NEW YORK: A court in New York on Wednesday sentenced former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez to 45 years in prison after he was convicted of trafficking hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States.
Anti-Hernandez protesters gathered outside the Manhattan courthouse ahead of sentencing brandishing placards decrying the former head of state’s crimes with one declaring “Narco government — makes the people emigrate.”
“The role of Mr.Hernandez was to use his political power as president of Congress and president of Honduras to limit the risks of drug traffickers in exchange of money,” said Judge Kevin Castel.
He said Hernandez provided police and military support and helped to send 400 tons of drugs — worth $10 billion at market prices — to the United States.
The sentence, which also included an $8 million fine, was less than the life imprisonment that prosecutors had sought — although Hernandez’s age, 55, means he may die behind bars.
“He’s going to pursue every single possible legal remedy that he can pursue,” Hernandez’s lawyer Renato Stabile told reporters outside court.
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.
He was convicted in March of having facilitated the smuggling of hundreds of 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 had presented himself as a champion of the war on drugs and was initially seen by Washington as an ally in the fight.
In 2017, the United States was one of the first countries to recognize his re-election, while the opposition denounced fraud against a backdrop of violent protests that left some 30 people dead.
He was extradited to the United States in 2022 using a law he had himself helped to pass as Congress president under pressure from Washington, accused of aiding drug smugglers in return for millions of dollars in bribes.
The fall of Hernandez, who is known in his country as “JOH,” was abrupt.
No sooner had he handed over power to the new left-wing president Xiomara Castro, the outgoing leader was shackled and paraded in front of journalists.
Hernandez follows in the footsteps of other former Latin American heads of state convicted in the United States, including Panama’s Manuel Noriega in 1992 and Guatemala’s Alfonso Portillo in 2014.
The short, athletic leader was known for his military haircut, having served as an officer before training as a lawyer, completing a masters degree in New York in 1995.
His legal woes began in earnest in 2018 when his brother, Juan Antonio Hernandez, was arrested in Miami and sentenced in March 2021 to life imprisonment for “large-scale” drug trafficking.
After his arrest in Honduras in February 2022, Hernandez said he was a victim of “revenge” by the drug lords, many of whom testified against him in New York.
US jails Honduran ex-president for 45 years on drug charges
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US jails Honduran ex-president for 45 years on drug charges
- Judge Kevin Castel said Hernandez provided police and military support and helped to send 400 tons of drugs — worth $10 billion at market prices — to the US
- The sentence, which also included an $8 million fine, was less than the life imprisonment that prosecutors had sought
Greek coast guard search for 15 after migrant boat found adrift
- The two survivors reported that the vessel had become unstable due to bad weather and there was no means of getting shelter, food or water
ATHENS: Greek coast guard were on Monday searching for 15 people who fell into the water from a migrant boat that was found drifting off the coast of Crete with 17 bodies on board.
The 17 fatalities, all of them men, were discovered on Saturday on the craft, which was taking on water and partially deflated, some 26 nautical miles (48 kilometers) southwest of the island.
Post-mortem examinations were being carried out to determine how they died but Greek public television channel ERT suggested they may have suffered from hypothermia or dehydration.
A Greek coast guard spokeswoman told AFP that two survivors reported that “15 people fell in the water” after the motor cut out on Thursday, then the vessel drifted for two days.
At the time, Crete and much of the rest of Greece was battered by heavy rain and storms.
The two survivors reported that the vessel had become unstable due to bad weather and there was no means of getting shelter, food or water.
The vessel had 34 people on board and had left the Libyan port of Tobruk on Wednesday, the Greek port authorities said. Most of those who died came from Sudan and Egypt.
It was initially spotted by a Turkish-flagged cargo ship on Saturday, triggering a search that included ships and aircraft from the Greek coast guard and the European Union border agency Frontex.
Migrants have been trying to reach Crete from Libya for the last year, as a way of entering the European Union. But the Mediterranean crossing is perilous.
In Brussels, the EU’s 27 members on Monday backed a significant tightening of immigration policy, including the concept of returning failed asylum-seekers to “return hubs” outside the bloc.
The UN refugee agency said more than 16,770 asylum seekers in the EU have arrived on Crete since the start of the year — more than any other island in the Aegean Sea.
Greece’s conservative government has also toughened its migration policy, suspending asylum claims for three months, particularly those coming to Crete from Libya.
