MIAMI (AP) — The Biden administration last year quietly placed former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández on a classified list of officials suspected of corruption or undermining democracy in Central America, according to two people familiar with the sanction, which is expected to be made public as early as Monday.
The list was provided last summer to the U.S. Congress in compliance with legislation pushed by former Congressman Eliot Engel, who chaired the House Foreign Affairs Committee before being defeated in a Democratic primary in 2020.
The publication of the so-called Engel List fell like a bombshell in Central America, containing the names of another former Honduran president, Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo Sosa, among more than 50 active lawmakers, top politicians and former officials in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras — the so-called “Northern Triangle” countries.
But one notable omission was Hernández, who was in power at the time but reeling from accusations that surfaced in the drug trafficking trial of his brother, ex lawmaker Antonio “Tony” Hernández, that his political ascent had been funded by bribes from drug traffickers. Tony Hernández was sentenced in New York in March to life in prison.
With Hernández’s stepping down last month, the State Department considered it was no longer necessary to maintain secrecy, the two people said on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.
Pressure has been building in Washington to go after Hernández as his successor, Xiomara Castro, seeks to improve relations with the U.S.
Sen. Bob Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, this month called on the Biden administration to revoke Hernández’s U.S. visa and list him as a “significant foreign narcotics trafficker” under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. His comments followed a letter sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland by Rep. Norma Torres, a California Democrat who co-chairs the Central America caucus in Congress, calling for the U.S. Justice Department to indict Hernández.
“Hernández has been a central figure in undermining the rule of law in his own country and in protecting and assisting drug traffickers to move their materials through Honduras and to the United States,” Torres said at the time. “He has been repeatedly identified as a co-conspirator in other drug trafficking cases and has caused incredible pain to both the people of Honduras and the United States. I believe it is essential that the United States hold him accountable for his criminal behavior.”
An email to Hernández’s former presidential spokeswoman was not immediately answered.
However, Hernández has likened prosecutors’ attention to a witch hunt fueled by the false testimony of confessed killers who were also key witnesses in his brother’s trial. In a series of messages posted on social media this month, he touted his record for pursuing drug cartels and claims to have enjoyed the support of the Drug Enforcement Administration even after his brother’s indictment.
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Joshua Goodman, The Associated Press
