U.S. & Canadian-backed drug-trafficking
[link removed] Share ([link removed])
[link removed]: https%3A%2F%2Fmailchi.mp%2Frightsaction%2F45-yrs-in-jail-for-former-pres-of-honduras Tweet ([link removed]: https%3A%2F%2Fmailchi.mp%2Frightsaction%2F45-yrs-in-jail-for-former-pres-of-honduras)
[link removed] Forward ([link removed])
June 27, 2024
** 45 years in jail
Former U.S. & Canadian-backed, drug-trafficking President of Honduras
------------------------------------------------------------
[link removed]
It is impossible overstate how complicit the U.S. and Canada are in having supported, enabled and legitimized for close to 13 years the repressive, “open for global business”, drug-trafficking regime headed by former President Juan Orlando Hernandez, sentenced on June 26 to 45 years on charges of drug-trafficking.
Honduras ex-president sentenced to 45 years for helping drug traffickers
Al Jazeera, 26 Jun 2024
[link removed]
Juan Orlando Hernandez attends trial in federal court, New York City. Courtroom sketch: Jane Rosenberg/Reuters
Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former president of Honduras once seen as an important US ally with tough-on-crime politics, has been sentenced to 45 years in prison for his conviction on drugs and weapons charges. A Manhattan jury in March found Hernandez, 55, guilty of accepting millions of dollars in bribes to protect United States-bound cocaine shipments belonging to traffickers he once publicly proclaimed to combat.
US District Judge Kevin Castel passed down the sentence in a Manhattan courtroom on Wednesday. “I am innocent,” the 55-year-old Hernandez, who led the Central American nation from 2014 until 2022, said at his sentencing. “I was wrongly and unjustly accused.” Hondurans at home and abroad had cheered the conviction, celebrating it as a rare instance ([link removed]) of accountability for corruption and deceit by a member of the country’s ruling class.
In March, the jury found that the former leader, often known by his initials JOH, had taken millions of dollars in bribes to shield large shipments of cocaine bound for the US.
Prosecutors had asked for a life sentence, arguing that it would send a firm message to other politicians who use their power to protect powerful criminal groups.
“Without corrupt politicians like the defendant, the kind of large-scale, international drug trafficking at issue in this case, and the rampant drug-related violence that follows, is difficult if not impossible,” prosecutors wrote on Monday.
During a two-week trial, prosecutors said Hernandez used drug money to bribe officials and manipulate voting results during Honduras’s 2013 and 2017 presidential elections. convicted traffickers testified they bribed Hernandez.
Testifying in his own defence, Hernandez denied taking bribes from drug cartels. His lawyers, meanwhile, accused the convicted traffickers of being out for revenge over Hernandez’s anti-drug policies. JOH’s brother Tony Hernandez was sentenced to life in prison in the US in 2021 on drug charges.
Under The Shadow podcast series
Rights Action recommends Episode 7, parts I and II, of the Under the Shadow podcast series that recap the U.S. and Canadian-backed military coup d’etat of June 27, 2009, and then 13 years of unconditional U.S. and Canadian support for the Honduran narco regime.
* Episode 7, Part I – 2009 Honduras: La Resistencia ([link removed])
* Episode 7, Part II – Honduras 2009: Legacy of a Coup ([link removed])
In Update 3 of the podcast, Karen Spring (former Rights Action colleague, long-time co-coordinator of the Honduras Solidarity Network) takes the listener inside the trial that found Juan Orlando Hernández guilty of drug trafficking. Karen provides a devastating summary of just how much violence and damage the narco regime did to Honduras, its people and society, government and State institutions, all enabled and legitimized by the U.S. and Canada.
Update 3 – Narcodictator, Convicted ([link removed])
‘Putting the U.S. and Canada on Trial’ campaign
Rights Action encourages folks to follow the work of the Honduras Solidarity Network leading a campaign to hold the U.S. and Canada responsible for supporting the Honduran narco-state.
[link removed]
Facebook: Honduras Solidarity Network ([link removed]) & Honduras Now ([link removed])
X: @Hondurassol ([link removed]) @HondurasNow ([link removed])
Instagram: @HondurasNow ([link removed])
Web: Bit.ly/NarcoTrialCampaign ([link removed])
Contact:
[email protected] (mailto:
[email protected])
Rights Action archives
Find here ([link removed]) information about work and struggle in defense of land and human rights, democracy and justice, over the course of the entire 13 years of the U.S. and Canadian backed Narco State in Honduras.
Tax-Deductible Donations (Canada & U.S.)
To support land and environmental defenders, and human rights, justice and democracy defense struggles in Honduras and Guatemala, make check to "Rights Action" and mail to:
* U.S.: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
* Canada: Box 82858, RPO Cabbagetown Toronto, ON, M5A 3Y2
Credit-Card Donations: [link removed]
Direct deposits, write to:
[email protected] (mailto:
[email protected])
Donations of securities, write to:
[email protected] (mailto:
[email protected])
*******
Please share and re-post this information
*******
More info:
[email protected] (mailto:
[email protected]) , www.rightsaction.org
e-Newsletter: [link removed]
Previous e-Newsletters: [link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed] ([link removed])
[link removed]
[link removed] Facebook ([link removed])
[link removed] Twitter ([link removed])
[link removed] Website ([link removed])
[link removed] Instagram ([link removed])
[link removed] YouTube ([link removed])
============================================================
Copyright © 2024 Rights Action, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you are one of our subscriptor
Our mailing address is:
Rights Action
Box 50887
20091-0887
Washington, DC 0
USA
** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])
** update subscription preferences ([link removed])
Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp
[link removed]
