Honduras Ex-President Hernandez, Once a US Ally, Faces Drug Trafficking Trial
Honduras Ex-President Hernandez, Once a US Ally, Faces Drug Trafficking Trial
February 20, 2024 10:03 PM
By Reuters
FILE - Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, center, is taken in handcuffs to a waiting aircraft as he is extradited to the United States, at an air force base in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, April 21, 2022.
NEW YORK —
Former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez's trial on U.S. drug trafficking charges began Tuesday, giving a New York jury the chance to determine whether Washington's onetime key anti-drug ally actually ran the Central American country as a "narco-state."
Hernandez was close to Washington during his 2014-2022 tenure. Honduras received more than $50 million in U.S. anti-narcotics assistance and tens of millions more in security and military aid during his presidency, and he won support from former President Donald Trump for cracking down on migration.
But three months after he left office, federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged him with accepting millions of dollars in bribes from cocaine traffickers in exchange for using his position to protect them. Attorney General Merrick Garland said he abused his power to operate the country as a "narco-state."
That came nearly three years after his brother, former congressman Tony Hernandez, was convicted on U.S. drug charges and sentenced to life in prison. A prosecutor at that trial said Juan Orlando Hernandez protected his brother.
More:
https://www.voanews.com/a/honduras-ex-president-hernandez-once-a-us-ally-faces-drug-trafficking-trial/7496119.html
Honduras former President Juan Orlando Hernandez
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Same country, different ex-president, same criminality, same right-wing Washington/Wall Street attraction
Good old Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo
Son of ex-of Honduras President Porfirio Lobo gunned down by suspected MS-13 hitmen
Updated July 15, 2022, 4:25 p.m. ET
A son of former Honduras President Porfirio Lobo has been murdered by suspected MS-13 hitmen — with shocking video footage showing him and three friends lined up against a wall before all being shot execution-style.
Security cameras caught at least five gunmen, seemingly wearing vests from a police anti-gang squad, blocking the exit ramp of a nightclub in capital Tegucigalpa in the early hours Thursday.
Footage from inside the parking lot showed the gunman storming up to an SUV and forcing Lobo’s 19-year-old son Said Lobo Bonilla to get out.
Bonilla and three others with him — including the nephew of a former head of Honduras’ joint military chiefs — looked confused in the footage as they were forced at gunpoint to line up against a garage wall.
. . .
The ex-president’s family has a long, shady history off involvement with drug activities — and last year he was barred from the US, accused of having accepted bribes from traffickers in exchange for political favors.
Another of his sons, Fabio, was sentenced in the Manhattan federal court in 2017 to 24 years in prison for smuggling a “multi-ton load” of cocaine into the US.
Former first lady Rosa Bonilla is currently behind bars after being convicted in March of embezzling more than $1 million in public funds while her husband was president.
More:
https://nypost.com/2022/07/15/ex-honduras-presidents-son-murdered-ms-13-eyed/
. . .
US Sanctions Ex Honduran President and First Lady over Alleged Graft
Published: 22 July 2021
WRITTEN BY EMILY TIAN
The United States has barred former Honduran President Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo Sosa and his wife and former First Lady Rosa Elena Bonilla Avila from entering the country due to “their involvement in significant corruption,” the State Department announced on Tuesday.
Lobo’s immediate family members — including his son, Fabio Portifirio Lobo, his daughter, Ambar Lobo Bonillla, and another minor child — have also been banned from U.S. travel.
The ban relates to allegations that Sosa accepted bribes from narcotics traffickers in exchange for political favors.
Despite the U.S. blacklist, the former president, whose term in office spanned from 2010 to 2014, has not yet been convicted, and Bonilla, who was released from prison last July after her 58-year corruption sentence was thrown out, is awaiting a new trial.
Bonilla had been jailed since 2018 for fraud and embezzlement during the years of her husband’s presidency. Their son, Fabio Lobo, is also sitting out a 24 year long jail sentence for his involvement in drug trafficking.
. . .
Honduras is a key transit country for cocaine bound for other countries. It’s also perceived as one of the most corrupt countries in the world, ranking 158 out of 180 in Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index, with high levels of poverty and inequality.
More:
https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/14892-us-sanctions-ex-honduran-president-and-first-lady-over-alleged-graft