Juan Orlando Hernández (53 years old) will become the second former president of Honduras and the fourth former president of the Central American isthmus to serve a sentence in a United States prison in the last four decades.
Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno, ruler of Panama (1983-1989), Alfonso Portillo, of Guatemala (2000-2004), Rafael Leonardo Callejas Romero, of Honduras (1990-1994), and soon Juan Orlando Hernandez Alvaradofrom Honduras (2014-2022).
Of the four, United States requested three in extradition. Noriega was overthrown by armed means during the military intervention called Operation Just Cause executed in 1989 with the aim of dismantling the Panamanian Defense Forces and capturing the former dictator, accused of trafficking drugs for the Medellin cartel.
Common denominator
Hernández, accused of receiving money from the Sinaloa cartel. Noriega, to receive from the Medellin cartel.
To overthrow and put in jail someone who once worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the United States, then governed by George HW Bush, deployed more than 26,000 soldiers (between December 20, 1989 and January 3, 1990) who fought the Panama Defense Forces until Noriega surrendered on the last day of the occupation.
The US military transferred him to Miami where he faced trial for crimes related to drug trafficking and having received $4.6 million from the Medellin cartel to facilitate the transfer through Panamanian territory. He was charged with conspiracy, drug importation, money laundering and extortion.
Two years later, in September 1992, the Court sentenced him to 40 years in prison, a sentence that was later reduced to 30 years and finally to 20 for good behavior; but in April 2010, when he was 76 years old, United States He sent him extradited to France to serve another sentence for money laundering.
Expert
Félix Ávila, defender of Juan O. Hernández
“The extradition of the former president is within the average time that this process lasts.”
The once “strong man” for United States and also an associate of Colombian capo Pablo Escobar Gaviria died in a hospital in Panama at the age of 83 due to a brain tumor.
Years later, in May 2013, the United States extradited former Guatemalan President Alfoso Portillo to stand trial in the Southern District Court of New York for having laundered $2.5 million in US banks, money that, according to the indictment, he gave it to him Taiwan government to maintain diplomatic relations with that Asian country.
In February 2015, when he was 63 years old, Portillo Cabrera returned to Guatemala following serving a 70-month sentence.
The former president got that sentence because he pleaded guilty to money laundering before New York judge Robert Patterson. That same year, the US asked Honduras for the extradition of Rafael Leonardo Callejas for being implicated in the scandal that rocked the International Football Federationl (Fifa), known as Fifagate.
In December 2015, Callejas traveled to Miami to turn himself in to the US authorities and face trial for receiving bribes ($600,000) from the company MEdiaWorld in exchange for granting him exclusivity in the broadcast of the games of the National selection.
The former president used banks of United States to launder money. In March 2016 he pleaded guilty. He died in Atlanta, United Stateson April 4, 2020, awaiting a conviction.
Now following the Supreme Court of Justice will ratify the extradition decreed by a natural judge, it is the turn of former President Hernández, who is still being held in the Special Forces command (Cobra) while the Honduran and US authorities define the day of the extradition.
Newspaper THE PRESS He asked Félix Ávila, Hernández’s defense attorney, during a telephone interview if the former president would plead not guilty to face trial or guilty to achieve a reduction in sentence, but he said he might not refer to that issue.
“I am not the indicated source. Number one because there are things that I do not know and number two because I am not authorized by the family to talk regarding that subject (…) ”, said Ávila, who explained that his work will end when Hernández is transferred to the United States.
“It is a different legal system (in United States) which we cannot enter, we are not US attorneys. We don’t handle it.”
Ávila reported that, following the Supreme Court of Justicegave the green light to the extradition, he has not spoken with Hernández and does not know his state of mind.
Only “with the family” has he had communication. Compared with more than thirty processes of extradition executed by the State of Honduras, for Ávila, that of Hernández “is within the average” in time.
“The legal provision, which is the agreed order, clearly speaks of two months. The same treaty speaks of two months that the procedure can last, “said Ávila, who with the team of defense lawyers filed an amparo appeal outside the legal framework that regulates the extraditionaccording to experts.
When asked regarding the status of the extraditionfollowing the Court’s resolution, stated that “the Minister of Security, in two statements, in two press conferences (…), has given the answer.”
Manuel Antonio Noriega, 1983-1989
De facto President of Panama in the 1980s. After collaborating with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), United States accused him of several crimes related to drug trafficking and asset laundering.
He was an associate of the head of the Medellin cartel, Colombia, Pablo Escobar. He surrendered on January 3, 1990 to soldiers from United States who occupied the country to overthrow it.
Alfonso Portillo, 2002-2004
United States requested in extradition the president of Guatemala, Alfonso Portillo, for assuming him responsible for asset laundering.
Portillo, who pleaded guilty in a New York court, received a $2.5 million bribe from Taiwan for Guatemala to maintain diplomatic relations with that Asian country. He used banks of United States to hide the money.
Rafael Leonardo Callejas, 1990-1994
After being president of Honduras, Rafael Leonard CallejasYears later, he served as president of the Honduran National Football Federation (Fenafuth).
The U.S. government requested it in extradition for having laundered money in banks of that country that he obtained as bribes. In this way, he was involved in the worldwide scandal FifaGate.
