Honduran drug trafficker Geovanny Fuentes was found guilty on Monday of drug trafficking and illegal possession of firearms by a jury in a federal court in Manhattan, following a trial involving the current President of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez.
Read also: Honduras: the president accused of helping drug traffickers
During the trial, two witnesses as well as the prosecution accused the Honduran president of having collaborated with Geovanny Fuentes, ensuring his protection and that of his drug transport activities in exchange for bribes.
Juan Orlando Hernandez refuted these allegations, denouncing
"false testimony",
and accused the witnesses of seeking leniency from American justice by any means.
After hearing the verdict of the jury, which deliberated a day and a half after two weeks of debate, federal judge Kevin Castel said he would hand down the sentence on June 22.
During the trial, the deputy prosecutors claimed that all Honduran presidents in office since 2006 had been paid by traffickers in exchange for protection.
President Hernandez has always presented himself as a champion in the fight against drugs and the gangs that terrorize Honduras.
He has also established himself as a privileged partner of former US President Donald Trump in the fight against the immigration of Central American nationals to the United States.
A lawyer by training, he was elected president in 2013, then re-elected in 2018, the two ballots having been contested by the opposition, which denounced irregularities.
According to the American public prosecutor, Juan Orlando Hernandez, far from being satisfied with receiving bribes, had formed a
“direct partnership”
with Geovanny Fuentes.
Geovanny Fuentes' trial came after that of the president's brother, Juan Antonio "Tony" Hernandez, a former deputy convicted of cocaine trafficking in New York in October 2019. Federal judge Kevin Castel, who also presided over Geovanny's trial Fuentes, is due to sentence Tony Hernandez on March 30.
He faces life imprisonment.
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