Former Honduran president facing US extradition for narco-trafficking

Former Honduran President   Juan Orlando Hernández appeared Wednesday before a judge who will decide his fate after the extradition request from the United States, which accuses him of drug trafficking.

In the midst of a strong security operation with armored vehicles and a helicopter, Hernández was transferred from the police headquarters where he spent the night to the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) where the judge began the hearing.

 A  judiciary spokesman said that in the first hearing, the judge will communicate to Hernández the information sent by the United States so that he can defend himself against the charges, and then he will make a decision on extradition, said the spokesman. He said that in other cases the extradition processes have taken more than four months.

Hernández, 53, is accused by the US government of trafficking some 500 tons of cocaine through Honduras knowing that it would end up in the United States, the US Embassy in Tegucigalpa said in a statement.

Arrested on Tuesday at the door of his house in Tegucigalpa by the Honduran police in coordination with US agencies, including the DEA anti-drug agency.

Hernández offered no resistance and allowed them to put on a bulletproof vest and handcuff his hands and feet with chains.

“Narco-state”
The right-wing former president who left power to the leftist Xiomara Castro on January 27, after ruling Honduras for eight years, is accused of three counts, including “conspiracy to import a controlled substance into the United States.”

He is also accused of “using or carrying firearms (…) machine guns and destructive devices.” A third charge is for “conspiracy to use or carry firearms (…) in support of the conspiracy to import narcotics” into the United States.

US prosecutors called JOH a “co-conspirator” in the indictment against his brother Tony Hernández, a former congressman, who was sentenced to life in prison for drug trafficking in New York last year. They claimed that the former president turned Honduras into a “narco-state.”

During Tony’s trial, US prosecutors claimed that JOH “has received millions of dollars in bribes from drug traffickers such as Chapo Guzmán, who personally gave a million dollars” to Tony to bribe his brother.