Jailed for 45 years, ex-Honduras president 'haunted' by 2010 Soccer World Cup photo

This image, apparently taken at the World Cup in South Africa, shows drug trafficker Miguel Arnulfo Valle Valle (left) with his arm around former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, whose wife, Ana, claims the image was faked. (Photo: Supplied by Pro-Honduras Network)

By Caryn Dolley

7 Jul 2024

Former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández was jailed for 45 years in the US last week. A photograph of him and drug traffickers at the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa resurfaced in his sentencing procedures.

Juan Orlando Hernández stands with his right thumb up. Two men are to the left of him and one to his right. They are all wearing blue and white tops.

This almost blurry image recently resurfaced in sentencing procedures that culminated in Hernández, the former president of Honduras, being handed a 45-year prison sentence in the US last week.

Apart from indirectly contributing to his fate, the photograph hints at the top-tier global criminals who have hung out in South Africa.

If it is indeed authentic, as US authorities seem to suggest, it was taken in this country during the 2010 Fifa World Cup and depicts Hernández with cocaine traffickers, one of whom backed him with drug money.

The similar clothing worn by the men suggests that they were supporters of their country’s soccer team.

Cocaine, grenades and machine guns

On 26 June, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York issued a statement saying that, from about 2004 to 2022, Hernández “was at the center of one of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking conspiracies in the world”.

“During his political career, Hernández abused his powerful positions and authority in Honduras to facilitate the importation of over 400 tons of cocaine into the US,” the statement added.

“Hernández’s co-conspirators were armed with machine guns and destructive devices, including AK-47s, AR-15s and grenade launchers, which they used to protect their massive cocaine loads.”

Read more in Daily Maverick: They visited 2010 Soccer World Cup together – now El Chapo’s cocaine allies could sink ex-Honduras president

Hernández was extradited to the US in 2022 and convicted in March this year of importing cocaine and weapons.

This led to his being sentenced last week to 45 years in jail.

Daily Maverick reported in 2023 that two convicted drug traffickers in the US had testified about attending the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa and that a photograph – the one that resurfaced during his sentencing – suggested they had been here with Hernández.

His wife, Ana, previously publicly confirmed that the couple were at the World Cup, but her version was that it was not for illicit reasons. Posts on her Facebook page suggest that she believes Hernández is innocent and wrongfully convicted.

El Chapo partnership

According to the US government’s sentencing submission filed against Hernández last week, he and his associates had partnered with Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, the leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, the world’s largest drug-trafficking gang.

El Chapo was sentenced to life imprisonment in the US in 2019.

Hernández’s sentencing submission said that, once he had gained control of Honduras, he protected his drug associates “with the full power of the state”. This helped them “grow their international drug distribution network”.

El Chapo This image, apparently taken at the World Cup in South Africa, shows drug trafficker Miguel Arnulfo Valle Valle (left) with his arm around former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, whose wife, Ana, claims the image was faked. (Photo: Supplied by Pro-Honduras Network)

The sentencing submission also contained the photograph showing him and three other men posing at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

One of the men is Honduran drug trafficker Miguel Arnulfo Valle Valle, who is depicted with his arm around Hernández.

Valle had previously testified that he and Arnulfo Fagot Máximo, another convicted Honduran drug trafficker, were at the World Cup together.

In a transcript of Valle’s testimony from 2018, he said Máximo had to leave South Africa early during the World Cup “because there was a submarine with seven thousand kilos of cocaine arriving, and he had to come over [to Honduras] to take delivery of it”.

Valle had bought 500kg of that consignment of cocaine.

Photo ‘proof’

The sentencing submission said that Valle had shown another associate the photograph depicting Hernández on his phone.

Valle had alleged that he attended the soccer tournament with Hernández and that “during their time together at the World Cup, [Hernández] requested that Miguel Valle support his campaign” for the presidency of the Honduran National Congress.

“The evidence at trial also established that [Valle and an associate] did just that, trafficking significant quantities of cocaine and providing financial support to the defendant through cocaine trafficking proceeds,” the sentencing submission said.

It added that Hernández tried “to distance himself from drug traffickers who had bribed him despite overwhelming proof of their meeting with” him. The photograph was used as an example of that.

“On cross-examination about the photograph from the 2010 World Cup showing the defendant arm in arm with Arnulfo Valle, the defendant suggested that the photograph was fake and then claimed that he ‘never met’ Arnulfo Valle,” the sentencing submission said.

Capture across countries

At the time of the 2010 World Cup, Jacob Zuma was president of South Africa, and he went on to face accusations that he was deeply involved in State Capture.

That same year, Jackie Selebi, South Africa’s former national police commissioner, was convicted of corruption. Apart from being the country’s police chief, Selebi had been the president of Interpol, the international police organisation.

Read more in Daily Maverick: SA’s drug dons — where are they now plus the political suspicions surrounding them

To become Interpol boss, Selebi had beaten Genaro García Luna of Mexico, who at the time headed his country’s Federal Agency of Investigation. Luna retained a role in the international police organisation.

South Africa and Sinaloa parallels

There are parallels between South Africa and Mexico in what happened to Selebi and Luna.

Selebi was convicted in 2010 in a case that focused on his dodgy dealings with a drug dealer, Glenn Agliotti, which included taking bribes from him.

As for Luna, he was convicted in the US in February last year for taking massive bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel.

Read more in Daily Maverick: From South Africa to Sinaloa: Jackie Selebi and the ‘parallel’ US drug trial of Mexico’s ex-cop boss

Luna and Selebi, former Interpol officials from Mexico and South Africa, respectively, therefore both became convicts over drugs.

Selebi died in 2014. At one stage his lawyer claimed he had been set up.

In the case of Luna, it was reported in late 2023 that he was seeking a retrial in the US as a key witness may have previously lied.

Reuters reported: “Lawyers for Genaro García Luna, who as public security minister from 2006-2012 led the country’s fight against drug cartels, said in a court filing … that they had also found evidence that prosecutors’ cooperating witnesses had improperly communicated with each other before trial.”

That suggests a claim of a set-up, as Selebi’s lawyer said happened to him, and is also along the lines of what Ana Hernández’s social media posts suggest happened to her husband. DM

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