Former Honduras chief to face trial for permitting drug trafficking by way of the nation, certain for the US

Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was as soon as touted by U.S. authorities as a key ally within the struggle on medication. Now, federal prosecutors say the political chief ran his Central American nation as a “narco-state,” amassing hundreds of thousands of {dollars} from violent cartels to gasoline his rise to energy.

Practically two years after his arrest and extradition to the U.S., Hernández is now set to face trial in Manhattan federal court on drug trafficking and weapons fees. Jury choice is scheduled to start Tuesday.

It is a beautiful fall from grace for a political chief lengthy considered — by Democratic and Republican administrations alike — as useful to American pursuits within the area, together with combatting the illegal drug trade and serving to gradual the waves of migrants crossing the southern U.S. border.

That Hernández is being tried within the U.S. fairly than his native nation underscores Honduras’ institutional weak spot, says Raúl Pineda Alvarado, a Honduran political analyst and former three-term congressman from Hernández’s Nationwide Social gathering.

HONDURAN EX-PRESIDENT EXTRADITED TO US TO FACE DRUG TRAFFICKING CHARGES IN NEW YORK

“For Hondurans it signifies how weak our democracy is in terms of the separation of powers,” he stated. “Politicians are not subject to any control.”

Federal authorities say that for almost 20 years, Hernández profited from drug trades that introduced a whole bunch of hundreds of kilos of cocaine into the U.S., even at occasions working with the highly effective Sinaloa cartel in Mexico.

Honduran former president Juan Orlando Hernandez is ready to face trial in New York Metropolis after knowingly permitting drug trafficking by way of his nation in alternate for receiving hundreds of thousands from cartels.  (Sean Gallup/Getty Photos)

The hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in drug cash that started flowing to Hernández beginning round 2004, in flip, powered his rise from a congressman representing his rural house province in western Honduras to president of the Nationwide Congress after which two consecutive presidential phrases from 2014 to 2022, prosecutors say.

In alternate for bribes that propped up his political aspirations, U.S. prosecutors say, drug traffickers had been allowed to function within the nation with close to impunity, receiving data to evade authorities and even legislation enforcement escorts for his or her shipments.

A STUNNING FALL FOR EX-HONDURAN PRESIDENT, ARRESTED AT THE REQUEST OF THE US FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING

Throughout his first successful presidential marketing campaign, Hernández solicited $1.6 million from a drug trafficker to assist his run and people of different politicians in his conservative political celebration, federal prosecutors say.

His brother additionally acquired a $1 million marketing campaign donation from infamous Sinaloa boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán on the promise the cartel’s drug shipments would discover secure passage by way of Honduras if Hernández was elected.

Federal prosecutors in New York spent years working their means up by way of Honduran drug trafficking organizations earlier than reaching the particular person many believed was on the very pinnacle — Hernández.

He was arrested at his house in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, in February 2022, simply three months after leaving workplace, and was extradited to the U.S. in April that 12 months.

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U.S. Lawyer Normal Merrick Garland stated on the time that Hernández abused his place as president “to operate the country as a narco-state.”

Hernández’s attorneys declined to remark forward of the trial, during which prosecutors are anticipated to depend on testimony from drug traffickers and corrupt Honduran legislation enforcement officers and politicians.

The previous president, who earned a grasp’s diploma from the State College of New York at Albany, has steadfastly maintained his innocence, saying the allegations are revenge from drug traffickers he had extradited to the U.S.

Hernández faces federal fees together with drug trafficking conspiracy and possession of machine weapons and harmful gadgets.

In the meantime his co-defendants — the previous head of the Honduran nationwide police, Juan Carlos Bonilla, and Hernández’s cousin, Mauricio Hernández Pineda — each pleaded responsible in current weeks to drug trafficking fees in the identical Manhattan courtroom the place he is set to be tried.