At trial’s start, ex-Honduran president cast as corrupt politician by US but a hero by his lawyer
NEW YORK — Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was described by a prosecutor at the start of his drug trial on Wednesday as a corrupt politician who allowed his country’s biggest drug traffickers to fuel his takeover, but was portrayed by his lawyer as a heroic leader who cooperated with the US . authorities to combat drug trafficking.
Hernández was tried in Manhattan federal court two years after his arrest and extradition to the US on drug trafficking and weapons charges, after serving as president of the Central American nation from 2014 to 2022. During two terms, he was often viewed by Democratic and Republican administrations as favorable to U.S. interests in the region.
Assistant U.S. Attorney David Robles pointed briefly to Hernández, who sat at the defense table in a suit, as he argued that the former president sold himself to drug traffickers in exchange for their help in securing his political success.
“For years, he worked hand-in-hand with some of the largest and most violent drug traffickers in Honduras to send tons after tons of cocaine to the United States, traffickers who fueled his takeover with millions of dollars in bribes,” Robles said. said, citing Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa Cartel among Hernández’s allies.
In return, the prosecutor said, he abused his power to use the Honduran military, police and legal system to protect and support drug traffickers.
At one point, Hernández even boasted during a meeting with drug dealers that “together they would push the drugs through the noses of the gringos, of the Americans,” Robles said.
However, lawyer Renato Stabile said Hernández first represented his rural home province in western Honduras as a congressman because he wanted to rid his country of the scourge of drug trafficking. He became chairman of the National Congress before becoming president.
Stabile warned jurors to be wary of government witnesses, particularly several men who had murdered dozens of individuals, and hope their testimony will earn them leniency at sentencing.
“If you look around this courtroom, the number of people they killed is probably greater than everyone sitting here right now,” he told jurors in the packed courtroom, saying some of the witnesses they will see have tortured and killed children.
“These are depraved people. These are psychopaths. These are people who are not worthy of your trust and faith,” Stabile said.
The lawyer said Honduras was the murder capital of the world a year before Hernández became president and that homicide rates fell by more than 50% as he stood up to gangs and drug cartels.
Stabile said his client agreed to extradite 20 people to the U.S. to face criminal charges, although three people escaped.
“Mr. Hernández does not sit down with drug dealers. He stood up to drug dealers,” the lawyer said of a married man with four children who has a master’s degree from the State University of New York at Albany.
The lawyer told jurors that during the trial they will hear a lot about the ex-president’s brother, Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández, a former Honduran congressman who was sentenced to life in prison in Manhattan federal court in 2021 for his own drug conviction. cost.
Prosecutors say Tony Hernández secured and distributed millions of dollars in bribes from drug dealers for his country’s politicians between 2004 and 2019, including $1 million from infamous Mexican capo Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman for Juan Orlando Hernández.
The former president was arrested at his home in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, in February 2022 – just three months after leaving office – and extradited to the US in April that year.