Defiant former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was sentenced to 45 years in prison for conspiring with bribe-paying drug traffickers over a decade to ensure a staggering quantity of cocaine entered the United States.
A defiant former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was sentenced in New York Wednesday to 45 years in prison for teaming up with some bribe-paying drug traffickers for over a decade to ensure over 400 tons of cocaine made it to the United States.
Judge P. Kevin Castel sentenced Hernández to 45 years in a U.S. prison and fined him $8 million, emphasizing that the penalty should serve as a warning to "well educated, well dressed" individuals who acquire power and believe their status shields them from justice when they act unlawfully.
Sentenced to 45 Years: Former Honduran President's Alliance with Drug Traffickers Proven
Hernández's conviction resulted from a two-week trial in March in Manhattan federal court, closely monitored in his home country. "I am innocent," Hernández asserted through an interpreter at his sentencing. "I was wrongly and unjustly accused."
In a lengthy extemporaneous statement punctuated by interruptions from the judge reminding him that this was not a time to revisit the trial, Hernández portrayed himself as an anti-drug trafficking crusader who partnered with American authorities under three U.S. presidential administrations to minimize drug imports.
Sentenced to 45 Years: Former Honduran President's Alliance with Drug Traffickers Proven
However, Judge Castel stated that trial evidence demonstrated the contrary, revealing that Hernández deployed "considerable acting skills" to portray himself as an anti-drug trafficking crusader while employing his nation's police and military to protect the drug trade when necessary.
Castel described Hernández as a "two-faced politician hungry for power" who shielded a select group of traffickers. As the sentence was announced, Hernández, wearing a dull green prison uniform and spectacles, stood alongside his lawyer, flanked by two U.S. marshals.
Hernández, 55, served two terms as the leader of the Central American nation of roughly 10 million people. Arrested at his home in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, three months after leaving office in 2022, he was extradited to the U.S. in April of that year.
U.S. prosecutors allege that Hernández collaborated with drug traffickers as far back as 2004, accepting millions of dollars in bribes as he ascended from rural congressman to president of the National Congress and ultimately to the country's highest office. Hernández acknowledged in trial testimony that drug money permeated virtually all political parties in Honduras, but he denied receiving bribes himself.
Hernández insisted in his lengthy statement Wednesday that his trial was unjust because he was not permitted to present evidence that would have led the jury to find him not guilty. He claimed he was being persecuted by politicians and drug traffickers.
"It’s as if I had been thrown into a deep river with my hands bound," he said.
In Honduras on Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador Laura Dogu hailed the sentencing as a significant step in tackling the societal consequences of drug trafficking. "Here in Honduras and in the United States, we cannot forget that the actions of Juan Orlando have made the people suffer," Dogu said.
Luis Romero, a Honduran criminal lawyer and analyst, expressed surprise at the sentence, as many in Honduras anticipated a life sentence. At a news conference in Honduras, Hernández's wife, Ana García, asserted his innocence, calling the sentencing a "judicial lynching." García, who plans to run for president next year, expressed her anticipation for her husband's appeal.
"Today is only a chapter in a series of injustices," she said. Trial witnesses included traffickers who admitted responsibility for dozens of murders and testified that Hernández was a fervent protector of some of the world's most powerful cocaine dealers, including notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, currently serving a life prison term in the U.S.
During his remarks, the judge noted that Guzman provided 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 a U.S. prison in 2021 in New York for his own drug-related convictions.
Hernández shook his head when he heard Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacob Gutwillig convey to the judge that Hernández had chosen to "commit evil." "No one, not even the former president of a country, is above the law," Gutwillig said.
Hernández was sentenced in a federal courthouse less than two blocks from where former U.S. President Donald Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11 following his conviction on charges of falsifying business records.
As he announced the sentence, Castel spoke at length about the ways Hernández had received a fair trial and described much of the key evidence that emerged at trial to prove guilt. Castel described the number of killings linked to the drug trade during Hernández's political career as "staggering," stating that one drug trafficking witness admitted at the trial to aiding 56 killings, and another said he was involved in 78 murders before he began cooperating with U.S. authorities.
He noted that Hernández only helped the drug traffickers who aided his political ambitions, not all of them. "No, he was too smart for that," Castel said. The judge said Hernández aided traffickers whenever he could. "His No. 1 goal was his own political survival," Castel said. ". Each article should have at least 10 paragraphs.
