NEW YORK — The defiant former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández was sentenced on Wednesday in New York to 45 years in prison for associating with some drug traffickers who paid bribes for more than a decade to ensure that more than 400 tons of cocaine reached the U.S.
Judge P. Kevin Castel sentenced Hernández to 45 years in a U.S. prison and fined him $8 million, saying the sentence should serve as a warning to “well-educated, well-dressed” individuals who gain power and think their status insulates them from justice when they do wrong.
A jury convicted him in March in Manhattan federal court after a two week trialwhat it was followed closely in his home country.
“I am innocent,” Hernández said through an interpreter at his sentencing. “I was wrongly and unfairly accused.”
In a long extemporaneous statement, interrupted several times by the judge, who repeatedly reminded him that this was not the time to re-litigate the trial, Hernández portrayed himself as a hero of the anti-drug trafficking movement who has joined forces with American authorities under three presidential administrations. from the USA. to reduce drug imports.
But the judge said trial evidence proved otherwise and that Hernández employed “considerable acting skills” to make it appear he was a crusader against drug trafficking while deploying his country’s police and armed forces when necessary. , to protect the drug trade.
Castel called Hernández a “two-faced, power-hungry politician” who protected a select group of drug traffickers.
When the sentence was announced, Hernández, wearing glasses and a dark green prison uniform, stood next to his lawyer, in front of two US deputies. After shaking his lawyer’s hand and turning to nod toward the packed spectator section, Hernández limped out of the courtroom with the help of a cane and a brace on one foot.
Prosecutors sought a sentence of life in prison plus 30 years, the same recommendation as the court’s probation officers.
Hernández, 55, served two terms as leader of the Central American nation of about 10 million people.
He was arrested at his home in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, three months after leaving office in 2022 and was extradited to the USA in April of that year.
U.S. prosecutors say Hernández worked with drug traffickers as early as 2004, taking millions of dollars in bribes as he rose from rural congressman to president of the National Congress and then to the country’s highest office.
Hernández acknowledged in trial testimony that drug money was paid to virtually every political party in Honduras, but he denied having accepted bribes.
Hernández insisted in his lengthy statement Wednesday that his trial was unfair because he was not allowed to include evidence that would have led the jury to find him innocent. He said he was being persecuted by politicians and drug traffickers.
“It’s like I was thrown into a deep river with my hands tied,” he said.
On Wednesday, in Honduras, US Ambassador Laura Dogu classified the sentence as an important step in combating the social consequences of drug trafficking.
“Here in Honduras and in the United States, we cannot forget that Juan Orlando’s actions made the people suffer,” said Dogu.
Luis Romero, a Honduran lawyer and criminal analyst, said the sentence came as a surprise to many people in Honduras who believed he would receive life in prison.
At a press conference in Honduras, Hernández’s wife, Ana García, said her husband was innocent and called the sentence a “judicial lynching.” García – who is planning run for president next year – said she looked forward to her husband’s appeal.
“Today is just one chapter in a series of injustices,” she said.
Witnesses at the trial included drug lords who admitted responsibility for dozens of murders and said Hernández was an enthusiastic protector of some of the world’s most powerful cocaine traffickers, including notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who is serving a prison sentence. perpetual in the USA.
During his comments, the judge noted that Guzman had given a $1 million bribe in 2013 directly to Hernández’s brother, Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández, a former Honduran congressman who was sentenced to life imprisonment in a 2021 US prison in New York for his own conviction about drug charges.
Hernández shook his head when he heard Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacob Gutwillig tell the judge he chose to “commit evil.”
“No one, not even the former president of a country, is above the law,” Gutwillig said.
Hernández was sentenced in federal court less than two blocks from where former US President Donald Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11 following his conviction for falsifying business records.
In announcing the sentence, Castel spoke at length about the ways in which Hernández received a fair trial and described many of the key pieces of evidence that emerged at trial to prove guilt.
Castel described the number of murders linked to drug trafficking during Hernández’s political career as “staggering,” saying one drug trafficking witness admitted at trial that he helped 56 murders and another said he was involved in 78 murders before he began cooperate with US authorities. .
He noted that Hernández only helped drug traffickers who helped his political ambitions, and not all the time.
“No, he was too smart for that,” Castel said. The judge said Hernández helped drug traffickers whenever he could.
“His No. 1 goal was his own political survival,” Castel said.
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Associated Press writer Marlon González in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, contributed to this report.
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