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US prosecutors tie Honduras president to drug trafficker
Claudia Torrens, Associated Press
Updated 1:59 pm CST, Tuesday, March 3, 2020
Photo: Jacquelyn Martin, AP
FILE - In this Aug. 13, 2019 file photo, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez answers questions from the Associated Press, as he leaves a meeting at the Organization of American States, in Washington. U.S. prosecutors said on Tuesday, March 3, 2020, that Hernandez met with an Honduran drug dealer in 2013 and agreed to facilitate the use of Honduran armed forces personnel as security for the dealer’s drug trafficking activities. In 2013, Hernandez was a congressman. He was elected president at the end of that year.
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. prosecutors said Tuesday that Honduras' president met with a drug trafficker around 2013 and took $25,000 in exchange for protecting the trafficker from law enforcement.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York issued a statement referring to President Juan Orlando Hernández only as a "high-ranking Honduran official" or as "CC-4," a co-conspirator. But in court documents, it identified “CC-4” was president of Honduras and brother of former congressman Juan Antonio Hernández Alvarado, who was convicted on drug charges last year. In previous filing, U.S. prosecutors have described “CC-4” as the winner of the 2013 presidential elections.
. . .
They say Fuentes met with Juan Orlando Hernández on several occasions and spoke of a cocaine laboratory Fuentes was running near Puerto Cortes on the Atlantic coast. Juan Orlando Hernández expressed interest in access to the lab because it was so close to the port, according to court documents, which did not explain why he was interested.
The documents say Juan Orlando Hernández and Fuentes agreed “to facilitate the use of Honduran armed forces personnel as security” for Fuentes' drug-trafficking activities. It also said that Hernández instructed Fuentes that his brother, Hernández Alvarado, “was managing drug-trafficking activities in Honduras and that Fuentes should report directly to Hernández Alvarado for purposes of drug trafficking.”
More:
https://www.chron.com/news/world/article/US-prosecutors-tie-Honduras-president-to-drug-15102370.php