A New York court sentenced former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández to 45 years in prison for drug trafficking.

Former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, 55, was sentenced this Wednesday in New York to 45 years in prison for having associated for more than a decade with drug traffickers who paid bribes to ensure that more than 400 tons of cocaine reached the United States. The former president has also been sentenced to pay a fine of eight million dollars. According to the court, the sentence is a warning to “well-educated and well-dressed” individuals who gain power and think that their position protects them from justice. Hernández, who has been spared the life sentence requested by the prosecution, was convicted in March by a federal court in Manhattan after a two-week trial, which was followed by about a minute of extradition in Honduras. Judge Kevin Castel today asked the defense to explain within a two-week period how he will pay the hefty fine.

Hernández defiantly protested the sentence. “I am innocent,” he said through an interpreter. “I was falsely and unjustly accused.” In a long and impromptu argument, interrupted several times by the judge, the former president presented himself as a hero of the anti-drug movement and boasted of his alliance with U.S. authorities under three presidential administrations to reduce drug imports into the country. However, he seemed to have accepted his fate even before hearing the sentence. “Most likely it is that I will be in prison for the rest of my life,” he said today upon arriving at the courthouse.

The sentence confirms the fall from grace of the former ruler, who declared himself a loyal ally of the United States in the fight against drug trafficking while in power between 2014 and 2022. Almost three years ago, his brother Juan Antonio was also sentenced to life imprisonment in New York for the same reason. Two years ago, Manhattan prosecutors accused Hernández, who was in power at the time, of receiving tens of millions of dollars from Mexican kingpin Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán.

The trial began last February, with other explosive allegations by prosecutors. US authorities accused the former president of resorting to his country’s police, military and judicial system to “protect” drug traffickers and “collect” money. “That man (Hernandez) sent tons of cocaine to the United States,” prosecutor David Robles said then. “He used his power to protect drug traffickers and receive a lot of money in return.”

Before reading the sentence, Judge Castell said Hernández was a “two-faced man.” That is, with one face he proclaimed his commitment against drug trafficking and with the other he facilitated the importation of tons of cocaine worth up to $10 million. However, Castell said, the evidence presented at the trial demonstrates the opposite, and that Hernández used “considerable acting skills” to make it seem like he was a warrior against drug trafficking while deploying his country’s police and military when necessary to stop the circulation of drugs.

When the sentence was announced, Hernandez, wearing glasses and a light green suit, stood with his lawyer in front of two US marshals. After shaking hands with the lawyer and nodding to the packed audience, Hernandez limped out of the courtroom with the help of a cane and leg brace. Prosecutors had requested a sentence of life plus 30 years, as recommended by court probation officers. If he complies with it completely, the former Honduran president will be released from prison after 100 years.

Hernández’s role as a drug trafficker developed in parallel with his political career. Arrested in Tegucigalpa in February 2022, three months after leaving office, and extradited to the United States in April of that same year, he rose from rural vice president to president of the National Congress and then to the presidency since 2004, while receiving millions from drug traffickers. During the trial, the convicted man said that practically all political parties in Honduras received money, but he denied having taken bribes. Today he presents himself as a victim of politicians and drug traffickers. “It’s as if I was thrown into a deep river with my hands tied,” he said. Honduras occupies a geographically important position in drug trafficking in Central America, structured by a highway that runs from north to south of the country and is a true conduit of smuggling.

Witnesses called to testify at the trial included drug traffickers who admitted responsibility for dozens of murders and claimed Hernández was an ardent defender of some of the world’s most powerful cocaine traffickers, including El Chapo Guzmán, who is serving a life sentence in the United States.

Follow all the information from El PAÍS America Facebook And Xor in our Weekly newspapers,