By Akinsuroju Olubunmi
Drugs: Ex-Honduras President Jailed for 45 Years
A court in New York has sentenced former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez to 45 years in prison for trafficking hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States. The sentencing took place on Wednesday, drawing anti-Hernandez protesters outside the Manhattan courthouse, who displayed placards condemning the ex-president’s actions.
Despite prosecutors seeking a life sentence, the court handed down a 45-year term along with an $8 million fine. Given Hernandez’s age of 55, the sentence likely means he will spend the rest of his life behind bars. His legal team has indicated plans to appeal the conviction.
Hernandez, who led Honduras from 2014 to 2022, was found guilty in March of facilitating the smuggling of approximately 500 tons of cocaine from Colombia and Venezuela to the United States since 2004, predating his presidency. US federal prosecutors labeled his administration a “narco-state.”
The former president used drug money to enrich himself, finance political campaigns, and commit electoral fraud in the 2013 and 2017 elections. Hernandez was extradited to the US in 2022, accused of receiving millions of dollars in bribes from drug traffickers.
This conviction places Hernandez alongside other former Latin American leaders prosecuted in the US, such as Panama’s Manuel Noriega in 1992 and Guatemala’s Alfonso Portillo in 2014.
Hernandez, cocaine,
Drugs: Ex-Honduras President Jailed for 45 Years