Honduran president accused of aiding US cocaine trade

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

ANKARA (AA) – Honduras’ president helped smuggle tons of cocaine into the US, a New York attorney has alleged during a trial of an accused drug trafficker.

Jacob Gutwillig said Tuesday that the defendant, Geovanny Fuentes Ramirez, bribed President Juan Orlando Hernandez with $25,000 in cash, making the accused trafficker "untouchable" and "bullet-proof."

The payment took place in meetings in 2013 and 2014, according to an accountant who said he attended meetings between Hernandez and Fuentes.

Identifying the president as a "co-conspirator," court documents quoted him as saying he wanted to "‘shove the drugs right up the noses of the gringos' by flooding the United States with cocaine."

Hernandez, who took office in January 2014 after winning the 2013 Honduran general elections, denies all the allegations against him.

The president defended himself Monday on Twitter by saying he would "maintain the international alliance in the fight against drug trafficking until my last day as president on January 27, 2022."

"But if narcos with the magic key of lies gain benefits from the USA for false testimony, the international alliance with Honduras and several other countries would collapse," he added.

Tony Hernandez, the president's brother, was convicted in 2019 of large-scale drug trafficking in a New York trial.

The sentencing will take place on March 23 after several delays, and he could spend the rest of his life behind bars.