Once praised by the United States as a critical ally in the war on drugs, former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez is now facing trial in a Manhattan federal court on multiple drug trafficking and weapon charges nearly two years after his arrest and extradition to the United States.
Federal prosecutors claim the political leader ran his Central American nation as a "narco-state," collecting millions of dollars from violent cartels to fuel his rise to power.
Honduras Ex-President Faces Drug Charges
According to The Associated Press, Hernandez was a well-liked political leader by the Democratic and Republican administrations. Both parties viewed the relationship with the former president as beneficial to American interests in the region, especially in combatting the illegal drug trade and helping to slow the number of migrants crossing the southern U.S. border.
That Hernández is being tried in the U.S. rather than his native country underscores Honduras' institutional weakness, says Raúl Pineda Alvarado, a Honduran political analyst and former three-term congressman from Hernández's National Party.
"For Hondurans, it signifies how weak our democracy is in terms of the separation of powers," he said. "Politicians are not subject to any control."
U.S. authorities allege that for roughly two decades, Hernandez profited from drug trades that brought hundreds of thousands of kilos of cocaine into the U.S. He also stands accused of working with the notorious Sinaloa cartel in Mexico.
The millions of dollars in drug money that began flowing to Hernández starting around 2004, in turn, powered his rise from a congressman representing his rural home province in western Honduras to president of the National Congress and then two consecutive presidential terms from 2014 to 2022, federal prosecutors say.
During his first winning presidential campaign, Hernandez solicited $1.6 million from a drug trafficker to support his run and those of other politicians in his conservative political party.
His brother received a $1 million campaign donation as well, under the premise the cartel's drug shipments would find safe passage through Honduras should Hernandez be elected.
He was arrested at his home in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, in February 2022, just three months after leaving office, and extradited to the U.S. in April of that year.
Reuters reveals Hernandez has pleaded not guilty to three counts of cocaine importation conspiracy and illegal weapons possession.
He has been detained at Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center since his April 2022 extradition.
He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 40 years and up to life in prison if convicted on all counts. The trial begins with jury selection on Tuesday and is expected to last between two and three weeks.
