Everyone in America is talking about an attempt to bring a Latin American leader to justice for drug trafficking activities targeting the United States.
Wherever you stand politically, I think that by the end of this column, you’ll agree with me that justice needs to be served.
Our U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York began by pointing out that this leader “had every opportunity to affect positive change for his country.” Instead he “helped to facilitate the importation of an almost unfathomable 400 tons of cocaine to this country: billions of individual doses sent to the United States with the protection and support of the former president.”
The prosecutor promised that, “Now, after years of destructive narco-trafficking of the highest imaginable magnitude,” this leader will thankfully spend years in prison.
Regardless of how you feel about America sentencing a former leader of another country to prison here, all of you will probably agree that this is a special case. It’s not just Republicans who see drug trafficking as a problem. Our former Attorney General under a previous administration said of this leader that he “abused his power to support one of the largest and most violent drug trafficking conspiracies in the world” and that his people and the U.S. suffered the consequences. “The Justice Department will hold accountable all those who engage in violent drug trafficking, regardless of how powerful they are or what position they hold.”
If you read the Superseding Indictment and other filings in Manhattan federal court, you’ll see that this Latin American President, among other things, “was at the center of one of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking conspiracies… facilitate[d] the importation of over 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S…. co-conspirators were armed with machine guns and destructive devices, including AK-47s, AR-15s, and grenade launchers, which they used to protect their massive cocaine loads… received millions of dollars of drug money from some of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking organizations… provided increased support and protection for his co-conspirators, allowing them to move mountains of cocaine, commit acts of violence and murder… protected and enriched the drug traffickers in his inner circle and those who provided him with cocaine-fueled bribes that allowed him to obtain and stay in power.”
Wait… did you think I was writing about Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro?
Actually, this is an article about Juan Orlando Hernández, Honduras’ former president, who was convicted last year of all of these charges, and sentenced to 45 years in prison last year (here are the details from the Justice Department). In the trial, it was claimed he wanted to “stuff the drugs right up the noses of the gringos”, according to Poynter.
But he was pardoned a few weeks ago, on the recommendation of a key presidential adviser, with claims that it was all some partisan witch hunt against him.
So I researched the judge from that case, P. Kevin Castle. He was nominated by President George W. Bush in 2003 and confirmed by a Republican-led Senate later that year. Judge Castle called the defendant “‘a two-faced politician hungry for power’ who masqueraded as an anti-drug crusader while partnering with traffickers,” according to The New York Times and WLRN.
Republicans as well as Democrats were outraged by the pardon, according to CNN. GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy posted on X Sunday, “Why would we pardon this guy and then go after Maduro for running drugs into the United States? Lock up every drug runner! Don’t understand why he is being pardoned.” Similar critiques came from Kentucky Republican Rand Paul and Congresswoman Maria Salazar (R-FL).
We should talk about both leaders, not just one.