<ul class="summary-list"><li>Ex-Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández will stand trial in New York on drug trafficking charges. </li><li>Prosecutors allege Hernández built up a "corrupt and violent" empire to smuggle tons of cocaine to the US.</li></ul><p>Former Honduran President <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/honduras-ex-president-juan-orlando-hernndez-extradited-to-us-2022-4">Juan Orlando Hernández</a>, once considered to be a key ally to the United States on anti-narcotics efforts during his two-term tenure, is set to stand trial in New York on allegations that for nearly 20 years he built up a "corrupt and violent" empire to smuggle tons of cocaine to America.</p><p>Federal prosecutors allege that Hernández, between 2004 and 2022, received millions of dollars in bribes from drug trafficking organizations — including from the notorious, now-imprisoned Mexican drug lord <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-story-of-el-chapos-escape-from-prison-in-a-laundry-cart-2021-7">Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera</a> — and essentially transformed Honduras into a narco-state.</p><p>In court documents, prosecutors wrote that Hernández worked for years with "violent drug traffickers to harm the United States, telling his co-conspirators that he wanted to 'stuff the drugs up the noses of the gringos.'"</p><p>Hernández "abused his position as the president of Honduras to operate the country as a narco-state" and used the drug trafficking proceeds "to enrich himself, finance his political campaigns, and commit voter fraud," prosecutors alleged in the indictment against him.</p><p>The former president's high-profile trial on drug trafficking and weapons charges is scheduled to kick off Tuesday in Manhattan federal court, starting with jury selection. </p><div type="image" title="Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández in 2020." height="1433" width="2150" msid="107858383" hostid="261" sizebytes="367908"></div><h2>Hernández was viewed much differently when he was first elected</h2><p>The brutal picture prosecutors have painted of Hernández, who is now 55 years old, is much different than how he was viewed after he was first elected in 2013 as president of Honduras.</p><p>In January 2015, one year into the first year of Hernández's first term as president, officials at the US embassy in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa saw reason to be cautiously optimistic.</p><p>Embassy staffers, in a diplomatic cable summarizing his first year in office, described Hernández as an effective leader doing his best in a bad situation, pursuing market-friendly reforms and anti-corruption initiatives with a "religious zeal."</p><p>"Hernández started his first year with a stand against corruption and finished it with a sweeping commitment to improving transparency," reads the memo, which was approved by then-Ambassador James D. Nealon. "Violence is, in fact, down. Narco traffickers are on the run."</p><p>If the memo had anything to say about potential ties between Hernández and organized crime, it's not apparent in the publicly available version, which was declassified in 2017. The document ends with a section entitled, "Measure of the Man," followed by more than two full pages of redacted material.</p><p>Now, nearly a decade later, this rosy description stands in stark contrast to the sordid picture laid out by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, who have accused Hernández of turning Honduras into a mafia state, financing his campaigns with drug money, and directly enlisting the help of drug traffickers to carry out a systematic campaign of election fraud that ensured his victory in 2013 and his reelection in 2017.</p><div type="image" title="Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, center in chains, is shown to the press at the Police Headquarters in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022." height="2040" width="3238" msid="107858385" hostid="261" sizebytes="220354"></div><h2>The former Honduran president could spend the rest of his life in a US prison</h2><p>This posturing, however, may have led to one of the former president's gravest mistakes.</p><p>In 2012, under pressure from Washington, Hernández, then serving as president of Honduras' congress, worked to push through a constitutional amendment allowing for extradition of Honduran citizens to the US. When their partners in the drug world expressed concerns about extradition, Hernández and his brother assured their allies that extradition would only be used against enemies.</p><p>During Hernández's two terms as president of Honduras, from 2014 to 2022, his government oversaw, at the request of US officials, the extradition of more than 30 people, according to one <a target="_blank" href="https://www.expedientepublico.org/extradition-in-honduras-a-weak-legal-system-and-cooperation-with-the-us/">analysis.</a> Among these were two former allies of Hernández who he handed over to the US after learning of their plans to assassinate him, according to court documents.</p><p>Shortly after Hernández left office in 2022, it was under this provision that he was arrested in Honduras and shipped off to New York, where he has sat ever since in a federal lockup in Brooklyn.</p><p>If convicted of the charges against him, Hernández — who has pleaded not guilty — could spend the rest of his life inside a US prison.</p><h2>Hernández was charged alongside his cousin and an ex-police chief, but those two have since pleaded guilty</h2><div type="image" title="Former Honduras police chief Gen. Juan Carlos Bonilla Valladares." height="1440" width="2114" msid="107858389" hostid="261" sizebytes="217894"></div><p>Hernández was originally charged alongside two other co-defendants: his cousin, Mauricio Hernandez Pineda, and former Honduran National Police chief Juan Carlos Bonilla, aka "El Tigre." Pineda, however, pleaded guilty on Feb. 2 to one charge of conspiracy to import cocaine, and Bonilla followed suit last Wednesday, just days ahead of the trial.</p><p>Hernández will now face the charges alone. It is not clear if Pineda and Bonilla will testify against their former president.</p><p>The trial, which is expected to last two to three weeks, is the denouement of a saga that first burst into the public eye in 2017 with the arrest in Miami of Hernández's brother, Juan Antonio "Tony" Hernández.</p><p>Tony Hernández, a former Honduran congressman and a close advisor to his brother, was accused of acting as his brother's liaison to their alleged allies in the criminal underworld, and actively participating in drug trafficking networks that used Honduras as a transit country to move cocaine from Colombia to the US.</p><p>At Tony Hernández's two-week trial in 2019, a parade of former associates testified to explosive allegations of corruption and criminal violence at the highest levels of the Honduran government.</p><p>Tony Hernández was convicted and found to have had a personal stake in a cocaine lab in Colombia as well as a direct hand in moving nearly 200,000 tons of cocaine into the US over 15 years. In Honduras, he had sold machine guns to drug traffickers and was complicit in at least two murders, federal prosecutors said. One witness said Tony Hernández personally met with and accepted a $1 million bribe, in cash, from El Chapo.</p><p>Prosecutors introduced drug ledgers seized in the 2018 arrest of a major trafficker that directly implicated both Juan Orlando Hernández and Tony Hernández, and showed bricks of cocaine stamped with a stylized imprint of Tony's initials.</p><p>Tony Hernández was found guilty on all counts in 2019 and was later sentenced to life in prison. In a court filing from last May, prosecutors said they do not expect that he would agree to testify against his brother.</p><p>Even as his alleged connections to the activities of Tony Hernández were aired in open court, Honduran law granted Juan Orlando Hernández immunity from prosecution or extradition — until he left office.</p><div type="image" title="In this courtroom sketch, Juan Orlando Hernández, center, speaks into a microphone while pleading not guilty to drug trafficking and weapons charges in 2022." height="2598" width="3958" msid="107858391" hostid="261" sizebytes="1156496"></div><h2>Hernández's high-profile trial is being closely watched in Honduras</h2><p>The looming trial of Juan Orlando Hernández, like that of Tony Hernández, is being closely watched in Honduras, where there long existed a pervasive understanding that the government was in league with some of the most malevolent forces of corruption and organized crime in the country, according to Pamela Ruíz, a Central America analyst with the International Crisis Group think-tank.</p><p>"Many Hondurans described it as living under a narco-state," Rúiz told Business Insider. "Everybody kind of knew that the government was involved at some level or another with narco-trafficking groups."</p><p>During the years in which Juan Orlando Hernández was in power, the country was beset by waves of violent crime fueled by the drug trade, and the influence of drug gangs like Los Cachiros, whom Hernández is accused of protecting. The country has also seen wide-ranging human rights violations, including attacks on environmental activists by paramilitary groups linked to security forces and rampant threats against journalists.</p><p>In Honduras, where politicians like Juan Orlando Hernández and politically connected trafficking networks have long been viewed as virtually untouchable, it is momentous to see him face trial for his alleged crimes, according to Ruíz. "For the first time in many years, if not decades, Hondurans felt like justice would actually be served," she said.</p><p>Several witnesses who testified against Tony Hernández are set to testify against the former president, including Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga, a leader of Los Cachiros, a trafficking gang with which Juan Orlando Hernández and his brother were deeply entwined, prosecutors have alleged. Alex Ardon, a drug trafficker and former mayor of El Paraiso, a city on the border of Guatemala, is also expected to testify and describe meeting with El Chapo alongside Tony Hernández and the funneling of millions of dollars in drug money to Juan Orlando Hernández and the National Party.</p><div type="image" title="Juan Antonio &quot;Tony&quot; Hernández." height="1626" width="2484" msid="107858393" hostid="261" sizebytes="189076"></div><p>Court documents also point to several as-yet-unnamed witnesses, including two members of the Sinaloa Cartel, a former official who allowed drugs and other contraband to flow freely through the largest port in Honduras, and a relative of Alex Ardon whom Juan Orlando Hernández appointed to run a major government construction agency, a role the witness used to pave roads for drug routes and dish out government contracts to other traffickers.</p><p>The details that are alleged in court documents illustrate a remarkable portrait of a state-run protection racket carefully constructed by Juan Orlando Hernández and his allies and a level of corruption that went far beyond simply accepting bribes. In the prosecution's narrative, the former president comes across as an outright gangster, acting with almost delusional brazenness.</p><p>But Juan Orlando Hernández was also a highly skilled political operator, and was — for as long as he could be — careful to keep a buffer between himself and the nastier side of the trafficking networks with whom he is accused of partnering, prosecutors said. To maintain contact, Tony Hernández, the national police chief Bonilla, and others acted as his emissaries, taking a more hands-on approach to underworld schemes, prosecutors have said.</p><p>The whims and wishes of US foreign policy have long played an outsize role in the domestic politics of Honduras. And so Juan Orlando Hernández was also careful, for as long as he could be, to remain in the good graces of Washington and repeatedly took steps to make himself indispensable in aligning himself with its policy goals, according to prosecutors.</p><p>From the time he entered Congress as a deputy for the center-right National Party, through his swift rise through the ranks of the Honduran political elite, Juan Orlando Hernández had presented himself as a staunch ally of US interests in Honduras, using his growing political clout to pursue anti-drug policies.</p><p>In private, however, the Hernández brothers assured the drug traffickers to whom he offered protection that they would not face arrest or extradition; instead, he used extradition as a weapon against rival drug traffickers, prosecutors said.</p><p>"The vast majority of the co-conspirators in this scheme were never prosecuted in Honduras despite trafficking massive quantities of cocaine and committing brutal acts of violence," prosecutors wrote in court documents. "Juan Orlando and his powerful allies ensured their protection."</p>

Ex-Honduras president Juan Orlando Hernández, former US ally, to stand trial in NY for alleged cocaine smuggling empire

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández was extradited to the US on Thursday.</li><li>Hernández will face federal <keyword id="11915064" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="drugs" source="Orion">drugs</keyword> and weapons charges.</li></ul><p>Former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández was extradited to the US on Thursday to face federal drug and weapons charges alleging that, for nearly two decades, he facilitated the transport of hundreds of thousands of kilograms of cocaine into the United States.</p><p>The Honduran government announced the <keyword id="11951754" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="extradition" source="Orion">extradition</keyword> of Hernández, who served as president of <keyword id="12038657" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="honduras" source="Orion">Honduras</keyword> from 2014 until January of this year after losing reelection in November.</p><p>Hernández was taken from Tegucigalpa on Thursday afternoon in a US Drug Enforcement Administration plane bound for New York, Justice Department officials said. Known by his initials — JOH — Hernandez is set to make an initial appearance Friday in Manhattan federal court.</p><p>At a press conference, US Attorney General Merrick Garland said the charges resulted from a years-long investigation. Garland said Hernandez received millions of dollars from drug trafficking groups  — including the Sinaloa cartel and it's former leader, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman — to run Honduras as a "narco-state."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joaqu%C3%ADn_%22El_Chapo%22_Guzm%C3%A1n"></a></p><p>"In return, drug traffickers in Honduras were allowed to operate with virtual impunity," Garland said. "We allege that Hernández corrupted legitimate public institutions in the country-- including parts of the national police, military, and national Congress."</p><p>In a <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.578666/gov.uscourts.nysd.578666.423.0.pdf">criminal indictment </a>unsealed Thursday, prosecutors said Hernandez used his "drug- trafficking proceeds to enrich himself, finance his political campaigns, and commit voter fraud" in the 2013 and 2017 presidential elections. </p><p>During the Trump administration, US officials hailed Hernandez as a "valued and proven partner." After agreeing to a deal that would allow the US to force some migrants to seek asylum in Honduras, he and former President Donald Trump shook hands during the United Nations General Assembly in 2019.</p><p>His standing fell sharply after leaving office. Shortly after stepping down as president in January, he was detained at his home in Tegucigalpa, prompting his lawyers to mount an unsuccessful bid to block the US government's extradition request. </p><p>In the indictment, prosecutors painted Hernandez as deeply intent on flooding the US market with cocaine. Hernadez told one associate that he wanted to "stuff the drugs right up the noses of the gringos," according to the indictment. </p>

Honduras extradites former president Juan Orlando Hernández to the US over drug charges

<p><div type="image" title="Honduras' President Juan Orlando Hernandez" height="810" width="1620" msid="76968756" hostid="261"></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>US officials, including President <keyword id="6354484" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Donald-Trump">Donald Trump</keyword>, have embraced Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández as a "<a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/honduras-is-a-valued-and-proven-partner-for-the-united-states-300984974.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">valued and proven partner</a>" for addressing crime and immigration.</li><li>That praise has come despite mounting evidence tying Hernandez to international <keyword id="44416" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Drug-trafficking">drug trafficking</keyword> and corruption, the same kind of allegations for which the US has condemned other Latin American leaders.</li></ul><p>Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was allegedly propelled into office with the help of a million-dollar bribe from former Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, while Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro allegedly worked in cahoots with Colombia's FARC rebels for years.</p><p>Despite allegations that both presidents have dipped their hands deep into the well of criminality and international drug trafficking, only one has been championed as one of the US's most formidable allies in Latin America.</p><p><keyword id="50050" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Honduras">Honduras</keyword> and Venezuela both play extremely crucial roles in the drug trade. The former as a <a href="https://www.insightcrime.org/news/analysis/wild-west-honduras-home-to-narcos-politicians/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">transshipment point</a> for US-bound cocaine shipments — and now also potentially as a <a href="https://www.insightcrime.org/news/analysis/honduras-transit-nation-cocaine-producer/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cocaine producer</a> — and the latter as a departure point for <a href="https://www.insightcrime.org/news/analysis/venezuela-drug-plane-seizures-signal-trafficking-increase/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">aircraft stuffed</a> with Colombian cocaine, though <a href="https://www.wola.org/analysis/beyond-the-narcostate-narrative-venezuela-report/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">less so</a> in recent years.</p><p><div type="image" title="Donald Trump Juan Orlando Hernandez Honduras" height="1565" width="2500" msid="76968761" hostid="261"></div></p><p>But while the US has gone on the offensive in an effort to remove Maduro from office, indicting him and a number of his key associates on <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/nicol-s-maduro-moros-and-14-current-and-former-venezuelan-officials-charged-narco-terrorism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"narco-terrorism" charges</a> in March 2020, US officials have cozied up to Hernández, brokering controversial <a href="https://www.state.gov/honduras-20-325" target="_blank" rel="noopener">asylum agreements</a> with him, <a href="https://twitter.com/JuanOrlandoH/status/1185620669540786177" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posing for photographs</a> alongside him during military parades, and claiming his administration is a "<a href="https://www.efe.com/efe/america/politica/ee-uu-alerta-a-evo-morales-cuenta-los-votos-hay-preguntas-sobre-comicios/20000035-4095915" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reliable partner</a>" in the fight against organized crime.</p><p>The evidence suggests otherwise. Hernández's apparent ties to the criminal world were put on stark display during the <a href="https://www.insightcrime.org/news/analysis/us-drug-trial-evidence-could-topple-president-honduras/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2019 trial</a> of his brother, former congressman Juan Antonio "Tony" Hernández. Tony was <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/former-honduran-congressman-tony-hern-ndez-convicted-manhattan-federal-court-conspiring" target="_blank" rel="noopener">convicted</a> of leveraging Juan Orlando's ascent through Honduran <keyword id="6358883" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="politics">politics</keyword> to run a sophisticated international drug-trafficking ring for more than a decade.</p><p>During the trial, stories emerged of drug traffickers like Devis Rivera Maradiaga of the powerful Cachiros clan working with Tony and apparently <a href="https://www.aquiabajo.com/blog/2019/10/11/day-seven-honduran-presidents-brother-tony-hernandez-on-trial-in-new-york" target="_blank" rel="noopener">relying on</a> his brother's connections to the highest levels of political power to facilitate their drug trafficking operations, as well as how the now jailed former kingpin Joaquín Guzmán Loera, aka "El Chapo," allegedly <a href="https://twitter.com/jeffgernst/status/1179567983120793600/photo/1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">delivered a $1 million bribe</a> to Tony to support his brother's 2013 presidential campaign in exchange for protecting the Sinaloa Cartel's use of the country to traffic drugs.</p><p><div type="image" title="Chad Wolf Juan Orlando Hernandez Honduras" height="1715" width="2500" msid="76968766" hostid="261"></div></p><p>The president has <a href="https://www.presidencia.gob.hn/index.php/sala-de-prensa/6396-comunicado-juicio-del-ciudadano-juan-antonio-hernandez" target="_blank" rel="noopener">consistently denied</a> such claims, <a href="https://twitter.com/JuanOrlandoH/status/1179533749668777989" target="_blank" rel="noopener">calling them</a> "absurd and ridiculous." But the accusations don't end there. To make matters worse for Hernández, since his brother's trial ended, US authorities have arrested a number of traffickers linked to Tony's network.</p><p>Honduran drug trafficker Geovanny Daniel Fuentes Ramírez was <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/honduran-drug-trafficker-arrested-florida-drug-trafficking-and-weapons-charges" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arrested in March 2020</a>. Prosecutors allege that Tony and Juan Orlando <a href="https://www.insightcrime.org/news/analysis/honduras-drug-lab-presidential-protection/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">protected a drug lab</a> nestled along a strategic stretch of Honduras' Caribbean coast that was run by Fuentes and able to produce between 300 and 500 kilograms of cocaine a month.</p><p>Two Guatemalan drug traffickers <a href="https://www.univision.com/univision-news/latin-america/new-arrests-in-honduras-case-implicating-president-juan-orlando-hernandez" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arrested in June 2020</a>, Otto and Ronald Salguero, were identified by former El Paraíso mayor <a href="https://www.insightcrime.org/news/analysis/how-ex-mayor-could-bring-down-honduras-president/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alexander Ardón</a>, a key witness in the case against Tony, as being present during a meeting at Ardón's home when El Chapo allegedly delivered to Tony the million-dollar cash bribe intended for the president.</p><p>But long before this information came out in court and related charging documents, the US was <a href="https://www.insightcrime.org/news/analysis/criminal-allegations-unravel-honduras-president-crime-fighting-facade/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">well aware of</a> Hernández's shady ties, despite acting oblivious to the <a href="https://www.insightcrime.org/news/analysis/criminal-allegations-unravel-honduras-president-crime-fighting-facade/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">allegations</a>.</p><p><div type="image" title="Juan Orlando Hernandez Honduras protests" height="1661" width="2500" msid="76968769" hostid="261"></div></p><p>In 2015, for example, he admitted that companies linked to a massive multimillion-dollar corruption scandal had <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-honduras-corruption/honduras-president-graft-linked-companies-helped-fund-my-campaign-idUSKBN0OJ26B20150603" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in part funded</a> his successful 2013 bid for the presidency. It didn't matter.</p><p>Years later, in 2017, Hernández upended a constitutional ban on reelection to run for president again. He eventually declared victory, with the US government's <a href="https://www.state.gov/on-the-presidential-elections-in-honduras/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blessing</a>, despite a number of irregularities, including accusations of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/22/us-recognizes-re-election-of-honduras-president-despite-calls-for-a-new-vote" target="_blank" rel="noopener">voter fraud</a>, which prompted calls for <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-honduras-election/oas-says-honduran-presidential-election-should-be-redone-idUSKBN1EB0XH" target="_blank" rel="noopener">new elections</a>.</p><p>Nonetheless, consecutive US governments, and President Donald Trump most recently, have looked the other way. Shortly after Tony's drug-trafficking conviction last year, Trump <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-israeli-american-council-national-summit-2019/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">praised Hernández</a> for "working with the United States very closely" and for his help "stopping drugs at a level that has never happened."</p><p>In Venezuela, Maduro hasn't been as lucky. The US has applied constant pressure through <a href="https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/pages/venezuela.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">harsh sanctions</a> from the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) against a growing list of individuals, in addition to <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/venezuelan-minister-and-former-vice-president-tareck-zaidan-el-aissami-maddah-charged" target="_blank" rel="noopener">indicting several</a> of Maduro's key allies on a range of criminal charges and <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-president-donald-j-trump-recognizing-venezuelan-national-assembly-president-juan-guaido-interim-president-venezuela/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">officially recognizing</a> Juan Guaidó as the rightful leader of the South American nation.</p><p><div type="image" title="Juan Orlando Hernandez Honduras protests" height="1730" width="2500" msid="76968772" hostid="261"></div></p><p>This isn't to say that Maduro deserves any special treatment. The embattled leader has helped plunge Venezuela into vast economic, social, and political crises, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-48559739" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pushing millions</a> of desperate families to flee across the region in search of stability and better opportunities.</p><p>But the contrast between the US's interactions with Hernández and with Maduro raises serious questions about who the US government is willing to do business with.</p><p>Maduro has tried and failed to champion the leftist ideals of a Bolivarian revolution pushed by his late predecessor, Hugo Chávez — also a US foe.</p><p>But in Honduras, Hernández has consistently bowed to US pressure, embracing neo-liberal <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/may/01/world-bank-loan-honduras" target="_blank" rel="noopener">economic reforms</a> and other initiatives that followed the US-backed 2009 coup d'état, which ousted then-democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya and ushered in three consecutive right-wing National Party administrations.</p><p>For now, Hernández has presidential immunity and is untouchable. But when he leaves office in 2022, US prosecutors seem to have plenty of evidence and witnesses willing to testify if they want to indict him.</p><p><em>Parker Asmann is a journalist who writes about human rights, security policy, and organized crime across Latin America and the Caribbean.</em></p>

How 'El Chapo' allegedly helped put one of Trump's 'proven partners' into power

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5ac23c1e5c791e36008b4702-1400/screen shot 2018-04-02 at 101703 am.png" border="0" alt="Mexico migrants Chiapas" data-mce-source="Pueblo Sin Frontera/Facebook" data-mce-caption="Migrants heading north gather in Tapachula, in the Mexican state of Chiapas near the border with Guatemala, March 25, 2018." data-link="https://www.facebook.com/PuebloSF/videos/2106833936009963/" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/PuebloSF/videos/2106833936009963/">Pueblo Sin Frontera/Facebook</a></span></p><p class="caption">Migrants heading north gather in Tapachula, in the Mexican state of Chiapas near the border with Guatemala, March 25, 2018.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>President Donald Trump inveighed against Mexico for what he perceived as a lack of effort to halt the flow of Central American migrants to the US.</strong></li><li><strong>But Trump's comments appeared to reflect a lack of knowledge about the factors driving the migration and Mexico's efforts to stanch it.</strong></li><li><strong>Some of the immigration policies Trump has pursued are also expected to worsen the problems causing migrants to leave their homes and head to the US.</strong></li></ul><hr /><p><br />President Donald Trump railed against Mexico over what he perceived as that country's inability or unwillingness to carry out immigration enforcement in a series of tweets that spanned from the weekend through Monday.</p><p>"Mexico is doing very little, if not NOTHING, at stopping people from flowing into Mexico through their Southern Border, and then into the US," Trump <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/980764358530789380" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tweeted</a> on Sunday morning.</p><p>"These big flows of people are all trying to take advantage of DACA," he <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/980451798606602241" target="_blank" rel="noopener">added</a>. "They want in on the act!"</p><p><span>"Mexico has the absolute power not to let these large 'Caravans' of people enter their country," he <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/980762392303980544" target="_blank" rel="noopener">added</a> Monday morning.</span></p><p><span>The term "caravans" is an apparent reference to a large contingent of Central American migrants who are making their way north across Mexico, headed for the US and points in between, <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/adolfoflores/a-huge-caravan-of-central-americans-is-headed-for-the-us" target="_blank" rel="noopener">documented by BuzzFeed News</a>. The migrants' travel has notably been covered by Fox <keyword id="6355005" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="news">News</keyword>, of which Trump is an avid viewer.</span></p><p><span>The group - more than 1,000 people, about 80% of them from Honduras, according to BuzzFeed - has been heading through Mexico on foot and by vehicle, guided by a group of volunteers called <a href="https://www.facebook.com/PuebloSF" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pueblo Sin Fronteras</a>, or People Without Borders. Many hope to make part of the journey on freight trains that have become known as "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mexico-is-facing-a-cental-americans-migrant-crisis-2015-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">La Bestia</a>" or "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-its-like-to-ride-the-train-of-death-from-mexico-to-the-us-2015-11" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the train of death</a>."</span></p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5ac246e9f131653d008b46fb-1400/screen shot 2018-04-02 at 101612 am.png" border="0" alt="Mexico migrants" data-mce-source="Pueblo Sin Frontera/Facebook" data-mce-caption="Migrants passing through Huehuetan, in the state of Chiapas in southern Mexico, March 26, 2018." data-link="https://www.facebook.com/PuebloSF/videos/vb.214556975237678/2106857236007633/?type=2&amp;theater" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/PuebloSF/videos/vb.214556975237678/2106857236007633/?type=2&amp;theater">Pueblo Sin Frontera/Facebook</a></span></p><p class="caption">Migrants passing through Huehuetan, in the state of Chiapas in southern Mexico, March 26, 2018.</p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p><span>One of the group's organizers said Pueblo Sin Fronteras was not calling on people to make the arduous trip - only helping them do so. Gathering in such a large group is a security measure to ward off <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mexico-is-facing-a-cental-americans-migrant-crisis-2015-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the violence and depredations</a> frequently carried out against migrants by criminal groups and Mexican officials. As of Friday, <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/adolfoflores/a-huge-caravan-of-central-americans-is-headed-for-the-us?utm_term=.vxlg3qJ5k#.nlrom4J5M" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to BuzzFeed, the group had made it to Oaxaca state.</span></p><p><span>Many of those trekking north intend to reach the US border, either requesting asylum or trying to cross without detection once there. Others hope to reunite with family already in Mexico. </span></p><p><span>But all are apparently fleeing what they see as untenable situations in their home countries.</span></p><p>For those from Honduras, the most proximate cause is violence and instability in the wake of President Juan Orlando Hernandez's reelection late last year, which many believe was fraudulent, although it was endorsed by the US. In the months since, violence, much of it by state-backed actors, <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2018/03/20/activists-go-underground-un-reports-excessive-force-honduras" target="_blank" rel="noopener">against activists</a> and <a href="https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/gymyaq/us-backed-honduran-government-wants-to-use-facebook-to-crack-down-on-journalists" target="_blank" rel="noopener">journalists</a> has been elevated. The group traveling through Mexico often chanted, "out with JOH!," according to BuzzFeed.</p><p><span>"The crime rate is horrible, you can't live there," Karen, a Honduran mother of two traveling with her children, <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/adolfoflores/a-huge-caravan-of-central-americans-is-headed-for-the-us?utm_term=.vxlg3qJ5k#.nlrom4J5M" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told BuzzFeed</a> near a town in Chiapas a state in Mexico bordering Guatemala. "After the president [was sworn in] it got worse. There were deaths, mobs, robbed homes, adults and kids were beaten up."</span></p><h2><span>'A broader problem here that goes well beyond Trump'</span></h2><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/58e79a798af578622c8b6d56-2400/rtx3119b.jpg" border="0" alt="Comayaguela Tegucigalpa Honduras crime scene blood forensics killing blood murder" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Jorge Cabrera" data-mce-caption="A member of a forensic team looks at blood on the floor, at a repair shop where three men were shot dead by unknown attackers, in Comayaguela, on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, March 14, 2017." /><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Jorge Cabrera</span></p><p class="caption">A forensic technician in a repair shop where three men were killed in Comayaguela, on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, March 14, 2017.</p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p>In Honduras, as well as neighboring El Salvador and Guatemala, economic weakness, political instability, and rampant violence are all motivating factors. Much of the violence comes from criminal groups like MS-13 that have their roots in US policies during the region's civil wars in the late 20th century, as well as US immigration policies in the 1990s and 2000s</p><p><span>"There is a broader problem here that goes well beyond Trump and includes the Obama administration. When we hear of Central Americans on the move, we have to think of failed past policies, notably the 2009 coup in Honduras, which worsened political and social conditions there," Greg Weeks, a professor and Latin America expert at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, <a href="http://weeksnotice.blogspot.com/2018/04/trump-tries-to-figure-out-central.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> on Monday. "We have to think of current support for a fraudulent election there. And no politician ever discusses the effects of 1980s policies on El Salvador."</span></p><p><span>US gun policies, for example, have been <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/american-guns-migrant-crisis-trump-border-wall-2017-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blamed for facilitating the violence</a> that many people in the region - called the Northern Triangle - are fleeing.</span></p><p><span>"It's a bipartisan problem," Weeks added. "Our policies in Central America are never long-sighted and they keep on biting us."</span></p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/565d8387c28144c0018b6402-2400/el salvador military police.jpg" border="0" alt="El Salvador military police" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Jose Cabezas" data-mce-caption="Salvadoran policemen arrest two suspected gang members during an anti-gang search operation in San Salvador, June 21, 2015." /><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Jose Cabezas</span></p><p class="caption">Salvadoran police arrest two suspected gang members during an anti-gang search operation in San Salvador, June 21, 2015.</p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p><span>Trump also mischaracterizes Mexican efforts to stem the flow of people moving through its territory, which come at the behest of the US.</span></p><p><span>In response to a surge of undocumented migrants, many of them unaccompanied minors, arriving at the US southern border in 2014, Mexico enacted Plan Frontera Sur, a border-security and enforcement initiative that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mexico-is-facing-a-cental-americans-migrant-crisis-2015-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">quickly led Mexico to surpass the US</a> in the number of Central Americans deported.</span></p><p><span>From October 2013 to April 2014, the US apprehended 159,103 "other than Mexicans," which was <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mexico-now-deports-more-central-americans-than-the-us-2015-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more than three times</a> the 49,893 Central Americans who Mexico detained over the same period. </span></p><p><span>Between October 2014 and April 2015, those numbers shifted drastically: Mexico detained 92,889 Central Americans, while the US detained 70,226 "other than Mexican" migrants, many of whom were from the Northern Triangle countries. Many migrants detained by Mexican authorities have <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/karlazabludovsky/mexicos-immigration-program-has-a-human-rights-problem?utm_term=.eln185YZo#.lqzpzPGKo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">faced abuses</a>, but the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/despite-trumps-tough-talk-on-the-border-migrants-are-still-coming-2017-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">flow north continues</a>.</span></p><p><span>Mexico has <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mexico-is-buckling-under-a-surge-in-immigration-2016-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">struggled</a> to deal with the surge. As of mid-2015, the Mexican agency in charge of interviewing migrants applying for refugee status <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mexico-is-facing-a-cental-americans-migrant-crisis-2015-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">had just three offices</a> throughout the country. The US also supplies aid - more than <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/01/26/us-aid-320-million-mexico-wall-trump-specialists-backfire/97103024/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$300 million a year</a> - to the Mexican government, which <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mexico-is-facing-a-cental-americans-migrant-crisis-2015-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bought about $3.5 billion in US arms</a> during the first three years of President Enrique Peña Nieto's term, which started in December 2012.</span></p><p>Mexico has been a frequent target of Trump's fusillades against US allies and foes, and Trump has threatened to cut off US aid to its southern neighbor. Such cuts are generally seen as likely to worsen the border-security and immigration situations in Mexico, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-border-wall-deportation-immigration-plans-backfire-failure-2017-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">empowering criminal groups</a> that have moved into the human-smuggling trade.</p><h2>No one 'has mentioned DACA'</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/583f089aba6eb634008b6ce8-2400/rtx2u6h2.jpg" border="0" alt="Central American migrants Mexico La Bestia immigration" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Daniel Becerril" data-mce-caption="Volunteers from a group called &amp;quotLas Patronas&quot; (The bosses), a charitable organization that feeds Central American immigrants who travel atop a freight train known as &amp;quotLa Bestia,&quot; pass food and water to immigrants on their way to the US border, at Amatlan de los Reyes, in Veracruz state, Mexico, October 22, 2016." /><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Daniel Becerril</span></p><p class="caption">Volunteers from a group called "Las Patronas" (The bosses), a charitable organization that feeds Central American immigrants who travel on freight trains known as "La Bestia," pass food and water to immigrants on their way to the US border, at Amatlan de los Reyes in Veracruz, Mexico, October 22, 2016.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Trump's <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/even-without-border-wall-funding-trump-has-reshaped-immigration-policy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">efforts</a> to crack down on immigration, including <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-ms-13-el-salvador-rescinding-tps-2018-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">removing Temporary Protected Status</a> for some Central Americans, are seen as <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-ending-tps-el-salvador-threatens-economy-2018-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">likely to exacerbate</a> the problems in those countries, leading more people to head north. (US border agents have <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/border-patrols-checkpoints-overlooked-in-debate-over-wall-2018-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said Trump's plans overlook</a> the frontline of US border security: border checkpoints themselves.)</p><p>Trump's assertion that the migrants traveling north are hoping to take advantage of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, is also off base, as that program only applied to immigrants who arrived as children prior to <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/archive/consideration-deferred-action-childhood-arrivals-daca" target="_blank" rel="noopener">June 2012</a>.</p><p>Trump in fact rescinded DACA in 2017, and his invocation of the program this week <a href="http://weeksnotice.blogspot.com/2018/04/trump-tries-to-figure-out-central.html">led some people</a> to question whether he knew the details of it. Others <a href="https://twitter.com/Arturo_Sarukhan/status/980787056489230336" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a> the apparent gap between Trump's condemnations of Mexico and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen's praise of Mexico's work with the US on <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jared-kushner-leading-us-mexico-ties-diplomatic-problems-2018-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">numerous recent policies</a>.</p><p>Adolfo Flores, the BuzzFeed reporter traveling with the caravan, <a href="https://twitter.com/aflores/status/980520330237227008" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> Sunday he asked some migrants about Trump's DACA comments.</p><p>"Some laughed and others said they thought (correctly) they wouldn't qualify," Flores said, <a href="https://twitter.com/aflores/status/980588418366427137" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adding</a>, "I've spoken with dozens of people who cite violence, instability, and poverty as reasons for leaving. Not one has mentioned DACA."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/eight-prototypes-trump-border-wall-finished-in-san-diego-mexico-politics-patrol-customs-budget-congress-2017-10">One of these prototypes could become Trump's border wall</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/47pBIu39-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

You Searched For "Juan Orlando Hernandez" and got 5 results

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Trump says Mexico has 'the absolute power' to stop 'Caravans' of migrants - here's what he's missing

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