A lot of the allegations these prosecutors have made in opposition to Hernández come from two trials, that of Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández, the president’s brother and himself a former Honduran congressman, and Geovanny Fuentes Ramírez. Each males have been a part of a sprawling drug trafficking case first filed again in 2015. They have been each convicted on drug trafficking fees and given life sentences — Fuentes Ramírez simply final week. Prosecutors have labeled Juan Orlando Hernández a “co-conspirator” in the identical case.
WHAT CHARGES WOULD JUAN ORLANDO HERNÁNDEZ FACE IN THE U.S.?
U.S. prosecutors haven’t unsealed an indictment on Hernández, however fees have been made recognized to him Wednesday throughout an preliminary listening to in Honduras’ Supreme Court docket of Justice. They embody conspiracy to import medication to the US, utilizing firearms in help of a drug trafficking conspiracy and conspiracy to make use of firearms in help of drug trafficking. They seem to reflect the fees that obtained his brother a life sentence apart from his brother’s extra false statements cost.
WHAT ALLEGATIONS HAVE U.S. PROSECUTORS MADE ABOUT HERNÁNDEZ?
On the March 2021 sentencing of Tony Hernández, Assistant U.S. Lawyer Matthew Laroche referred to as it “state-sponsored drug trafficking.”
The crux of prosecutors’ accusations is that Juan Orlando Hernández fueled his political rise from a congressman representing rural Lempira in western Honduras to president of the Nationwide Congress after which two consecutive presidential phrases with the assistance of bribes and help he obtained from drug traffickers. In change, traffickers have been allowed to function unencumbered, obtained data that helped them keep away from authorities and generally even had safety forces put of their service.
Hernández grew to become president of the congress in early 2010. By 2013, he was campaigning to be Honduras’ president and allegedly solicited $1.6 million from a drug trafficker to help his marketing campaign and people of different politicians within the Nationwide Social gathering, in accordance with U.S. authorities.
Tony Hernández additionally obtained $1 million from Mexican kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán to help his brother’s presidential marketing campaign. Tony Hernández had promised the Sinaloa Cartel chief that if his brother gained the presidency, they may defend Guzmán’s drug shipments by means of Honduras.
Juan Orlando Hernández took workplace Jan. 27, 2014. U.S. authorities allege he continued receiving drug earnings whereas in workplace in change for permitting medication to maneuver by means of Honduras.
Witnesses within the two-week Fuentes Ramírez trial shortly earlier than Tony Hernández’s sentencing informed of Hernández accepting bribes from Fuentes Ramírez and different drug traffickers from his time as a presidential candidate up by means of no less than 2019.
It was throughout that trial that Assistant U.S. Lawyer Jacob Gutwillig stated that an accountant had heard Juan Orlando Hernández say he needed to “shove the medication proper up the noses of the gringos.’”
Additionally in the course of the Fuentes Ramírez trial, Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga, former chief of the Cachiros cartel, testified that he had despatched $250,000 to Juan Orlando Hernández in 2012 by means of his sister in change for cover of his smuggling enterprise and to keep away from extradition. An accountant testified that he twice witnessed Hernández receiving bribes from Fuentes Ramírez in 2013.
WHAT HAS HERNÁNDEZ SAID?
Every time the allegations have been made by U.S. prosecutors, Hernández has strenuously denied any criminal activity and dismissed his accusers as drug traffickers searching for revenge in opposition to him by making up tales. He has pointed to his authorities’s shut cooperation with U.S. authorities working to intercept cocaine being shipped from South America by means of Honduras to the US. He has reminded everybody that Honduras modified its structure in 2012 — whereas Hernández was president of the congress — to permit the extradition of Hondurans going through drug trafficking fees and that many have been extradited beneath his administration.
Now the following one despatched to the U.S. could possibly be Hernández himself.
HOW SOON COULD HERNÁNDEZ BE EXTRADITED?
If Hernández decides to not contest the U.S. extradition request issues may transfer in a short time. If the choose decides Hernández ought to be extradited, however he fights it, it may take as much as three months to run by means of the whole course of and any appeals.
On Wednesday, the fees have been learn to Hernández and the choose denied his petition for home arrest and scheduled a listening to wherein proof to help the U.S. fees can be offered for March 16. As soon as the choose decides on extradition there will likely be a chance to attraction, however specialists say that usually issues transfer rapidly at that stage and the attraction would he heard and determined inside a matter of days.
AP author Marlon González in Tegucigalpa, Honduras contributed to this report.
