Honduras: Ex-President Faces Drug Trafficking Trial in US

Facts

• Former Honduran Pres. Juan Orlando Hernández appeared in a New York courtroom earlier this week to face allegations that he ordered his country's army to protect cocaine traffickers in exchange for millions of dollars in bribes. If convicted, he could face life in prison.¹
• Hernández is the first former head of state to face drug trafficking charges in the US after Panama's Gen. Manuel Noriega, who was convicted for drug smuggling and money laundering charges more than 30 years ago.²
• On Thursday, former Honduran Mayor Alexander Ardón testified under a cooperation deal that drug money — including $1M in cash from drug lord Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán — funded Hernández's presidential campaign in 2013.³
• Previously, Hernández's attorney had said that many of the expected witnesses — former drug traffickers allegedly shielded by the former president — aren't trustworthy, claiming they often lie and exaggerate in exchange for securing better deals.⁴
• Once a key US ally in its war on drugs, Hernández has denied all charges and pleaded not guilty. He claims that charges against him stem from his enemies and that top American security officials knew what he had done to fight organized crime during his tenure.⁵
• Former Honduran National Police Chief Juan Carlos Bonilla has already pleaded guilty to cocaine trafficking charges, while Hernández's brother Juan Antonio Hernández is currently serving a life sentence in the US for smuggling cocaine.⁶

Sources: ¹BBC News, ²TRT World, ³Courthouse News Service, ⁴Al Jazeera, ⁵WSJ and ⁶Democracy Now.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by InSight Crime. Though it does seem a bit paradoxical that the US federal government has brought legal action against a foreign ally already known to be corrupt, Washington was just acting pragmatically to maintain its partnership with Honduras as long as Hernández was the country's leader. Now that he has left office, there's no reason not to hold him accountable for his wrongdoing.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by The Nation. Due to its own economic interests in Honduras and his hawkish rhetoric about the War on Drugs, the US has for too long paid no heed to suspicions against Juan Orlando Hernández that the US Dept. of Justice raised during his entire presidency. Though he may be sentenced to life in prison, Hernández is merely a piece of a corrupt system that America refuses to change.