In The US, Juan Orlando Hernández, Former President Of Honduras, Is Found Guilty Of Drug Trafficking

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

After almost two days of deliberations, a jury of the Federal Court of the Southern District of New York, found guilty, on March 8, 2023, Juan Orlando Hernández Alvarado -president of Honduras, in a first term of office that began on the 27th. January 2014 and ended on January 27, 2018, the date on which his second period began, which ended on January 27, 2022, on three charges related to drug trafficking.

Q. Kevin Castel, the judge who presided over the trial against Hernández Alvarado - which lasted almost two weeks - received a note from the jury informing them that they had reached a unanimous verdict against the Honduran president.

The US Department of Justice filed three charges against the former Honduran president: conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States, conspiracy to possess firearms and destructive devices for drug trafficking, and possession of this type of weapon during the conspiracy of drug trafficking.

Hernández Alvarado could be sentenced to a maximum of life in prison for each of the charges. However, the former Honduran president rejected all charges and appeared during the trial as part of his defense.

The former Honduran president - 55 years old - was accused of conspiring with his Army and the Police of the Central American country to allow up to 500 tons of cocaine to enter the United States without obstacles.

As narrated by various international agencies, flanked by his lawyers, moments before the judge called the parties to hear the ruling, Hernández Alvarado. Afterwards, the verdict followed, shaking his head in disbelief, as the jury spokesman answered each of the questions that Castel asked, to establish the guilt of the former Honduran president.

“I am innocent, tell the world, I love you,” said Hernández Alvarado, upon leaving the Federal Court of the Southern District of New York, addressing his relatives, including two sisters-in-law, and the three generals who came to testify in his favor during the trial.

Hernández Alvarado was arrested at his home in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, three months after leaving office, on January 27, 2022, and extradited to the United States in April of that same year.

Before the jury began deliberating, on March 7, 2023, Judge Castel explained to the 12 jurors what each charge meant and emphasized that the possible sentence that Hernández Alvarado could receive should not be considered in the discussions.

The former Honduran president took the stand on March 5, 2024 and denied the accusations against him. In his account, he stated that it was he who told his brother, former deputy Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández Alvarado, to appear before the US authorities, who sentenced him in March 2021 to life imprisonment.

The former president's lawyers asked him about the alleged meetings and agreements with drug traffickers, but Hernández Alvarado stated that he did not promise protection to drug traffickers and denied having met with most of the members of the Los Cachiros or Los Valle cartels.

However, Hernández Alvarado acknowledged during his trial testimony that drug trafficking money was paid to virtually all political parties in Honduras, but he himself denied having accepted bribes.

The former Honduran president indicated that he had visited the White House in Washington D.C. and had met with American presidents, and, according to him, had collaborated in the war on drugs and worked with Washington to stop the flow of drugs to the United States.

A witness assured that the brother of the former Honduran president agreed with Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, alias “El Chapo” - then leader of the Sinaloa Cartel -, protection for a trafficking route if Hernández Alvarado was elected

However, the former president of Honduras denied having received a million dollars from “El Chapo” and the Sinaloa Cartel. He also added that he never met the Mexican drug trafficker, nor any member of his criminal organization.

The former president also testified that it was he who asked the Honduran Public Ministry to investigate his brother. Later, he testified, he urged “Tony” to appear before US authorities.

However, when asked if they were close, the former Honduran president highlighted the age difference with his younger brother. “We were more than 10 years apart, I left home at 13 to study,” he said.

On February 7, 2022, the US State Department publicly revealed that it had imposed restrictions on Hernández Alvarado's visa to enter that country, as part of a list of officials suspected of corruption or undermining democracy in the country of Central America.

Then, the former president of Honduras wrote an open letter, in which he said that he found out about the decision of the United States Government through the media and social networks. Furthermore, he pointed out that his Administration bravely confronted organized crime in all its forms.

The former president of the Central American country also indicated that during his government the transit of drugs through Honduras was reduced by 83 percent, going from 87 percent before he took office in 2013, to only 4 percent in the 2020.

Hernández Alvarado emphasized that he was surprised that the decision, according to him, was based on media reports, as well as statements from drug traffickers and confessed murderers who were extradited by their Government or had to flee and surrender to US authorities. 

United States Senator Bob Menéndez, president of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, asked the Government of President Joseph Biden in early February 2022 to revoke Hernández Alvarado's visa and designate him as a “major foreign narcotics trafficker.” , under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin), making it illegal for US companies and individuals to do business with him.

On March 30, 2021, federal judge Kevin Castel, of the Southern District Court of New York, sentenced former deputy Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández Alvarado - brother of the then president of Honduras, to life in prison, plus 30 years, for drug trafficking crimes and receiving millions of dollars in bribes received from organized crime.

“Based on Tony Hernandez's free choice to engage in a life of drug trafficking for 12 years, a sentence of life in prison is richly deserved,” stated Federal Judge Kevin Castel.

The prosecutors in the case requested a life sentence for “Tony” for leading “a criminal drug trafficking association sponsored by the Honduran State,” along with the president of Honduras. They also wanted the brother of the Honduran president to return $138.5 million of “blood money,” the product of his drug trafficking operations, and pay an additional fine of $10 million.

During the conclusion of a trial that lasted a year and a half, prosecutors repeatedly mentioned the then Honduran president, accusing him of accepting bribes from drug traffickers, as happened with the trial of alleged drug trafficker Geovanny Fuentes Ramírez.

However, both then-president Hernández Alvarado and the Presidential House of Honduras denied these accusations in press conferences and through their accounts on the social network Twitter. The Honduran president assured that these were lies on the part of drug traffickers and murderers, who wanted to reduce their sentences.

Although the former president of Honduras was not facing charges in the United States, he had been described in that country as a “co-conspirator” in his brother's case. Likewise, a group of US senators presented on those dates a project that asked Biden to impose sanctions against Hernández Alvarado.

Likewise, legislators in the US Upper House asked the Biden Government to determine whether the former Honduran president was a “specially designated narcotics trafficker,” which would mean that his assets could be frozen and he would be prohibited from entering. USA.

According to US prosecutors, Hernández Alvarado received several payments from drug traffickers in exchange for guaranteeing protection from the Honduran government. This money was used to finance electoral campaigns and buy votes from politicians of the National Party, including that of the then president of Honduras.

However, Peter Brill, "Tony's" lawyer, said that the US accusations against his client for drug trafficking were a clear attempt to implicate the former Honduran president and intervene in Honduras to change the Government and violate the country's sovereignty.

“This case is another in a long line of misadventures of foreign policy intervention carried out by the United States government, this time to change a regime at the highest levels in Honduras,” Brill wrote.

THE PRESIDENT OF HONDURAS IS LINKED WITH “CHAPO” GUZMÁN

On October 7, 2019, Amilcar Alexander Ardón, former mayor of the Honduran municipality of El Paraíso, in the Department of Copán, and former drug trafficker, confirmed that the Sinaloa boss Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, alias “El Chapo”, handed a million dollars to “Tony” Hernández Alvarado, in 2013, for the presidential campaign of the former president of Honduras.

The money - which was in bundles of bills of 50 thousand and 100 thousand dollars - would have been put on the table at a meeting in the municipality that Ardón governed and would have been delivered there to "Tony" Hernández Alvarado, according to what the former mayor said. of El Paraíso, during the hearing that took place before federal judge Kevin Castel, of the Southern District Court of New York.

According to the testimony of the former mayor, “El Chapo” apparently told an associate of his, named “Don Amado,” that he should go look for the bundles of money in his car. They were then placed on the table. The Sinaloa boss also asked for the phone number of “Tony” Hernández Alvarado. At the meeting was Ardón, his brother, Otto Salguero, Ronald Salguero, Melvin Pinto and Mario Calix, among others.

On October 2, 2019, Assistant Federal Prosecutor Jason Richman testified during another hearing that the Sinaloan kingpin gave one million dollars in bribes in exchange for protection to the former Honduran congressman, brother of Juan Orlando Hernández Alvarado, then president of Honduras.

The former Honduran legislator was detained at an airport in Miami, Florida, in November 2018, and was accused of four crimes of drug trafficking, possession of firearms and lying to the authorities.

The US Government assured during the first hearing in Court that the accused, a member of the Honduran Congress from 2014 to 2018, was involved at least since 2004, and for more than 10 years, in processing and distributing shipments of cocaine that reached his country by plane, boat, and even by submarine.

According to Geoffrey Berman, prosecutor for the Southern District of Manhattan, “Tony” Hernández Alvarado was also involved in at least two murders of rival drug traffickers, between 2011 and 2013. Likewise, some of the cocaine he transported was labeled with his initials “TH.” .

The US justice system indicated that the drug money enriched the accused and financed the campaigns of several candidates of his National Party, including those of former President Porfirio Lobo Sosa, who governed the Central American country from 2010 to 2014.

According to the Prosecutor's Office for the Southern District of Manhattan, “Tony” Hernández Alvarado “spent approximately $1.5 million in drug proceeds” to support the presidential campaign of his brother, re-elected in a disputed election in 2017.

“This is less serious than Alice in Wonderland […] The prosecutor did not say that, he never said that the president received anything […] The allegation itself is 100 percent false, absurd, and ridiculous,” responded the former Honduran president on his Twitter social network account.

For his part, “El Chapo” was sentenced to life imprisonment, plus 30 years in prison, and fined 12 thousand 166 million 191 thousand 704 dollars, on July 17, 2019, by US federal judge Brian M. Cogan, in courtroom 8D of the Eastern District Court of New York.

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