October 3, 2019
By Gustavo Palencia
TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) – Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez said on Thursday he had never intervened to protect anybody, after his brother was accused of smuggling tons of cocaine into the United States for years under Hernandez’s protection.
“Nobody is above the law,” Hernandez told a news conference in the Honduran capital. “I’ve never intervened, nor will I, to protect anybody – not friends, nor fellow party members, nor family members – absolutely nobody.”
The trial of Hernandez’s brother, Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernandez, began on Wednesday in federal court in New York. The politician, arrested in Miami last year, faces charges of drug conspiracy and possessing illegal weapons.
President Hernandez, who began his second term in January 2018 amid allegations of electoral fraud, has not been charged with a crime.
He said drug traffickers and former police and officials who had been targeted by his government are using his brother’s trial to retaliate.
“The trial against Juan Antonio will undoubtedly become a platform for these criminals to seek revenge,” he said, adding he expected witnesses to provide unfounded statements that “border on the absurd.”
“All we need is for them to say at some point that they saw Pablo Escobar come back to life, and that he contributed to my campaign,” Hernandez said, referring to the infamous Colombian drug lord who was killed in 1993.
The trial for his brother is unfolding as the Hernandez administration faces intense pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to curb migration to the United States.
Last week, Trump stood side-by-side with President Hernandez in New York, giving a thumbs up, as the countries struck a deal under which Honduras would take in more asylum seekers.
(Reporting by Gustavo Palencia in Tegucigalpa; Writing by Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by David Gregorio and Matthew Lewis)
