{"id":47008,"date":"2019-10-19T13:43:50","date_gmt":"2019-10-19T05:43:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=47008"},"modified":"2019-10-19T13:43:52","modified_gmt":"2019-10-19T05:43:52","slug":"honduran-president-hobbled-after-being-implicated-in-brothers-bribery-conviction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=47008","title":{"rendered":"Honduran president hobbled after being implicated in brother’s bribery conviction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"FILE<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez <\/p>\n\n\n\n

TEGUCIGALPA, Oct 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez emerged battered from the trial and conviction of his brother on Friday after the U.S. Justice Department concluded that the evidence showed narco-traffickers had bribed the president and his party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A U.S. jury on Friday found President Hernandez’ brother, Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernandez, guilty of conspiring to import cocaine, illicit weapons possession and lying to U.S. authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. prosecutors did not indict President Hernandez. But the Department of Justice reiterated in a statement after the verdict that as a candidate and then president, Hernandez received drug money for his electoral campaigns, including from Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hernandez, who took office in 2014, has repeatedly denied the allegations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Central American leader may now reckon with dwindling support at home, where local press avidly covered the two-week trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also may be more reliant than ever on support from the U.S. government. Long praised as a key U.S. ally in the drug war, he has under President Donald Trump faced intense pressure to partner in the U.S. effort to curb migration flows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Witnesses at the trial alleged that President Hernandez pledged to protect his brother from extradition and called for bribing mayors in Copan, a department bordering Guatemala and a notorious gateway for cocaine trafficking, to secure power for himself and the ruling National Party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hernandez says the allegations are the fabrications of criminals bent on revenge for his efforts against organised crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I reaffirm that it is false that I have received or accepted money from these criminals … I reiterate my total rejection on behalf of the Honduran people of the suggestion that our country is a narco state,” he said in a speech on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also defended his anti-corruption legacy in the Thursday address and on Twitter after Friday’s guilty verdict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luis Zelaya, president of the opposition Liberal Party, told reporters that the party would demand that Hernandez leave power to be replaced with a transitional government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It is no longer a suspicion he is involved in drug trafficking,” Zelaya said. “He has to be accused.” — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez TEGUCIGALPA, Oct 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez emerged battered from the trial and conviction of his brother on Friday after the U.S. Justice Department concluded that the evidence showed narco-traffickers had bribed the president and his party. A U.S. jury on Friday found President Hernandez’ brother, Juan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47008"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47008\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}