former Honduran president John Orlando Hernandezaccused of drug trafficking in the United States, appeared this Friday before a New York judge and will remain in custody at least until the next hearing, on May 10.
At the hearing, held by videoconference due to Covid, Hernández, helped by an interpreter, heard from Judge Stewart D. Aaron the charges against him: cocaine trafficking, use and possession of firearms and conspiracy to use and carry of armament. When asked if he understood it, he limited himself to answering with a brief: “Yes, your honor.”
If the jury that is constituted when his trial begins finds him guilty of the three charges, the president who governed Honduras for eight years (2014-2022) and handed over power on January 27 could be sentenced to three life sentences.
Defense attorney Raymond Colon said that for the time being the former president prefers to remain in detention.
Hernández, who arrived in New York around 00:50 this Friday, after being extradited the day before from Tegucigalpa on a plane from the US drug enforcement agency DEA, is in the White Plains detention center, near New York City.
With a serious face and gestures of concern, sometimes looking out the window through which the summer sun’s rays penetrated, Hernández appeared dressed in the same blue jacket he was wearing the day before in Tegucigalpa. While waiting for the trial to start, he took a couple of sips from a can of soda.