LatinNews Daily - 08 July 2024

Honduras: On 26 June the former president of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernández (2014-2022) was sentenced in the US to 45 years in prison due to his involvement in drug trafficking crimes and related firearms offences. He was also ordered to pay a fine amounting to US$8m. According to a statement from the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York, Hernández “abused his powerful positions and authority in Honduras to facilitate the importation of over 400 tonnes of cocaine into the US” in exchange for significant bribes between 2004-2022. Additionally, Hernández was also found to have publicly promoted legislation in support of anti-narcotics measures as president and to have “protected and enriched the drug traffickers in his inner circle and those who provided him with cocaine-fuelled bribes that allowed him to obtain and stay in power in Honduras”. During the trial, US Attorney Damian Williams condemned Hernández’s actions, stating that Hernández “had every opportunity to effect positive change for his country. Instead, he helped to facilitate the importation of an unfathomable 400 tonnes of cocaine to this country… Now, after years of destructive narco-trafficking of the highest imaginable magnitude, Hernández will spend 45 years where he belongs: in federal prison.” Hernández denied the accusations levied against him and is expected to appeal the court’s ruling. Several of Hernández’s co-conspirators have already been convicted and sentenced in connection with this investigation.  Among others, his brother, Juan Antonio ‘Tony’ Hernández and Geovanny Fuentes Ramírez, a cocaine trafficker who liaised with Hernández, were both convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 2021. Juan Carlos Bonilla, known as ‘El Tigre’, the former chief of the Honduran national police (PNH), pleaded guilty to participation in the cocaine importation conspiracy and is scheduled to be sentenced on 1 August, whereas Mauricio Hernández Pineda, a former member of the PNH and Hernández’s cousin, also pleaded guilty to involvement in the conspiracy and was sentenced on 2 July to 15 years in prison.

End of preview - This article contains approximately 1115 words.

Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article

Not a Subscriber?

Choose from one of the following options

• Subscribe
• Sign up for a one-time, 14-day trial