Former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández sentenced to 45 years in U.S. prison

Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was sentenced on Wednesday to 45 years in prison by a New York federal court after being found guilty of drug and gun trafficking charges. He is also required to pay a $8 million fine.

Hernández had already been found guilty by a jury in March. His lawyers had requested the minimum sentence for these kinds of crimes, 40 years, while prosecutors in the case requested the maximum one, life in prison.

Judge Kevin Castel described Hernández as a "two-faced, power hungry politician" who protected a group of drug traffickers for financial and political benefit. Hernández has always rejected the claims and, in a letter sent to the judge this past Friday, he reiterated that the trial "is full of errors and injustices."

"The prosecutors and agents did not do the proper due diligence with the investigation to know the whole truth," read a passage of the letter sent to judge Castel, who also sentenced Hernández's brother to life, Juan Antonio, back in 2021, also on drug trafficking charges.

Prosecutors, however, were successful in proving that Hernández conspired with drug cartels during his tenure as president. They said he was instrumental in moving more than 400 tons of cocaine through Honduras toward the United States in exchange of millions of dollars in bribes that Hernández used to fund his political career.

He was president of Honduras from 2014 to 2022 and was extradited to the United States after he finished his second term on charges of conspiracy to import cocaine into the U.S., conspiracy to possess firearms and destructive devices for drug trafficking, and possession of this type of weapon during the drug trafficking conspiracy.

Some of the most important witnesses assured the court that the former president used bribe money to solidify his political status and even accepted one million dollars from the Sinaloa Cartel, led by Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán.