Breaking News
America imprisons former president of Honduras for 45 years on drug-related offenses
Hernandez, who is 55 years old, may pass away in prison, but the punishment, which also included a $8 million fine, was less than the life in prison that the prosecution had requested.
On Wednesday, a New York court sentenced former President of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernandez to 45 years in prison following his conviction for smuggling hundreds of tons of cocaine into the US.
Prior to the former head of state’s punishment, anti-Hernandez demonstrators gathered outside the Manhattan courthouse, holding signs criticizing his crimes.
Hernandez, who is 55 years old, may pass away in prison, but the punishment, which also included a $8 million fine, was less than the life in prison that the prosecution had requested.
Hernandez, who US federal prosecutors said turned his Central American country into a “narco-state” during his presidency from 2014 to 2022, has previously indicated through his legal team he would appeal his conviction.
Hernandez was convicted in March of having facilitated the smuggling of some 500 tons of cocaine — mainly from Colombia and Venezuela — to the United States via Honduras since 2004, starting long before his presidency.
Hernandez used the drug money to enrich himself and finance his political campaign, and commit electoral fraud in the 2013 and 2017 presidential elections, prosecutors said.
He was extradited to the United States in 2022, accused of aiding drug smugglers in return for millions of dollars in bribes.
Hernandez follows in the footsteps of other former Latin American heads of state convicted in the United States, like Panama’s Manuel Noriega in 1992 and Guatemala’s Alfonso Portillo in 2014.
