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The United States justice system sentenced the former president of Honduras, Juan orlando Hernandez, to 45 years in prison, after being found guilty of drug and weapons trafficking on March 8.
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At a hearing in New York, Judge Kevin Castel sentenced Hernandez55 years old – who was president in two consecutive terms from 2014 to 2022 -, to a fine of 8 million dollars and 5 years of supervised release when he completes his sentence.
The sentence is a little higher than the stipulated minimum – 40 years for the three charges – but lower than the life sentence requested by the prosecution.
“The paper of Juan orlando Hernandez “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 stated when reading the sentence.
“No one is above the law, not even presidents,” said prosecutor Jacob Gutwilling.
“I am innocent and I was accused unjustly and improperly,” said the former president, who arrived at the courtroom walking with a cane due to an accident playing soccer, according to his lawyer.
Hernandez He listened standing to the sentence of Judge Castel, who was very harsh in his argument, in a room packed with Hondurans who came to the court of the southern district of Manhattan to attend this historic day.
His defense lawyer Renato Stabile announced at the end of the hearing 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 the Honduran human rights activist Lida Perdomo, the sentence leaves “a bad taste in the mouth”, since she considers that it is “not enough” for this “dangerous” politician, whose “criminal structures, both within the judiciary, the police and the military is still quite alive” in the country. She expected to receive at least two life sentences.
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In his turn to speak, Hernandez He attacked the “selective justice of the prosecutors” who based their accusation “on testimonies” from drug traffickers interested in obtaining benefits for their prison situation in exchange and did not present “any evidence.”
“I appeal to common sense: they (the drug traffickers) who testified at the trial are going to be free and I will be imprisoned for life,” he said after pointing out that this undermines “the credibility of the American judicial system.”
Faithful collaborator of the government of Republican Donald Trump (2017-2021), Hernandez He even boasted of Washington’s praise for his government’s work in the fight against drug trafficking.
The prosecution accused Hernandez of creating a “narco-state” and turning Honduras into a “super highway” through which a good part of the drugs coming from Colombia passed.
Between 2004 and 2022 – from his positions as deputy, president of Congress and then president of the Republic -, Hernandez He 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, Gutwilling recalled.
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 in April 2022 to the United States, three months after handing over the presidency to his successor, the leftist Xiomara Castro, Hernandez He would have been the author of the famous phrase: “We are going to shove drugs under the gringos’ noses and they won’t even notice,” according to a witness in a trial.
Other defendants in the same case, including his brother Tony Hernandez or his close collaborator Geovany Fuentes, were already sentenced to life imprisonment.
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Also in the same case, the former Honduran police chief Juan Carlos Bonilla, known as “El Tigre”, and the police officer Mauricio Hernandez 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 United States justice.
