Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was once described by US authorities as a key ally in the war on drugs.
Now, federal prosecutors say the politician ran his Central American nation as a “narco-state,” raising millions of dollars from cartels to fuel his rise to power.
Nearly two years after his arrest and extradition to the United States, Hernández will now stand trial in federal court in Manhattan on drug and weapons trafficking charges.
Jury selection is scheduled for this Tuesday.
Hernández faces the trial abandoned by his allies, Juan Carlos
El Tigre
Bonilla and Mauricio Hernández Pineda, both co-defendants with him, and who pleaded guilty at the beginning of the month.
Bonilla, who was chief of the National Police during the former president's term, was the last to admit his guilt for the crimes of "conspiring to import cocaine into the United States" and the possession and use of weapons to facilitate the transfer of drugs. .
[A dozen drug traffickers point to Juan Orlando Hernández as an accomplice in their operations]
Previously, Hernández Pineda, cousin of Juan Orlando Hernández and former National Police officer, had already pleaded guilty to the same crimes.
In the American judicial system, the admission of guilt is usually accompanied by an agreement for a reduction in sentences in exchange for collaborating with justice, facilitating the arrest of others involved or revealing the existence of criminal plots.
The former president denies the accusations
Perhaps anticipating the hopelessness of his situation, the former Honduran president sent a letter to his followers on Monday, published by his wife on social networks, in which he assures that the accusations against him are “false and unfair” and are based on testimony. of “confessed drug traffickers.”
Former president of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernández upon being extradited to the United States in April 2022.Getty Images / Getty Images
According to Hernández, these collaborators “are capable of telling any lie in order to achieve revenge against me and the reduction of their sentences, not pay for their crimes against hundreds of Hondurans and have new identities for their families.”
His capture and extradition to the United States.
Hernández was captured on February 15, 2022 at his home in Tegucigalpa, and extradited on April 21 of that same year to the United States, which accuses him of three charges associated with drug trafficking and use of weapons to introduce drugs into the country.
The process should have started on February 5, but in recent days the judge granted a request by Hernández to change lawyers and postponed it for a week.
[This is the photograph of Juan Orlando Hernández hugged by one of the drug trafficking bosses in Honduras]
It was the third postponement of the case, closely followed in the Latin American country for being the first indictment of a former Honduran ruler in the United States for drug trafficking.
A subsequent request by Juan Orlando Hernández's defense to postpone the trial again was denied.
The process is expected to last between four and six weeks
, one of his lawyers told the EFE news agency.
The three charges of which he is accused carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
The Honduran Prosecutor's Office will be present
A team of prosecutors from the Public Ministry of Honduras will also be present in the process to evaluate whether what was revealed during the case warrants new proceedings in the Latin American country against the companies, people or groups mentioned.
Hernández was president of Honduras for two terms of four years each (2014-2022), the second through a questioned re-election, which the Honduran Constitution does not allow under any form, and complaints of fraud by the opposition.
His term ended on January 27, 2022, and already in February the authorities reported that Washington had requested his extradition for drug trafficking and use of weapons.
According to the US indictment, Hernández associated with the former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, alias El Chapo, among other individuals.
[Supreme Court of Honduras ratifies extradition to the United States of former President Juan Orlando Hernández]
“In approximately 2013, while Hernández was campaigning to become president, he accepted approximately $1 million in drug trafficking proceeds from Guzmán Loera,” read a statement from the Department of Justice.
Since 2014, the US began to single out and request the extradition of Hondurans to try them for drug trafficking.
Between 2014 and so far in 2024, some 40 Hondurans have been extradited, including former President Hernández and his brother, Juan Antonio, who has already been sentenced to life imprisonment.
With information from EFE and The Associated Press