©Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez sits with his lawyers before U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel as he appears on drug trafficking charges into the United States at the start of his trial in a court in New York, United States, February 20, 2024 i
By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez worked “hand in hand” with drug traffickers who fueled his rise to power with millions of dollars in bribes, a U.S. prosecutor said on Wednesday in his opening statement at the Hernandez trial.
Hernandez was close to Washington during his 2014-2022 tenure. Honduras received more than $50 million in counternarcotics assistance from the United States and tens of millions more in military and security aid during his presidency, and won support from former President Donald Trump for cracking down on the migration.
Three months after leaving office, however, federal prosecutors in Manhattan accused him of accepting millions of dollars in bribes from cocaine traffickers in exchange for using his position to protect them. Attorney General Merrick Garland said he abused his power to run the country like a “narco-state.”
“For years he worked side by side with some of Honduras’ largest and most violent drug traffickers to send tons of cocaine here to the United States,” prosecutor David Robles said.
Hernandez, 55, has pleaded not guilty. His defense attorney was expected to give an opening statement later Wednesday. He claimed that drug traffickers defamed him to try to lighten their own sentences and to retaliate against his administration’s enforcement actions.
Robles acknowledged that Hernandez has publicly said he fights drug trafficking and has at times cooperated with the United States to do so.
“But behind the scenes he made sure that the drug traffickers who remained loyal to him were protected,” Robles said.
Among the traffickers Hernandez protected was his brother, Robles said. Hernandez’s brother, former congressman Tony Hernandez, was convicted on drug charges in the United States in 2019 and sentenced to life in prison.
In early February, two co-defendants who were initially supposed to be tried alongside Hernandez — his cousin Mauricio Hernandez and former Honduran national police chief Juan Carlos Bonilla — pleaded guilty to drug trafficking.
He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 40 years and up to life in prison if convicted on all counts. The trial began Tuesday with jury selection and is expected to last two to three weeks.