Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández Sentenced to 45 Years in U.S. Prison for Drug Trafficking Charges

Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández has been sentenced to 45 years in a U.S. prison and fined $8 million for his involvement in enabling drug traffickers to use his military and national police force to transport large quantities of cocaine into the United States. The sentencing took place on Wednesday in New York, following Hernández’s conviction in March by a jury in Manhattan federal court.

During the trial, which garnered significant attention in Honduras, Hernández maintained his innocence, stating, “I was wrongly and unjustly accused.” However, Judge P. Kevin Castel described Hernández as a “two-faced politician hungry for power” who protected a select group of drug traffickers. The former president, dressed in a full green prison uniform, stood in court with his lawyers, while two U.S. marshals stood behind him.

Prosecutors had sought a life sentence plus an additional 30 years, emphasizing Hernández’s long-standing collaboration with drug traffickers dating back to 2004. They alleged that he accepted millions of dollars in bribes as he climbed the political ladder from rural congressman to president of the National Congress and eventually to the country’s highest office. Hernández admitted that drug money was paid to various political parties in Honduras but denied personally accepting any bribes.

Hernández’s arrest occurred at his residence in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, three months after he left office in 2022. He was subsequently extradited to the United States in April of the same year. The trial featured testimonies from traffickers who confessed to numerous murders and claimed that Hernández actively shielded some of the world’s most powerful cocaine dealers, including the notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, currently serving a life prison term in the U.S.

Hernández’s brother, Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández, a former Honduran congressman, had previously been sentenced to life in a U.S. prison in 2021 for his own drug-related conviction in Manhattan federal court.

The former president argued that his trial was unjust, as he was not allowed to present evidence that could have led the jury to find him not guilty. He claimed to be a victim of persecution by politicians and drug traffickers, stating, “It’s as if I had been thrown into a deep river with my hands bound.”