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By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Song Filing
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN

SDNY COURTHOUSE, March 19 – Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez took a briefcase of cash and said he would stuff drugs up the noses of the gringos, a jury was told on March 16. The audio call-in line, at the demand of the prosecutors was cut off during that testimony (then turned back on later).

But Inner City Press live tweeted it, morning here and then the afternoon, about the video(s), here.

  On March 19, the US Attorney's Office closing argument said that Juan Orlando Hernandez wanted to trafficking drugs, offered to help the defendant re-open his drug lab in Cerro Negro and was in his phone. It was assisted by Commissioner Martinez, trained by the UN which refuses to answer and bans the Press. Inner City Press live tweeted the US closing, here. Podcast here Translation by Ray Sanchez h/t here

Before the US begins its closing argument, Judge Castel first tells the lawyers that the glassed-in box could not be moved closer to the jury. They could go there - but would have to be masked. Also, he dismisses statute of limitations objections.

 Judge Castel: The defense's argues that the defendant's son Mr. Guterres must have been a member of the conspiracy for his hearsay statements to be admissible. But Mr. [Leonel] Rivera provided evidence a jury could find Mr. Guterres was a part of the conspiracy. Inner City Press @innercitypress · 1h Judge Castel: The defendant & Guterres together, with Mr. Guterres wearing a Honduras military hat, goes to this point. "Pictures of Guterres & Juan Orlando Hernandez... bulks of currency. This could have an innocent explanation. But Guterres is in the conspiracy" Judge Castel: "I conduct that the statements of Mr. Guterres were part of the conspiracy and are admissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 801 and 804(b)(3) alternatively. So that evidence stands." Now let's bring our jurors up. Inner City Press @innercitypress · 1h Judge Castel, to the jurors: "This is the opportunity for the lawyers to sum up." Fuentes' lawyer: It is hereby stipulated that Gov Exh 15 reflects notes of AUSA Bove and Leonel Rivera. Fuentes' lawyer: It is agreed, As to Jose Sanchez, notes say a drug lab in Cerro Negro was raided in March 2014 by Honduran authorities assisted by the DEA and that later the President Juan Orlando Hernandez offered Fuentes help to re-open the lab.

 Closing arguments: Assistant US Attorney: You have heard that the defendant trafficked tons of cocaine to the US. You've learned about his drug lab, guarded by armed men. He used bought and paid for cops and politicians....

AUSA: The defendant gave , brief cases of cash in a corrupt bargain with the soon to be President of Honduras... The defendant started with kilos in Miami. How did he rise? He partnered with cartels, he bought police and murdered people.

 AUSA: He began by working with Metro, a cousin of the leaders of the Cachiros, Javier and Leonel Rivera. When the work in Miami fell through, they started a drug lab at Cerro Negro. In Honduras a kilo of cocaine is worth about $9000 dollars, multiplied in the USA AUSA: The defendant told Leonel Rivera about his lab, at Rivera's gas station. Later, he told Leonel Rivera about the raid on his lab. But because of the defendant's contacts with corrupt police, he moved the drugs out. And he murdered the police officer...

AUSA: The defendant kidnapped and murdered the police officer who led the investigation. He put a bread bag over his head. Metro beat him with a gun and broke his fingers. They interrogated him, cleared Jarufe, then shot him with what they called "mercy shots."

AUSA: Jose Sanchez, the accountant, he knew about the lab. Jarufe sent him there with cash. Both times armed security stopped him. Not coffee farmers.

 You heard from Jorge Medina, the agricultural engineer for Ganaderos. The defendant had killed his way out of the first investigation and bought his way out of the second. He paid Barajona a bribe. Inner City Press @innercitypress · 1h AUSA: Sanchez told you, in 2013 Juan Orlando Hernandez had appointed Barajona and was running for President. The Cachiros paid huge sums to JOH, to Pepe Lobo, and to Mel Zelaya. To Ricardo Alvarez, who would be Vice President AUSA: Mr. Sanchez saw Jarufe, the defendant and Juan Orlando Hernandez meeting, JOH took $15,000 in cash. JOH wanted access to the defendant's cocaine. The lab was near Porto Cortez and JOH wanted to export through there.

AUSA: So Juan Orlando Hernandez said he would give the defendant the cell phone number of his brother Tony Hernandez, who stamped kilos with his own initials.

AUSA: Since the Cachiros didn't invest in the defendant's drug lab, the defendant partnered with Juan Orlando Hernandez and his brother, Tony Hernandez.

AUSA: Defendant worked with Commission Martinez to protect drug shipments. His LinkedIn page bragged he was head of finance for the police, before he took it down. 

[He was also United Nations-trained, something the UN of  Antonio Guterres  is refusing to answer on]

AUSA: The defendant got a weapon as a gift from the 105th, near San Pedro Sula. General Fonseca is a contact in the defendant's phone.

AUSA: The defendant killed a boat mechanic, to ingratiate himself with the Cachiros from whom the mechanic bragged about stealing. Then the defendant began to work with Leonel Rivera: a 500 kilo shipment from Colombian Vargas Renteria

 AUSA: There was another air shipment to the air strips of Fredy Najara. The defendant transported it, armed with grenade launchers.

AUSA: The defendant worked with the Sinaloa cartel under Chapo Guzman. 3 tons of cocaine. Now the defendant and Metro were rivals to the Cachiros. Soon, the defendant tried to kill Leonel Rivera.

 AUSA: Later Leonel Rivera became a cooperator, and you've heard from him. I expect the defense will say Geovanny Fuentes' business with Jarufe was legitimate. But it was just money laundering. Jarufe gave him the land for the drug lab.

AUSA: I expect the defense counsel to argue that even if the defendant did operate the drug lab and Cerro Negro, it was closed. But defendant reached an agreement with Juan Orlando Hernandez to keep the lab going.

 AUSA: Geovanny Fuentes told Leonel Rivera that he kept paying bribes to Juan Orlando Hernandez into 2019, that he met with a military official for money laundering at JOH's request.

 AUSA: In May 2019, when evidence about JOH came out in the Tony Hernandez trial, the defendant got driving directions to the Presidential Palace. And again another time. They were keeping close tabs on the Tony Hernandez case and the evidence in it.

AUSA: Geovanny Fuentes has the president's cell phone number, and the vice president's. He has dozens of police and military officials. AUSA: The defendant in his post arrest interview admitted he knew the hit man Vacero. That he knew Pluto, a drug trafficker. He admitted he knew Chepito. But I submit to you that not everybody knows Chepito the way the defendant know Chepito.

 AUSA: You have heard how with the defendant, president Juan Orlando Hernandez laughed about how they would shove the drugs up the nostrils of the Americans.

AUSA: The evidence shows the defendant conspired to traffic drugs into the US, with guns. He is guilty. Thank you.

The question remains: Does the right to access to Federal court proceedings extend to listen-only telephone lines, in the time of COVID and beyond? Should it?

 The question has been further raised in the ongoing Honduras narco-trafficking case US v. Geovanny Fuentes, which Inner City Press has been covering in-person in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, where it is "in-house press."

   On the morning of March 13, Inner City Press filed a challenge to the cut-off of audio access to the US v. Fuentes trial, citing the First Amendment, COVID and real-world politics, see here and below.

  Late on the evening of March 14, the US Attorney's Office filed a three page letter into the docket, specifically arguing the the call-in line be eliminated for two entire Witnesses and everything they say. US Attorney's Office's letter, now uploaded on Inner City Press' DocumentCloud, here.

 Inner City Press has immediately responded in opposition, here, stating among other things that "the US Attorney's Office seeks to specifically ban public access to two of their Witnesses, while saying that a transcript would be available at some unspecified date afterwards. Given that the Office has yet to unseal improperly redacted portions of their filings, there is little reason to have confidence in the speed of transcription, or that such transcripts would not be too expensive for the public or media. 

Inner City Press after its first filing waited nine hours, including this song, here, to report about it. Full first letter on Inner City Press' DocumentCloud, here.

  Inner City Press itself obeys all existing rules and is grateful for the additional access as in-house media (particularly since it is banned from covering the UN, which now Constitutional rights such as the First Amendment exist).

  But others have rights too - including journalists and regular citizens of Honduras. If the SDNY prosecutors are going to exercises essentially universal jurisdiction for any wire transfer that passes through lower Manhattan, how ever briefly, they should not oppose access to their trials by those impacted, for better and worse.

Judge Castel is a good judge, in Inner City Press' experience. When petitioned he has ordered the unsealing of certain court documents, in a North Korea crypto-currency conference case and the tech / child sex sentencing of Peter Bright former of ArsTechnica, both of which Inner City Press covered and requested. And Judge Castel is certainly in the mainstream in his March 12 psoition. But should it be rethought? Is there a right? Should there be? Watch this site.

The case is US v. Diaz, 15-cr-379 (Castel).

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