NEW YORK_ After numerous postponements, the former president of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernández began his trial this Tuesday in New York, accused of helping to smuggle tons of cocaine into the United States for almost two decades.
The trial, which will last between two and three weeks according to Judge Kevin Castel, began with the selection of the 12 members of the jury and 6 alternates from a total of 40 preselected, half of whom have expressed problems being present all the time. judgment.
Hernandez must still decide whether he will take the stand to testify.
Extradited to New York in April 2022, the 55-year-old former president is accused of participating in and protecting a network that sent more than 500 tons of cocaine to the United States between 2004 and 2022.
In exchange, he received “millions of dollars” from drug cartels, including Mexican drug trafficker Joaquín “Chapo” Guzmán, sentenced to life imprisonment in the United States, according to the New York prosecutor’s office.
If found guilty of the three charges brought against him by the prosecution – drug trafficking, trafficking and possession of weapons – he could be sentenced to life imprisonment.like his brother Tony Hernández and his collaborator Geovanny Fuentes, who participated in the same network.
“Victim of revenge”
In a letter published on Monday, the former president (2014-2022) reiterated that he is “innocent” and a “victim of revenge.”
“I am innocent, I am a victim of revenge and a conspiracy by organized crime and political enemies,” said the former ruler in the letter published on the X network by his wife, Ana García.
In the message addressed to the Honduran people, which will have little impact on the trial in the Southern Federal Court of Manhattan, Hernández described the accusations as “unfair” and “full of lies constructed in a fictional manner based on the testimony” of “confessed drug traffickers.” “, who negotiated with the Prosecutor’s Office of the Southern District of New York to achieve “the reduction of their sentences.”
Other defendants, former police chief Juan Carlos “Tigre” Bonilla and former police officer Mauricio Hernández, who were to be tried with the former president, pleaded guilty to drug trafficking.
This decision, which could mean a reduction in sentence, could be harmful to Hernández.
Pressure
According to the former president’s lawyers, Bonilla was going to testify against him.
In his defense, Hernández alleges that during his administration laws against drug trafficking were passed, such as the one that facilitated his own extradition.
Late Friday, Judge Castel once again denied a defense request to delay the trial again between 90 and 180 days, alleging a lack of time to examine the thousands of pages presented by the prosecution.
Of them, 2,200 since January 13 and which are marked as sensitive and can only be reviewed by the accused in the presence of a specialized lawyer.
Last year, former Mexican Homeland Security Secretary Genaro García Luna, the highest-ranking Mexican official to ever sit on a bench in the United States, was found guilty of drug trafficking, among other charges. The announcement of his sentence is scheduled for June 24, after being delayed on several occasions.
Since 2014, Honduras has extradited 38 people accused of drug trafficking to the United States, where in addition to Tony Hernandez and Geovanny Fuentes, Fabio Lobo, son of former president Porfirio Lobo (2010-2014), has already been sentenced to 24 years in prison, and former deputy Fredy Renán Nájera, 30 years old.
Source: AFP
