Drug trafficker as the New York prosecutor maintains or scourge of drug trafficking as former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández defends himself? After two and a half weeks of trial and fifteen witnesses, the jury will rule as of this Thursday, March 7, in a decision that must be unanimous.
Hernández, who according to the New York prosecutor’s office created a narco-state during his eight years of presidency (2014-2022), He is accused of conspiring to traffic drugs and weapons and possessing weapons, crimes for which, if found guilty, he might spend the rest of his days in prison, like his brother Tony, sentenced to life imprisonment in 2021.
After receiving instructions from Judge Kevin Castel starting at 10:00 a.m. local time (3:00 p.m. GMT), the 12 members of the jury will retire to deliberate, for which there is no time limit. Your decision must be unanimous.
For prosecutor Jacob H. Gutwillig, there is no doubt that the former president “is a drug trafficker” and “is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.”
According to the prosecution, received millions of dollars in bribes from drug lords, among them from the Sinaloa cartel of Joaquín “el Chapo” Guzmán – sentenced to life imprisonment in the United States – in exchange for protecting them from extradition and offering security with the help of the military, police and justice to their valuable merchandise from Colombia destined for final to the US market.
During his presidency, Honduras became a “super highway” for Colombian cocaine, according to the prosecutor’s office, which claims that between 2004 and 2022 the network that Hernández supported introduced more than 500 tons of cocaine to the US market.
San Pedro Sula, the economic capital in the north of the country, which in 2013 was one of the most violent cities in the world, became a drug nerve center before passing through Guatemala and Mexico, according to the US anti-drug agency. the DEA.
Of the guys
The defense strategy, as in most trials of this type, is to question the statements of the witnesses – most of them drug traffickers who seek to reduce their sentences with their cooperation – and the lack of evidence that supports their accusations.
Witnesses such as Honduran drug traffickers Devis Leonel Rivera, leader of the powerful Los Cachiros cartel, former mayor Alexander Ardón – from the same party as the accused – and Fabio Lobo, the son of former president Porfirio Lobo (2010-2014), assured that they had “contributed” thousands of dollars for the accused’s first electoral campaign in exchange for protection.
And the proof, according to them, of said protection is that they were not extradited but rather voluntarily surrendered to the United States.
“The only evidence we have is the word of a drug trafficker to another drug trafficker,” said defense lawyer Renato Stabile, who reminded the jury that the former president enacted laws once morest money laundering, the seizure of criminal assets and authorized the first extraditions of drug traffickers to the United States.
“The extradition law was not for his people, for the drug traffickers he protected,” countered prosecutor Elinor L. Tarlow.
The former president had two faces: a public one that pretended to fight drug trafficking but privately protected his own, his colleague Gutwillig had said shortly before.
Narcopolitics
Hernández, who feels like a “victim of revenge,” called the witnesses “professional liars.” “Everyone has a lot of reasons to lie,” he said on the stand, even though he was not required to testify.
“The only one who tells the truth is you?” prosecutor Kyle Wirshba cornered him following a tough interrogation in which he put him on the ropes when he asked him why he protected his brother Tony accused of drug trafficking.
Tony Hernández was detained in 2018 at the Miami airport following the then president’s security told him that there was no problem for him to travel to the United States, said one of the defense witnesses.
Throughout the trial, the dozen witnesses for the prosecution revealed the close links between drug trafficking and politics in the Central American country.
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