Video After The Jump
NEW YORK (AP) — Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez was convicted Friday in New York of charges that he conspired with drug traffickers & used his military & national police force to enable tons of cocaine to make it unhindered into the U.S.
The charges carry a mandatory minimum of 40 years in prison & a potential maximum of life.
Hernandez, 55, served 2 terms as the leader of the Central American nation.
Hernandez was arrested at his home in Tegucigalpal, 3 months after leaving office in 2022 & was extradited to the U.S. in April of that year.
U.S. prosecutors accused Hernandez of working with drug traffickers as long ago as 2004, saying he took millions of dollars in bribes as he rose from rural congressman to president of the National Congress & then to the country’s highest office.
He said his accusers fabricated their claims about him in bids for leniency for their crimes.
“They all have motivation to lie & they are professional liars,” Hernandez said.
Trial witnesses included traffickers who admitted responsibility for dozens of murders & said Hernandez was an enthusiastic protector of some of the world’s most powerful cocaine dealers, including notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
His brother, Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernandez, a former Honduran congressman, was sentenced to life in 2021 for his own conviction on drug charges.
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