New York.
This Tuesday took place in a New York court on the seventh day of the trial against Geovanny Fonts Ramirez, An alleged Honduran drug trafficker who allegedly paid bribes to politicians in exchange for his security in Honduras.
In the trial today participated as a witness an accountant, named under the pseudonym of Jose Sanchez, who said he witnessed meetings with the President of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez, and Geovanny Fonts.
The meetings between the Honduran president and the alleged boss took place when Hernandez he was running his presidential campaign in 2013.
According to the accountant’s account, the meetings were held at the offices of National Barns, a rice paddy allegedly used by launder money from the narco.
He detailed that Hernandez visited the offices on several occasions arriving by helicopter, to receive monthly checks of 250,000 lempiras (about $ 10,300 at the current exchange rate). Sanchez revealed that the money was for the president’s campaign, who in 2013 was the incumbent National Congress.
In his account, the accountant confessed that he was afraid when he entered the office where he saw the trustee meeting with Fuentes Ramírez. “I was watching the presidential candidate with a drug dealer gathered,” he said.
He revealed that at an initial meeting the alleged boss handed over a $ 15,000 bribe to the then presidential candidate. Sanchez has detailed that it was he himself who explained the money, meanwhile Juan Orlando he was looking at his cell phone.
According to the accountant, the president said at the meeting “we will be untouchable“.
Sanchez repeated a phrase that had already been heard in the early days of the trial of Geovanny Fonts, which is awarded to Hernandez. He said he was “going to put the drug in the gringos on their own noses and they weren’t even going to notice,” he added.
In his statement to Judge Kevin Castle, the witness added that Hernandez told Ramirez Sources that he was interested in working together in a drug lab, and that he did not worry as they would have protection from Attorney General Oscar Chinchilla.
He also explained that the movement of the drug would be carried out with the help of the Armed Forces. “Juan Orlando Hernandez said that by the time the United States learned the truth, they would have amended the laws in their favor,” Sanchez said.
The trial of Geovanny Fonts Ramirez it is being followed by several journalists by means of a telephone line, and others in person; however, that day the reporters did not have virtual access when José Sánchez testified, as prosecutors asked the judge not to transmit his testimony for security reasons. The witness explained that in 2015 he fled Honduras because his life was in danger.
the president Juan Orlando Hernández has not yet commented on the statements that José Sánchez gave that day to the New York court, Although on previous occasions he has said that the testimonies of drug traffickers are in revenge for their actions against drug cartels in Honduras.