Trial implicating Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández in bribery, drug trafficking begins in New York
The trial of a Honduran businessman and alleged drug trafficker accused of bribing Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández began in New York City on Monday.
The accused, Geovanny Daniel Fuentes Ramirez, was arrested in Miami more than a year ago ion March 1, 2020.
According to court documents seen by LPO, between 2004 and 2020 US authorities believe that Fuentes Ramirez and other drug traffickers paid bribes to Honduran public officials - including members of the Honduran National Police and the Honduran National Congress - to facilitate the movement of multi-ton loads of cocaine sent from countries including Colombia.
One such politician, former congressman Juan Antonio Hernandez Alvarado - the brother of the President - has already been convicted of drug trafficking, weapons and false statements in relation to the scheme, which imported nearly 200,000 kilograms of cocaine.
Additionally, Fuentes Ramirez stands accused of working with others to establish and operate a cocaine laboratory in the Cortés Department of Honduras, where they produced hundreds of kilograms of cocaine each month.
Prosecutors believe that Fuentes Ramirez was involved in at least several acts of violence to protect these operations, including the stabbing death of a Honduran law enforcement official who he believed was investigating the laboratory.
If convicted, Fuentes Ramirez, 51, faces a minimum of 40 years in an American prison.
In February, a new court filing related to the Fuentes Ramirez revealed that Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández himself is also the target of an investigation, alongside other "high-ranking officials" in Honduras.
Although the documents do not reveal when the investigation occurred, they accuse Hernandez - who became president in 2014 - of using the country's security forces and police "to use drug trafficking to help assert power and control in Honduras." In a separate court filing in January, US prosecutors said that Hernández had accepted "millions of dollars" in drug money by 2013, when he was still President of the National Congress.
"We're going to shove the drugs right up the gringo's noses," Hernández is alleged to have told Fuentes during a meeting, court document show. President Hernández has repeatedly denied the accusations.
On Monday, for example, Hernández again denied the US allegations, saying that many cases are based on "lies for vengeance or to reduce sentences and other benefits." He also said that cooperation in the fight against drug trafficking is potentially at risk.
"I will maintain international alliances in the fight against drug trafficking until my last day as President on January 27, 2022," a tweet said. "But if drug traffickers have a magic key to get benefits from the USA for false testimony, the international alliance with Honduras will collapse."
Similarly, in February, the Honduran presidency's official Twitter account said that the claims were "100% false and appear to be based on lies of confessed criminals who seek revenge and to reduce their sentences."
"This, and other opportunistic allegations are contested by the essential fact that during the Hernández administration, coca trafficking through Honduras fall from 87% to 4% from 2013, as recognized by the publications of the Department of State (INCRS) of those years," another message added.
The court case and criminal investigation come at a sensitive time in US-Honduran relations, with the Biden administration planning to invest $4 billion in Central America - including Honduras - to address the root causes that lead people to migrate to the US.
Thousands of Hondurans were part of a caravan that set out for the US in January, with many participants citing corruption, violence and crime as the reasons they left Honduras. President Hernández was re-elected to office in 2017 and is expected to remain in office until 2022.