A New York court on Wednesday sentenced former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández to 45 years in prison after he was found guilty of smuggling hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States.
Anti-Hernandez protesters gathered outside a Manhattan courthouse before the sentencing and waved placards denouncing the former head of state’s crimes, including one that read, “Narco government – forces people to flee.”
“Mr. Hernández’s role was to use his political power as Speaker of Congress and President of Honduras to limit exposure of drug traffickers in exchange for money,” Judge Kevin Castel said.
He said Hernandez provided police and military assistance and helped smuggle 400 tons of drugs — worth about $10 billion at street value — to the United States.
In a speech before sentencing, Hernandez, who was wearing prison garb and using a stick to enter the courtroom, was restrained by the judge as he challenged the outcome of the trial and insisted he had been wrongly accused.
The sentence, which included an $8 million fine, was less than the life sentence prosecutors had sought — though Hernandez is 55 years old, meaning he could die behind bars.
“He is going to pursue all possible legal remedies,” Hernandez’s lawyer, Renato Stabile, told reporters outside court.
– War on Drugs –
Hernández, who US federal prosecutors said turned his Central American country into a “narco-state” during his 2014-2022 presidential term, had already indicated through his legal team that he would appeal his sentence.
In March he was convicted of helping smuggle hundreds of tons of cocaine — mainly from Colombia and Venezuela — into the United States through Honduras since 2004, starting long before he became president.
Prosecutors said Hernández used drug money to enrich himself, finance his political campaigns and commit electoral fraud in the 2013 and 2017 elections.
He presented himself as a champion of the war on drugs, and Washington also saw him as an ally in that fight.
In 2017, the United States was one of the first countries to recognise his re-election, while the opposition denounced it as fraud against the backdrop of violent protests that left nearly 30 people dead.
He was extradited to the United States in 2022 using a law he himself had helped pass as congressman under pressure from Washington, accusing him of aiding drug traffickers in exchange for millions of dollars in bribes.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Hernández “abused his power to support one of the largest and most violent drug trafficking conspiracies in the world, and the people of Honduras and the United States have suffered the consequences.”
The fall of Hernández, known in his home country as “JOH”, was sudden.
As he handed power to new leftist President Xiomara Castro, the outgoing leader was paraded before reporters in shackles.
Hernández follows in the footsteps of other former Latin American heads of state who were convicted in the United States, including Panama’s Manuel Noriega in 1992 and Guatemala’s Alfonso Portillo in 2014.
The diminutive, athletic leader was known for his military haircut, served as an officer before becoming a lawyer, and completed a master’s degree from New York in 1995.
His legal troubles began in 2018 when his brother, Juan Antonio Hernández, was arrested in Miami and sentenced to life in prison in March 2021 for “large-scale” drug trafficking.
Following his arrest in Honduras in February 2022, Hernández said he was the victim of “revenge” by drug lords, several of whom had testified against him in New York.
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