US President Donald Trump declared that he would pardon former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was serving a 45-year sentence in the United States on three counts of drug trafficking and weapons offenses, including receiving money from Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
But what was the Honduran’s relationship with one of the biggest drug traffickers in history? MILENIO tells you.
Juan Orlando Hernández was arrested at his home in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, in February 2022, three months after leaving office. He was later transferred to New York to stand trial for allowing drug traffickers to use the Honduran Army and National Police to help smuggle tons of cocaine into the United States.
Judge P. Kevin Castel sentenced Hernández to 45 years in federal prison and five years of supervised release. A jury found him guilty in March of that year in Manhattan federal court after a two-week trial.
The formal indictment, according to the U.S. State Department, alleges that from at least 2004 to 2022, a period encompassing Hernández’s two terms as president of Honduras, he participated in a “corrupt and violent” drug trafficking conspiracy to facilitate the entry of cocaine into the United States.
The report states that the former president received millions of dollars in exchange for using his public office, law enforcement, and the military to support drug cartels in Honduras, Mexico, and other countries.
“Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, allegedly partnered with some of the world’s most prolific drug traffickers to build a corrupt and brutally violent empire based on the illegal trafficking of tons of cocaine into the United States,” explained Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
During his time in Honduran politics, specifically when he served as a congressman and later as president, Hernández partnered with former Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, among other drug kingpins.
In 2013, while campaigning for president, he accepted approximately one million dollars in drug trafficking proceeds from Guzmán Loera.
To this end, he allegedly sent his brother, Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández Alvarado, a former member of the Honduran National Congress, along with another individual, armed with machine guns, to collect the sum provided by the Mexican drug trafficker, according to the State Department.
In exchange, the Honduran promised to continue protecting the Sinaloa Cartel’s drug trafficking activities in Honduras.
“It is alleged that Hernández used his vast political power to protect and assist drug traffickers and cartel leaders, alerting them to potential raids and allowing heavily armed violence to support their drug trafficking,” stated prosecutor Daniel Williams.
In addition, between 2013 and 2014, he also partnered with Honduran trafficker Geovanny Fuentes Ramírez to “smash drugs right under the noses of the Americans,” according to testimonies gathered by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The former president of Honduras allegedly used economic incentives from drug lords to “ensure his continued rise in Honduran politics,” including his election as president in 2013 and 2017.
