words per minute
3
djchicio
00:00
Speed
A few weeks ago, the former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez, was arrested.
He was arrested at his home in a nice suburb of Tegucigalpa. Many, many police were there. They knocked at his door. He came out, they put shackles on his feet and on his hands, they put him in a bulletproof vest for security's sake. So it was a very dramatic moment, and then he was taken to a police station where he spent the night.
Hernandez is facing charges in the US that he took bribes from Latin American drug cartels and helped them smuggle 550 tons of cocaine to the US. Hernandez has denied the charges. It was a stunning turn of events for the former president, who ran the country for eight years on a platform of stamping out corruption and standing up to drug cartels.
It's amazing to see this man who was twice president of the country to fall so far. I mean, he is facing life in prison now. And I see it as very difficult how he gets out of this.
Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Kate Linebaugh. It's Thursday, March 31st. Coming up on the show, why the former president of Honduras is being charged with drug smuggling. Our colleague Jose de Cordoba covers Latin America and he says Honduras has been in turmoil for more than a decade.
Honduras is one of the most violent countries in the world and one of the most violent, certainly in Central America and in the hemisphere. One of the drivers, one of the big drivers of violence is drug violence and related gang violence.
That violence has been allowed to flourish, because according to US prosecutors, drug cartels have bribed Honduran officials in exchange for protection.
onduras really became a narco state. Over a number of years, drug traffickers made a deal and cut a quid pro quo. That quid pro quo was basically the narcos giving politicians money for their political campaigns. And in exchange, politicians basically agreed to help them ship their cocaine through the country. They gave them police protection, they gave them protection from extradition. They even used the military, it is alleged, to escort shipments. And so it was a real bargain with the devil as it were.
In 2013, Juan Orlando Hernandez was the presidential candidate for the Conservative National Party. He ran on a platform of fighting corruption and cracking down on drug cartels.
Well, his message to voters was that he would combat poverty, combat crime, and clean up corruption in Honduras, which is endemic. He was seen as a bit of a technocrat who wanted to modernize the country.