Ex-president turned Honduras into a safe haven for drug gangs, prosecutors say
Brick after brick of cocaine flowed into the United States for years from countries like Venezuela and Colombia, all through the small Central American country of Honduras.
Planes from clandestine airstrips and smuggling ships disguised as fishing boats found safe haven there, U.S. officials said. And the ruthless gangs that exploited them, officials said, had a partner and protector in the country's two-term president, Juan Orlando Hernández.
Opening arguments in Mr. Hernández's trial for conspiracy to import narcotics are scheduled for Wednesday in Federal District Court in Manhattan. He is accused of participating in a scheme that lasted more than twenty years and involved the entry of more than 500 kilos of cocaine into the United States.
Mr. Hernández used the proceeds to finance his presidential campaigns, U.S. officials said, and then ordered Honduran police and military to protect the smugglers who paid him. One accused co-conspirator was killed in a Honduran prison as part of an effort to protect Mr. Hernández, according to an indictment.
When he was extradited to New York in 2022, US officials said Mr Hernández condoned violence and relished his ability to flood America with cocaine. The former president's brother reportedly told a trafficker that Mr. Hernández would “stuff the drugs right into the noses of the gringos.”
That brother, Tony Hernández, who had served in the Honduran Congress, was convicted in 2019 of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States and sentenced to life in prison.
Former President Hernández, who has also been accused of possessing and conspiring to possess machine guns and weapons of destruction, has denied wrongdoing. He said in a social media post just before he was taken into custody in Honduras: “I am willing to present myself voluntarily and defend myself in accordance with the law.”
It is not unprecedented for a former head of state to be indicted in New York; Mr. Hernández is not even the first Honduran president to do this. Rafael Callejas, who was president from 1990 to 1994, pleaded guilty in 2016 in federal court in Brooklyn to taking bribes while running that country's soccer federation. Alfonso Portillo, a former president of Guatemala, pleaded guilty in 2014 in federal court in Manhattan to accepting bribes in exchange for Taiwan's diplomatic recognition.
The closest parallel to Mr. Hernández is General Manuel Antonio Noriega, the former leader of Panama. He was tried in federal court in Miami and was found guilty in 1992 of allowing the Medellín drug cartel to ship massive amounts of cocaine through his country to the United States in exchange for millions of dollars in bribes.
The process could provide some measure of resolution for Honduras, a poverty-stricken country of about 10 million people that has struggled with corruption and violence for decades, and where Mr. Hernández has become deeply unpopular.
His government failed to curb crime or build a healthy economy, and hundreds of thousands of desperate Hondurans left the country, many seeking to enter the United States. Mr. Hernández's successor, Xiomara Castro, accused him of turning the country into a “narco-dictatorship.”
In both of his presidential campaigns, prosecutors say, Mr. Hernández used drug money to bribe election officials and manipulate vote counts. Widespread distrust of the outcome of the second election in 2017 led to protests that blocked roads and bridges. Prosecutors said Mr. Hernández gave money to a political party colleague who paid gang members to commit violence and that protesters died in the clashes with security forces that followed.
Fireworks exploded around the capital Tegucigalpa in 2022 as the Honduran Supreme Court approved Mr. Hernández's extradition to the United States, sparking celebrations that included chants of “Juancho goes to New York,” a reference to the former president's nickname .
The indictments outline a vast conspiracy and a breathtaking level of corruption, detailing how elected officials solicited and accepted bribes, formed alliances with human traffickers, and set up front companies to launder money.
Prosecutors have said they plan to bring cooperating witnesses and some co-conspirators to the witness stand. One expected witness was described as a man who provided security for a Honduran human trafficking group known as “Los Cachiros.”
Another is Alex Ardon, a former human trafficker who served as mayor of the municipality of El Paraíso and who prosecutors said would testify that the Hernández brothers entrusted a high-ranking member of the Honduran National Police with special assignments, including murder.
Perhaps one of the most striking pieces of evidence are the ledgers recovered by Honduran military police, along with firearms, grenades and cash, from a car in which a human trafficker was a passenger. According to prosecutors, these ledgers contained the initials of Juan Orlando Hernández, along with details of large-scale cocaine transactions.