The former mayor of El Paraíso, Copán, Alexander “Chande” Ardón, convicted in the United States for drug trafficking, assured that in a private meeting “around 2009” he met the then deputy of the National Party of Honduras, and gave him “a million dollars” to help him politically and financially.
In exchange, “he helped me so that the prosecutor’s office did not investigate me,” he said.
Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, head of the Sinaloa cartel, also sentenced to life imprisonment in the United States, “paid that bribe,” said the witness who boasted that “Honduran authorities never seized drugs from him,” despite the fact that he managed to smuggle some 250 tons into the United States.
There were more payments, but he did not specify the amount – the “amount was more”, he assured – before specifying that he “worked” with Tony Hernández, brother of the former president, also sentenced to life imprisonment in the United States, like his partner Geovanny Fuentes .
The first witness for the prosecution, José Sánchez, who for 15 years was an accountant for the rice company Graneros Nacionales, He recalled having seen the owner Jorge Jarufe, Hernández and Fuentes on two occasions to talk about drugs. and to protect “whoever provided it.”
“We are going to shove the drugs under their (the Americans’) noses and they are not going to even notice,” he said the accused told Fuentes in his presence, as he had already repeated in other previous trials of members of the network.
Unrelated to drug trafficking, beyond depositing money in the bank, “following orders” from his boss, he assured that in 2015 he decided to leave the country with his family, out of “fear” that something would happen to them, after having spread images of said meetings.
The defense of the 55-year-old former president, who listened to the accusations without flinching, tried to distort his statement, accusing him of having participated in a money laundering scheme and questioning his honesty by pointing out that four years after living in the United States illegally had requested political asylum and began to collaborate with justice.
“He privately protected drug traffickers”
In the allegations, Prosecutor David Robles accused Hernández of fighting drug trafficking in public and protecting drug traffickers in private.
“This powerful politician maintained a public speech in which he said that he was fighting drug trafficking through the back door. “associated with drug traffickers” in exchange for “millions of dollars in bribes,” he said.
It is, he added, a case about “power, corruption and massive cocaine trafficking.”
The New York prosecutor’s office accuses the 55-year-old lawyer and politician of having protected a network that sent more than 500 tons of cocaine to the United States between 2004 and 2022.
If found guilty of all the accusations, he could be sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years, like his brother and Fuentes.
Although he is not obliged to do so, the defense, in an attempt to go all out, plans for the former president to take the stand.
“There is no obligation to make this decision now,” advised Judge Kevin Castel, who is investigating the case.
“Revenge”
The defense bases its defense on weakening the credibility of protected witnesses in exchange for prison benefits, who act out of “revenge” on the person who sealed their fate.
When Hernández assumed the presidency in 2014, Honduras was the world’s “capital” of homicides and 87% of the drugs that arrived in the United States passed through that Central American country.
That decreased by 50% and 80%, respectively, during his government, which promoted “dozens of laws” to fight this scourge, such as legislation against money laundering or complying with the extradition treaty – which has facilitated the sending of 38 people to the United States since 2014 accused of drug trafficking – according to their lawyers.
Added to this is the creation of a special force in the police to fight against drug trafficking, a policy that even earned praise from Washington during the Donald Trump government (2017-2021).
“You will not see any video of receiving money, nor emails or messages nor any sign of personal wealth” that confirms the prosecution’s accusations, said lawyer Renato Stabile.
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