Senator Bob Menéndez asked the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, and the Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, to designate Juan Orlando Hernández, former president of Honduras, as a “drug kingpin”, after revealing his ties to organizations criminals, such as the Sinaloa Cartel, in US courts.
Menéndez, who chairs the Foreign Relations Committee, made the formal request for Hernández’s visa to be revoked “immediately” since be designated as a criminal leader under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act.
“The United States must continue to demonstrate its support for the rule of law for the peoples of all Latin America by identifying, denouncing, and punishing any foreign official implicated in drug trafficking and in undermining the democracy in the hemisphere,” said Menéndez.
The highest-ranking Latino Democrat in Congress mentioned to the accusations in several cases in US courts, including the trial of Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández, former congressman and brother of the former Honduran president, whom the 18 of October 2019 Judge Kevin Castel sentenced him to life for drug and arms trafficking.
“The accusations in the federal court cases… indicate that Juan Orlando Hernández has been involved in criminal activities and drug trafficking, actions that have endangered the national security of the United States. United States and the prosperity of the Honduran people,” added Menéndez.
The Democrat is seeking a similar action from the US to the one imposed on former Venezuelan Vice President Tareck El Aissami and Colombian President Ernesto Samper, both involved in activities related to drug trafficking.
“I am afraid that the omission of Juan Orlando Hernández from these lists is sending the wrong message to the Honduran people at a time of transition for their democracy, as well as to public officials throughout the region”, considered Menéndez about the non-inclusion of the former Honduran president in the current list of Corrupt and Anti-democratic Actors of the Triangle of North of the Department of State.
In July of 2020, Jon Piechowski, Assistant Undersecretary of the Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs of the Department of State, acknowledged in an interview with this newspaper the difficulties of relating to the Government of Honduras , amid efforts to address the migration crisis and being questioned about Hernández’s accusations in US courts about his relationship with drug traffickers, allegedly bribed by Mexican drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera.
“When I talk about cooperation, I have said that our cooperation does not go with a single person, it goes with an entire government, it also goes with the people, as I said, it goes with the private sector,” he said.
The human rights activist, Miroslava Cerpas told this journalist in 2019 in an interview in New York –prior to receiving the “Zabel Human Rights Award” from the Human Rights First organization– that Honduras had a great problem: the relationship of its president with organized crime, which contributed to thousands of people migrating from the country.
“There are clearly two (reasons), that is, fear and hunger. The fear because it is caused by these criminal groups that are in the State with the tolerance of the government. Recently here in New York (Juan Antonio Hernández), the brother of the president (Juan Orlando Hernandez) was sentenced for drug trafficking… That is the problem. It’s because organized crime governs us!” He said then.