Sawt Falasteen - New York jury deliberates in drug trafficking trial of Honduras ex-president

The 55-year-old Hernandez was extradited to the United States in 2022, accused of aiding drug smugglers in return for millions of dollars in bribes.

The jury received instructions from Judge Kevin Castel late Thursday afternoon after hearing more than two weeks of testimony.

If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Hernandez, whose 2014 to 2022 stint as president was plagued by allegations of corruption, is accused of having facilitated the smuggling of some 500 tons of cocaine -- mainly from Colombia and Venezuela -- to the United States via Honduras since 2004, starting long before his presidency.

US prosecutors say Hernandez turned Honduras into a "narco-state" by involving the military, police and civilians in drug trafficking.

Hernandez used the drug money to enrich himself and finance his political campaign, and commit electoral fraud in the 2013 and 2017 presidential elections, prosecutors allege.

As president, Hernandez worked closely with the administration of former US president Donald Trump, winning Washington's praise for his government's work in drug seizures and the fight against organized crime.

But according to the prosecution, that work was all a facade.

"He arrested people who had no ties to him, but he protected others," former US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Mikel Vigil told AFP before the trial started.

Hernandez has insisted he is innocent and the "victim of a vendetta."

During the trial, the defense cast doubt on the testimony of witnesses -- most of whom were drug traffickers cooperating with US prosecutors in exchange for reduced sentences -- saying their version of events could not be trusted.

Two of Hernandez's co-defendants, former Honduran police chief Juan Carlos "Tiger" Bonilla and ex-policeman Mauricio Hernandez, pleaded guilty last month to drug trafficking.

If found guilty, Hernandez would follow in the footsteps of other former Latin American heads of state convicted in the United States, like Panama's Manuel Noriega in 1992 and Guatemala's Alfonso Portillo in 2014.

T.Ibrahim--SF-PST