Former Honduran president sentenced to 45 years in US prison for drug trafficking

He is accused of helping ship hundreds of tons of cocaine to the United States. Former President of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernandez was sentenced on Wednesday June 26 in New York to forty-five years in prison for international drug trafficking.

The man who was head of state from 2014 to 2022 was found guilty in March of criminal conspiracy for drug trafficking and possession of weapons. Mr. Hernandez was also ordered to pay a fine of $8 million.

“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.”American Justice Minister Merrick Garland said in March.

The former president of Honduras has proclaimed his innocence, claiming to be “victim of cartel revenge”. According to US prosecutors, he was involved in and protected a network that shipped approximately 400 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 would have received millions of dollars from the cartels, including that of Sinaloa, led by the famous Mexican drug trafficker Joaquin Guzman, known as “El Chapo”, since convicted in the United States. In exchange for these bribes, Juan Orlando Hernandez “protected drug traffickers from investigations, [évitant leur] arrest and their extradition”assure the American authorities.

Extradited in 2022

Juan Orlando Hernandez was extradited in April 2022 to the United States. The fall was brutal for “JOH”, as he is called in his country. He had barely handed over power to the new left-wing president Xiomara Castro when the former head of state found himself chained at the wrists and ankles during his arrest in front of the cameras.

Juan Orlando Hernandez, who presented himself as the champion of the fight against drug trafficking, was initially seen by the United States as an ally in this fight. In 2017, Washington was one of the first capitals to recognize his re-election while the opposition denounced fraud against a backdrop of demonstrations which left around thirty dead.

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.