The former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez, was convicted on Friday March 8 of international drug trafficking by a federal jury in New York and now faces life in prison, after a historic trial before American justice.

Mr. Hernandez, who federal prosecutors say created a narco-state during his eight-year presidency between 2014 and 2022, was convicted of conspiracy to commit drug trafficking and arms trafficking, as well as arms possession. The sentence will be pronounced later by the courts.

According to the prosecution, “JOH” received millions of dollars in bribes from drug cartels, including the Sinaloa cartel, led by notorious Mexican drug trafficker Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, convicted of sentenced to life by the American courts in 2019, and now incarcerated in a high security prison.

More than 500 tons of cocaine in the United States

These bribes were allegedly received in exchange for protecting traffickers against extraditions and securing, through military, police and judicial assistance, the transport of drugs from Colombia to the American market.

During his presidency, Honduras became a “highway” for Colombian cocaine, prosecutors charged. They claim that between 2004 and 2022, the network backed by Mr. Hernandez smuggled more than 500 tons of cocaine into the United States. He was extradited in April 2022 to the United States.

The defense cast doubt on the testimony of witnesses, most of them drug traffickers who obtained reduced sentences thanks to their cooperation with American justice.

Witnesses like Devis Leonel Rivera, head of the Los Cachiros cartel, former mayor Alexander Ardon – of the same party as the accused – and Fabio Lobo, son of former president Porfirio Lobo (2010-2014), claimed to have “ contributed” thousands of dollars to Hernandez’s first election campaign in exchange for protection.

Link between drug trafficking and politics

Throughout the trial, the dozen prosecution witnesses highlighted the close links between drug trafficking and politics in the Central American country.

With this conviction, Juan Orlando Hernandez joins other former Latin American leaders tried and convicted in the United States, such as the Panamanian Manuel Noriega in 1992 and the Guatemalan Alfonso Portillo in 2014.

In 2023, former Mexican anti-drug official and ex-minister Genaro Garcia Luna was also found guilty in New York of drug trafficking. His prison sentence will be handed down on June 24.