reference to other corrupt rulers, that “they should not believe that they will escape accusations”.
Hernández is accused of having turned Honduras into one of the main routes through which drugs entered the United States during his term (2014-2022) through a “corrupt and violent conspiracy.” It is estimated that, thanks to her, he managed to import hundreds of thousands of kilograms of cocaine into United States territory.
Even during the trial, which lasted just over two weeks, several of the drug traffickers who participated in this plot testified against him and assured that the former president had accepted money from drug cartels to become president, including the sum of one million dollars from Sinaloawhich was then directed by Joaquín “el Chapo” Guzmán.
Likewise, they confirmed that he used State resources to protect the shipments of these illegal substances that arrived in the country from South America and continued their route to Mexico and, finally, the United States.
Hernández, however, assured that these statements were a retaliation for the persecution against drug traffickers, which he launched during his government, and that, in that sense, while he was at the head of the country “in Honduras, extraordinary and historic decisions were taken to reduce and stop drug trafficking, as well as the approval of extradition, the purging of the Police and the airspace protection law, among other actions, which resulted in a decrease in violence and crime.”
(With information from AFP, EFE and Reuters)
