The jurors took two days to deliberate.
The former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, in power from 2014 to 2022, was found guilty on Friday by an American jury of conspiracy to commit drugs and arms trafficking, as well as of possession of weapons.
Jurors in Manhattan federal court returned their verdict after a two-week trial.
Under the presidency of Juan Orlando Hernández, nicknamed “JOH,” Honduras has at one time received more than $50 million in U.S. aid to combat narcotics, as well as tens of millions of dollars in security and military aid.
The tiny country, located in the center of the isthmus that divides the American continent, is an easy route for drug trafficking.
But quickly, the military police created to fight against trafficking, and trained by the United States, were accused of also attacking human rights activists and political opponents who opposed neoliberal and conservative policies. from Orlando.
Before suspicions fall directly to the highest summit of the Honduran state.
JOH, although agreeing to extradite traffickers to the United States, seemed to negotiate expensively on who to hand over, or not, to the American authorities, profiting from millions from cocaine trafficking.
He would have worked “hand in hand with the head of the Sinaloa cartel”
In 2019, American justice sentenced the president's brother, Juan Antonio Hernández Alvarado, also known as Tony Hernández, to life in prison.
Same sentence, in 2021, for Geovanny Fuentes Ramirez, a violent cocaine trafficker who met Hernández several times to discuss their partnership.
Most recently, Juan Carlos Bonilla Valladares, also known as El Tigre, former head of the Honduran National Police, pleaded guilty to participation in the cocaine importation conspiracy and is scheduled to be sentenced on June 25.
A cousin of the former president, Mauricio Hernández Pineda, a former member of the Honduran National Police, admitted to participating in the cocaine importation plot and is expected to be sentenced on May 2.
The US Department of Justice accused the former president and his “co-conspirators” of allowing the trafficking of more than 400 tons of cocaine to the United States via Honduras during his term in office.
JOH accepted millions of dollars in bribes to protect this trade, and guarantee his rise and then his political omnipotence, at least since 2004 and until the end of his second term as president, in 2022. He was arrested and extradited to the United States in April 2022, three months after leaving office.
The Drug Enforcement Administration accused the former president of having worked “hand in hand with the head of the Sinaloa cartel”, the powerful Mexican organization long led by “El Chapo”.
“Juan Orlando Hernández abused his position as President of Honduras to run the country as a narco-state where violent drug traffickers were allowed to operate with impunity, and the people of Honduras and the United States were forced to “suffer the consequences,” accused Attorney General Merrick Garland.
The president's economic and repressive policies had pushed tens of thousands of residents onto the roads of illegal immigration.
Hernandez, 55, faces life in prison.
US District Judge Kevin Castel will announce the details of his sentence on June 26.
“I am innocent, tell the world, I love you,” he said, after the verdict was read, to members of his family and the three generals who came to testify in his favor.
His lawyers plan to appeal.
In Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, former first lady Ana Garcia de Hernandez said her husband's "unjust" conviction lacked evidence and was "revenge of these criminals" she said she had targeted as as president.
She promised to release “more information so the world knows who we are up against,” referring to the United States government.
Hondurans, who demonstrated in front of the district court in Manhattan on the last day of the trial, are demanding the extradition of Ana Garcia.