Honduran prosecutor seizes property of former President Juan Orlando Hernández

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By LatAm Reports Staff Writers

In a statement, the Prosecutor’s Office said Monday that the actions extend to Hernandez’s wife, Ana Garcia, “among other people from his close circle.”

The Public Prosecutor’s Office (Proscal Office) of Honduras is promoting actions of definitive deprivation of dominion over 131 assets considered to be of illicit origin registered in the name of former President Juan Orlando Hernández, who on 8 March was convicted of drug trafficking in New York.

In a statement, the Prosecutor’s Office said Monday that the actions extend to Hernandez’s wife, Ana Garcia, “among other people from his close circle.”

“These are 32 real estate, 19 companies and 80 financial products, identified by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in the departments of Francisco Morazán, Olancho and Lempira,” said the same source.

He added that the rights holders of the property, in addition to the former president and his wife, are the mother Hernandez, María Elvira Alvarado Castillo; his brothers, Hilda Rosario (died), Aixa Marlene and Juan Antonio Hernández Alvarado, the latter sentenced in 2021 to life imprisonment in New York, also for drug trafficking.

In addition, another brother of the former governor identified as José Amílcar Hernández Flores and other relatives appears, the prosecutor’s office said.

The actions are part of the work of the special commission of prosecutors and detectives of the Prosecutor’s Office that “averbed a collection and analysis of information after attending and remaining for the 14 days in which the trial of former President Hernández Alvarado took place, which culminated in a plea of guilt on the three charges he faced in the Southern District Court of New York, United States.”

According to the Prosecutor’s Office, within the sustained links to request the definitive extinction of property, account was taken of the former president’s relationship “with people linked to drug trafficking and with whom at the time there was a financial and incorporation of companies.”

Hernandez exercised power in Honduras for two periods (2014-2018 and 2018-2022).

The United States requested the extradition of Hernandez a few days after the end of his second term, on January 27, 2022.

Hernandez was captured on February 15, 2022 at his residence and on April 21 of that year he was extradited to the United States.

The Honduran Prosecutor ' s Office also reported that as part of the final action of de-editing, 19 insured buildings are being inspected, which had not authorized their seizure processes, and, after the completion of the search, work will be coordinated with the Office of Seizure Assets (OABI) for the respective process.

The conviction against Hernandez, which could be life imprisonment, as it has gone beyond in New York, will be known on June 26.

This article has been translated from the original which first appeared in El Salvador