The former president of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernández, whom the United States seeks to extradite after accusing him of trafficking some 500 tons of cocainemust appear this Wednesday before a Tegucigalpa judge who will decide his fate.
(You may be interested in: The drug trafficking file that led to the former Honduran president in prison)
Arrested on Tuesday at the door of his home in Tegucigalpa by police in coordination with US agencies, including the DEA drug enforcement agency, Hernández offered no resistance and allowed them to put on a bulletproof vest and handcuff his hands and feet with chains.
(Read here: The extradition request of the former president of Honduras for drug trafficking)
The former right-wing president, who left power to Xiomara Castro on January 27 after ruling Honduras for eight yearsspent the night in a police special forces barracks.
The spokesman for the Supreme Court of Justice, Melvin Duarte, explained that a judge chosen by that court will analyze the information submitted by the United States to make a decision on extradition. He specified that in other cases the extradition processes have not taken more than four months.
celebrations across the country
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. He faces three charges, 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.
Hernández is accused of having conspired with his brother Tonya former congressman who was sentenced to life in prison for drug trafficking in New York last year.
When the extradition request became known, dozens of people came with banners and Honduran flags to Hernández’s house to celebrate, and celebrations broke out throughout the country.
The former president, known by his initials JOH, is currently a deputy of the Central American Parliament (Parlacen), a benefit that all former presidents of the region have access to upon leaving office.
Although his lawyers affirm that this grants him immunity, the Parlacen regulations do not contemplate this privilege for those who do not enjoy immunity in their own country.
(In other news: Police surround the house of the former president of Honduras after extradition request)
Honduran deputies do not have immunity. The Parlacen can also “lift and suspend the immunities and privileges of its deputies” at the request of the governments of the countries that comprise it.
A ‘narco-state’
The head of US diplomacy, Antony Blinken, said last week that Hernández was included in July on a list of people accused of corruption or undermining democracy in Central America, and ordered “visa restrictions against the former president (…) due to corrupt acts.
During the trial of Tony Hernández, US prosecutors claimed that the former president “He has received millions of dollars in bribes from drug traffickers such as Chapo Guzmán, who personally delivered a million dollars” to Tony to bribe his brother.
US prosecutors called JOH a “co-conspirator” in the indictment against his brother Tony, saying he turned Honduras into a “narco-state.”
In the trial of another Honduran narco in New York, Geovanny Fuentes, a witness said that he heard JOH boast that he was going to “put the drugs under the gringos’ own noses” and they were “not going to notice.”
Fuentes was sentenced in February in New York to life in prison for sending “tons” of cocaine to the United States in collusion with high-ranking political officials, including former President Hernández, according to the indictment.
“According to multiple credible media reports,” Hernandez “has engaged in significant corruption by committing or facilitating acts of corruption and drug trafficking, and by using the proceeds of illicit activities for political campaigns,” Blinken said.
Hernández denies this and assures that the United States bases its accusations on “declarations of drug traffickers and confessed murderers” who were extradited by their government. Fabio Lobo, son of former Honduran president Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo (2010-2014) -of the National Party, the same as the Hernández- was sentenced to 24 years in prison in New York in 2017 for helping to traffic 1.4 tons of cocaine to the United States.
AFP
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