(27 Jun 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tegucigalpa, Honduras – 26 June 2024
1. Various of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández’s wife, Ana García, walking to news briefing venue
2. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Ana García, former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández’s wife:
"My husband, Juan Orlando Hernández Alvarado, is innocent of every one of the charges that were unjustly brought against him. Today is one more chapter in a series of injustices that have been happening. Today he was unjustly sentenced to 45 years, just imagine. He who fought against the criminals faces a longer sentence than the most terrible murderers that Honduras has ever had."
3. García during press conference
4. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Ana García, former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández’s wife:
"The U.S. justice system itself will be affected because whether it is today, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, the truth will come out, it will prevail and expose this shameful conspiracy. This was a mockery of the justice system. We will not allow these arbitrary actions to go unpunished. We will fight to the last consequences."
5. Various of Tegucigalpa street scenes
6. Various of Pedro Reyes talking to a friend
7. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Pedro Reyes, student:
"They are sentencing him because he mainly harmed them (EEUU) in bringing drugs into their country. He was killing American citizens. Here in Honduras he wasn’t doing anything, he was just moving drugs. He was working with high caliber weapons, which could cause harm to someone or even death for money, and that is clearly wrong."
8. Various of Alexander Oseguera working at his street food stand
9. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Alexander Oseguera, street food vendor:
"He was a not a bad president. His error was getting involved in something else, in drug trafficking, but he wasn’t a bad President."
10. Various of Alexander Oseguera working at his street food stand
STORYLINE:
Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández’s wife, Ana García, said her husband was innocent of the drug trafficking charges for which he was sentenced in New York.
Speaking in Tegucigalpa Wednesday, García — who is planning to run for president next year — said she looked forward to her husband’s appeal.
"Today is only a chapter in a series of injustices," she said.
A defiant Hernández was sentenced in New York Wednesday to 45 years in prison for teaming up with some bribe-paying drug traffickers for over a decade to ensure over 400 tons of cocaine made it to the United States.
Judge P. Kevin Castel sentenced Hernández to 45 years in a U.S. prison and fined him $8 million, saying that the penalty should serve as a warning to "well educated, well dressed" individuals who gain power and think their status insulates them from justice when they do wrong.
"I am innocent," Hernández said through an interpreter at his sentencing.
In a lengthy extemporaneous statement, Hernández portrayed himself as a hero of the anti-drug trafficking movement who teamed up with American authorities under three U.S. presidential administrations to reduce drug imports.
But the judge said trial evidence proved the opposite and that Hernández employed "considerable acting skills" to make it seem that he was an anti-drug trafficking crusader while he deployed his nation’s police and military, when necessary, to protect the drug trade.
"They are sentencing him because he mainly harmed them (EEUU) in bringing drugs into their country," said Pedro Reyes, a Honduran national. "He was killing American citizens."
AP Video by Elmer Martínez
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