They convicted in the United States a drug trafficker whose justice claims to be a partner of the President of Honduras

A New York jury on Monday declared Honduran Geovanny Fuentes Ramírez guilty of drug trafficking, a blow to the President of Honduras, described by American justice as an associate of the defendants in the production and trafficking of tons of cocaine to the United States.

After two weeks of trial and a day and a half of deliberation, the jury unanimously ruled that Fuentes was guilty of the two drug trafficking offenses and one firearms possession offense for which he was charged.

The trial focused on entrenched corruption at the highest political level in Honduras, as well as in the police, armed forces and the judiciary.

Prosecutors for the Southern District of New York said during the process that all Honduran presidents since 2006, including current President Juan Orlando Hernández, received bribes from drug traffickers in exchange for protection and a promise not to be extradited.

“I think Fuentes was a collateral victim of the (US) government’s desire to prosecute President Hernández. I guess at some point there will be an indictment (against the president) if there isn’t one already, and the president will have to deal with it, ”said his lawyer Avi Moskowitz to Inner City Press after the verdict.

Arrested a year ago by the DEA, the US drug agency, Fuentes was “a ruthless, powerful and murderous cocaine trafficker in Honduras.. He facilitated the shipment of large shipments of cocaine by bribing Juan Orlando Hernández Alvarado, then president of the Honduran National Congress and current president of Honduras, ”Lower Manhattan District attorney Audrey Strauss said in a statement.

“Hernández Alvarado tasked Fuentes Ramírez to report directly to co-conspirator and former Honduran Congressman Tony Hernández, the president’s brother.“Convicted in 2019 of trafficking 185 tons of cocaine to the United States, Fuentes” now risks spending the rest of his life behind bars, “warned the prosecutor.

“In their own nose”

A witness who collaborated with justice told the jury that in 2013 saw Fuentes handing Honduran presidential candidate Juan Orlando Hernández $ 25,000 in bribes in exchange for protection.

New York prosecutors said during the trial that Hernández went even further and partnered with Fuentes to produce cocaine in a laboratory in Cerro Negro, Honduras and trafficking drugs to the United States, although an indictment against him is not yet known.

The witness, an accountant who laundered drug money and was presented under a false identity for security reasons, told the jury that during this meeting with Fuentes, the president said: “We will be untouchable (…) We will put the medicine in the gringos in their own noses and they will not even notice it“.

The former leader of the Honduran cartel Los Cachiros, Leonel Rivera, who confesses to having killed or ordered the death of 78 people and also cooperated with the prosecution, for his part testified to having paid Juan Orlando Hernández a bribe of 250,000 dollars in exchange for protection.

“Systemic corruption”

Adriana Beltrán, director of citizen security at the Washington Office’s Analysis Center for Latin America (WOLA), told the agency AFP that in Honduras there is “systemic corruption” and that the guilty verdict for Fuentes is “a blow” for Juan Orlando Hernández.

After this process and the one that took place in New York in October 2019 against Tony Hernández, “there is a growing body of evidence that points to the president’s alleged involvement in organized crime activities in the country,” he said. he says.

The president denies all the allegations and says that Rivera lied to reduce his prison sentence to life imprisonment and to avenge his fight against drug trafficking.

“Any account of the battle against drug trafficking in Honduras that omits the unprecedented 95% reduction (official US data) that we have achieved is generally just a vehicle for dramatic headlines to promote the fake. testimony of the drug traffickers that we defeat, ”he tweeted. Hernández Monday.

Fuentes’s sentence was set for June 22, but before that, March 30, Manhattan Federal Judge Kevin Castel will announce his sentence for Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández.

Fabio Lobo, son of former Honduran President Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo (2010-2014), was sentenced in 2017 in New York to 24 years in prison for trafficking 1.4 tonnes of cocaine to the United States.

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