NEW YORK — Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández took the witness stand in his defense Tuesday at his trial in New York and denied that he worked with drug dealers to protect them in exchange for millions of dollars in bribes.
His testimony in Manhattan federal court came after several days of testimony from drug cartel traffickers who hope to earn leniency with long prison sentences in exchange for their cooperation against him. They claimed he protected the drug trade in exchange for millions of dollars that helped fuel his rise to power.
Prosecutors say Hernandez, who served as president from 2014 to 2022, used his Central American country’s military and police to help drug dealers move cocaine across the country on their way to America. In the US, he was often seen by Democratic and Republican administrations as beneficial to US interests in the region.
Hernandez denied aiding drug traffickers or taking bribes and cast himself as an anti-drug crusader who did everything he could to aid the United States in its pursuit of drug dealers, including extraditing about 20 people.
“I said that any extradition request must be granted by the United States,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez was asked by an attorney whether he has ever accepted bribes or offered protection to several drug cartels or drug traffickers that were mentioned repeatedly during the trial that began two weeks ago.
He insisted he didn’t.
And regarding a witness who testified that he trafficked tens of millions of dollars worth of drugs while Hernandez was mayor in Honduras, Hernandez said he did not promise to protect him from prosecution if he agreed not to face a new trial. term as mayor, while headlines portrayed him as a drug dealer.
“Never,” Hernandez said through an interpreter.
At one point he was asked if a cartel wanted to kill him.
“I was warned about that by the FBI, sir,” he replied.
The ex-president’s brother, Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández, a former Honduran congressman, was sentenced to life in prison in Manhattan federal court in 2021 for his own drug abuse conviction.
Prosecutors say Tony Hernández secured and distributed millions of dollars in bribes from drug dealers for his country’s politicians between 2004 and 2019, including $1 million from infamous Mexican capo Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman for Juan Orlando Hernández.
The former president was arrested at his home in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, in February 2022 – just three months after leaving office – and extradited to the US in April that year.
