Honduran president, a Trump ally implicated in drug trafficking, tries to win over Biden, Kevin Sieff, on Juan Orlando Hernández

“Hernández has studied U.S. politics since his stint in a master’s program at the State University of New York at Albany. He grew up on a small coffee farm in the city of Gracias, near the Salvadoran border, one of 17 children. As he came of age politically, he came to believe that winning over the United States was a necessary survival skill.”

“The stakes are higher for Hernández than perhaps any other world leader. Not only are the political and economic fortunes of his country inextricably linked to the United States but Hernández is one of the few sitting presidents ever to be implicated in drug trafficking by the U.S. Justice Department. He has not been charged, but prosecutors have described evidence against him in multiple indictments.... Every year, thousands of pounds of cocaine transit through Honduras on the way to the United States. According to the Justice Department, some of that cargo is trafficked by Honduran officials — an allegation the Trump administration mostly ignored while officials praised Hernández’s counternarcotics and anti-migration efforts.”