Former Honduran president convicted of helping traffickers smuggle tons of cocaine into the United States

NEW YORK (AP) — Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was sentenced Wednesday in New York to 45 years in prison for collaborating with bribe-paying drug traffickers for more than a decade to secure that more than 400 tons of cocaine reach the country. UNITED STATES.

Judge P. Kevin Castel sentenced Hernández to 45 years in U.S. prison and an $8 million fine, saying the sentence should serve as a warning to “well-educated and well-dressed” individuals who rise to power and believe their status shields them from justice when they do wrong.

A jury convicted him in March in Manhattan federal court, following a two-week trial closely followed in his home state.

“I am innocent,” Hernández said through an interpreter at his sentencing. “I was wrongly and unjustly accused.”

In a long, impromptu statement, interrupted several times by the judge who repeatedly reminded him that it was not the time to restart the trial, Hernández presented himself as a hero of the anti-drug trafficking movement that is is associated with US authorities under three US presidential administrations. to reduce imports of medicines.

But the judge said the trial evidence proved otherwise and that Hernández used “considerable acting skills” to make it appear as if he was an advocate in the fight against drug trafficking while deploying the police and army of his country, when necessary, to protect drug trafficking.

Castel called Hernández a “power-hungry two-faced politician” who protected a select group of traffickers.

When the sentence was announced, Hernández, dressed in a drab green prison uniform, stood next to his lawyer in front of two police officers. After shaking his lawyer's hand and turning toward the packed crowd of spectators, Hernández limped out of court using a cane and a brace on one foot.

Prosecutors had requested a sentence of life in prison, plus 30 years, as recommended by the court's probation officers.

Hernández, 55, served two terms as leader of this Central American nation of about 10 million people.

He was arrested at his home in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, three months after leaving office in 2022 and extradited to the United States in April of that year.

U.S. prosecutors say Hernandez worked with drug traffickers as early as 2004, accepting millions of dollars in bribes as he rose from rural lawmaker to president of the National Congress and then the most high office of the country.

Hernández acknowledged during his trial testimony that drug money went to virtually every political party in Honduras, but he denied accepting bribes himself.

Hernández insisted in his lengthy statement Wednesday that his trial was unfair because he was not allowed to include evidence that would have led the jury to find him not guilty. He said he was being persecuted by politicians and drug traffickers.

“It’s like I’ve been thrown into a deep river with my hands tied,” he said.

On Wednesday in Honduras, American Ambassador Laura Dogu called this conviction an important step in the fight against the social consequences of drug trafficking.

“Here in Honduras and the United States, we cannot forget that the actions of Juan Orlando caused suffering to the people,” Dogu said.

Luis Romero, a Honduran criminal lawyer and analyst, said the conviction came as a surprise to many people in Honduras who thought he would receive a life sentence.

Witnesses at the trial included traffickers who admitted responsibility for dozens of killings and said Hernández was an enthusiastic protector of some of the world's most powerful cocaine traffickers, including notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who is serving a life sentence in the United States.

During his speech, the judge noted that Guzman paid a $1 million bribe in 2013 directly to Hernández's brother, Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández, a former Honduran congressman who was sentenced to life in prison in a US prison in 2021 in New York on his own account. conviction for drug trafficking.

Hernández shook his head as he heard Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacob Gutwillig tell the judge that he had chosen to “commit evil.”

“No one, not even the former president of a country, is above the law,” Gutwillig said.

In announcing the sentence, Castel spoke at length about how Hernández received a fair trial and described much of the key evidence that emerged at trial to prove his guilt.

Castel called the number of drug-related murders during Hernández's political career “staggering,” saying a drug-trafficking witness admitted during the trial that he had contributed to 56 murders and that Another said he was involved in 78 murders before he began cooperating with American authorities. .

He stressed that Hernández only helped drug traffickers who supported his political ambitions, and not all the time.

“No, he was too smart for that,” Castel said. The judge said Hernández helped traffickers whenever he could.

“His number one goal was his own political survival,” Castel said.

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Associated Press writer Marlon González in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, contributed to this report.