Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was found guilty of smuggling hundreds of tons of cocaine into the country, and on Wednesday a New York court sentenced him to 45 years in jail.
Before the sentencing, anti-Hernández demonstrators gathered outside the Manhattan courthouse, holding signs criticizing the crimes of the former head of state.
Hernández, who is 55 years old, may pass away in prison, but the punishment, which also included a $8 million fine, was less than the life in prison that the prosecution had requested.
The sentencing, according to Judge P. Kevin Castel, should act as a reminder to “well educated, well dressed” people who rise to positions of authority and believe that their standing shields them from punishment when they do wrongdoing.
Hernández did not back down, though. He declared, “I am innocent,” during his sentencing through an interpreter. “I was wrongly and unjustly accused.”
The former head of the organization presented himself as a hero of the fight against drug trafficking who collaborated with US authorities during three US administrations to lower drug imports in a protracted impromptu speech that was repeatedly cut short by the judge, who reminded Hernández that this was not the time to relitigate the trial.
The judge countered that Hernández used “considerable acting skills” to portray himself as an anti-drug trafficking crusader while, when needed, using his country’s police and military to defend the drug trade. The trial evidence, the judge said, indicated the reverse.
During his administration from 2014 to 2022, Hernández, who was accused by U.S. federal prosecutors of turning his Central American nation into a “narco-state,” had previously announced through his legal team that he would appeal his sentence.
Hernández was found guilty in March of aiding in the 500 tons of cocaine that were smuggled into the United States through Honduras between 2004 and 2006, primarily from Colombia and Venezuela. This activity began far before he was elected president.
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According to the prosecution, Hernández committed electoral fraud in the 2013 and 2017 presidential elections in addition to using the drug money to further his own financial gain and support his political campaign.
He was suspected of helping drug smugglers in exchange for millions of dollars in bribes, and as a result, he was extradited to the United States in 2022.
“Hernández received millions of dollars in drug money from some of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking organizations in Honduras, Mexico, and elsewhere, and used those bribes to fuel his rise in Honduran politics,” federal prosecutors previously stated.
Hernández is the latest in a line of former presidents of state from Latin America who were found guilty in the US, including Manuel Noriega of Panama in 1992 and Alfonso Portillo of Guatemala in 2014.
The former president allegedly had deep ties to the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the deadliest criminal groups in Mexico, according to the prosecution. Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the organization’s founder, is incarcerated in the US for life.
“When the leader of Honduras and the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel work hand-in-hand to send deadly drugs into American communities, both deserve to be held accountable in the United States,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram stated. “This case should send a clear message that no one is above the law or beyond our reach.”
