Former President of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, has been sentenced to 45 years in prison after being convicted of drug crimes in a US court. Hernández was found guilty of conspiring to import cocaine into the US and possessing destructive devices, including machine guns.
Prosecutors in New York described Hernández as running the Central American country like a “narco-state” and accepting millions of dollars in bribes from drug traffickers to shield them from the law. They accused him of paving a cocaine superhighway to the United States, protected by machine guns.
During his sentencing hearing, Hernández maintained his innocence, stating, “I am innocent. I was wrongly and unjustly accused.” The judge, however, called him a “two-faced politician hungry for power.”
Hernández, who served as president of Honduras from 2014 to 2022, was extradited to the US three months after leaving office. Prosecutors alleged that he had partnered with some of the world’s most prolific narcotics traffickers to build a corrupt empire based on the illegal trafficking of cocaine to the US.
Despite previously being seen as a strong ally to the US, Hernández’s conviction revealed his long-standing ties to drug traffickers and involvement in facilitating the smuggling of hundreds of tonnes of cocaine. He is expected to appeal against his conviction.
His brother, Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández, a former Honduras congressman, is currently serving a life sentence for separate drug charges. Hernández joins a list of ex-Latin American heads of state, including Panama’s Manuel Noriega and Guatemala’s Alfonso Portillo, who have been convicted of drug-related crimes in the US.
