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U.S. NEWS Wednesday 4 March 2020

U.S. prosecutors tie Honduras

president to drug trafficker

By CLAUDIA TORRENS He has not been charged It also said that Hernández
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. pros- and did not immediately instructed Fuentes that his
ecutors said Tuesday that comment on the allega- brother, Hernández Al-
Honduras' president met a tions, but he has repeated- varado, "was managing
drug trafficker around 2013 ly denied earlier allegations drug-trafficking activities in
and took $25,000 in ex- of connections to traffick- Honduras and that Fuen-
change for protecting the ers. tes should report directly
trafficker from law enforce- U.S. prosecutors arrested to Hernández Alvarado for
ment. Geovanny Daniel Fuentes purposes of drug traffick-
The U.S. Attorney's Office Ramires at Miami Interna- ing." In this Aug. 13, 2019 file photo, Honduran President Juan Orlan-
for the Southern District of tional Airport on Sunday U.S. Attorney Geoffrey do Hernandez answers questions from the Associated Press, as
he leaves a meeting at the Organization of American States, in
New York issued a state- on charges of conspiring Berman said in the state- Washington.
ment referring to President to import cocaine into the ment that "Fuentes Ramirez Associated Press
Juan Orlando Hernández U.S. and related weapons paved the way for unim-
only as a "high-ranking Hon- charges. peded shipment of multi- Trump administration, Honduras, acting U.S. De-
duran official" or as "CC-4," They say Fuentes met with ton loads of cocaine by which has pressured Hon- partment of Homeland Se-
a co-conspirator. But in Juan Orlando Hernández bribing police and a high- duras to slow the flow of curity Secretary Chad Wolf
court documents, it identi- on several occasions and ranking Honduran politi- migrants out of the country. said, "Honduras is a valued
fied "CC-4" as president of spoke of a cocaine labora- cian, and reporting di- The U.S. government plans and proven partner to the
Honduras and brother of tory that Fuentes was run- rectly to Tony Hernandez, to soon begin sending United States in managing
former congressman Juan ning near Puerto Cortes on another co-conspirator in asylum-seekers from other migration and promoting
Antonio Hernández Alvara- the Atlantic coast. Juan the scheme and himself a countries to Honduras. security and prosperity in
do, who was convicted on Orlando Hernández ex- former Honduran congress- During a January visit to Central America."q
drug charges last year. In pressed interest in access man."
previous filing, U.S. prosecu- to the lab because it was so It's not the first time U.S.
tors have described "CC-4" close to the port, accord- prosecutors have linked
as the winner of the 2013 ing to court documents, President Hernández to the
presidential elections. which did not explain why drug trade.
It was not clear if the al- he was interested. Last August, prosecutors
leged incident involving The documents say Juan said he had used $1.5 mil-
the trafficker occurred be- Orlando Hernández and lion from drug traffickers
fore or after federal con- Fuentes agreed "to facili- to help win the presidency
gressman Juan Orlando tate the use of Honduran in 2013. During his broth-
Hernández won the 2013 armed forces personnel er's trial in New York last
presidential election. He as security" for Fuentes' year, prosecutors repeat-
took office in January 2014. drug-trafficking activities. edly suggested President
Hernández had benefited
from the drug traffickers' fi-
nancial support.
His brother is scheduled
to be sentenced in April.
Hernández won re-election
in 2017 in elections plagued
with irregularities.
Yet Hernández has main-
tained the support of the