File picture: Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez solutions questions from the Related Press, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2019, as he leaves a gathering on the Group of American States, in Washington.
By Marlon Gonzalez and Christopher Sherman | Related Press
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Police arrested former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández at his house Tuesday, a step towards fulfilling a request by america authorities for his extradition on drug trafficking and weapons prices.
The arrest got here shortly after a Honduran choose signed an arrest order and fewer than three weeks after Hernández left workplace. It follows years of allegations by U.S. prosecutors of the Honduran chief’s alleged hyperlinks to drug traffickers.
Hernández exited his house flanked by police, shackled on the wrists and ankles, and carrying a bulletproof jacket. He obtained right into a police automobile and was pushed away. A police helicopter that had been ready close by took flight, however appeared to simply be escorting the caravan.
The Supreme Court docket of Justice had designated a choose Tuesday morning to deal with the case and hours later the choose signed the order for Hernández’s arrest, mentioned court docket spokesman Melvin Duarte. The safety ministry, which had Hernández’s house surrounded since Monday night, moved rapidly to arrest him.
Honduran Safety Minister Ramón Sabillón, who was fired by Hernández as head of the Nationwide Police in 2014, mentioned Tuesday that Hernández had conspired “with cartels to visitors (medicine) and corrupt many public establishments, which led to social deterioration and undermined the appliance of justice in Honduras.”
He mentioned the principle prices Hernández faces within the U.S. had been drug trafficking, utilizing weapons for drug trafficking and conspiracy to make use of weapons in drug trafficking.
U.S. prosecutors in New York had repeatedly implicated Hernández as a co-conspirator throughout his brother’s 2019 drug trafficking trial, alleging that his political rise was fueled by drug income.
His brother, Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández was sentenced to life in jail on drug and weapons prices in March 2021. At his sentencing Assistant U.S. Legal professional Matthew Laroche characterised the crimes as “state-sponsored drug trafficking.”
Nicole Navas, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Division of Justice, declined remark late Monday in regards to the U.S. extradition request.
Hernández launched an audio recording by way of Twitter early Tuesday thanking his supporters. “It's not a straightforward second,” he mentioned. “I don’t need it for anybody.”
He mentioned his legal professionals had knowledgeable the Nationwide Police that “I'm prepared and ready to cooperate and go voluntarily … to face this case and defend myself” if an arrest order is issued.
The identification of the choose chosen to deal with the case was not instantly launched. Nevertheless, the court docket’s president, Rolando Argueta, is thought to be near Hernández, and all 15 Supreme Court docket justices had been chosen by Congress in 2016 throughout Hernández’s first presidential time period. They serve seven-year phrases, and most come from his Nationwide Get together.
The U.S. strikes had been a long-awaited fall for a pacesetter reviled in his house nation who loved help from the Trump administration however had been stored at arm’s size by the Biden White Home, which has focused Central America’s endemic corruption as a root reason for migration.
Final 12 months, U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy was one in every of a dozen senators who supported a invoice that sought to isolate Hernández by imposing sanctions on him and prohibiting the export of tear fuel, pepper spray and rubber bullets that Honduran safety forces deployed in recent times in opposition to protesters.
“All through the previous eight years of decay, depravity, and impunity, successive U.S. administrations sullied our fame by treating Hernandez as a pal and associate,” Leahy mentioned in an announcement Tuesday. “By making excuse after excuse for a authorities that had no legitimacy and that functioned as a felony enterprise, U.S. officers overlooked what we stand for and that our actual companions are the Honduran individuals.”
Dana Frank, a Honduras professional and professor of historical past emerita on the College of California, Santa Cruz, mentioned the U.S. desires to look heroic for lastly making an attempt to deliver Hernández to justice, however that successive administrations going again to President Barack Obama enabled Hernández.
“Hernández was capable of wreak havoc with Honduras, with devastating prices, largely as a result of the U.S. supported him as much as the final minute,” Frank mentioned.
Honduran felony lawyer Marlon Duarte mentioned that the extradition course of in opposition to Hernández, if it strikes forward, wouldn't final greater than three months.
As soon as an arrest order is issued, Hernández must flip himself in or be forcibly taken into custody, he mentioned. At an preliminary listening to, Hernández would be told of the costs and he could be held on a navy base.
Inside two months, one other listening to could be held by which the U.S. proof could be offered and the choose would decide on whether or not he ought to be extradited.
If the choose guidelines for extradition, Hernández would have three days to enchantment. Then the appellate court docket — additionally named by the Supreme Court docket — would resolve inside 5 days whether or not to substantiate the extradition or overturn the choose’s resolution. If the choose denies extradition, the U.S. authorities would have a possibility to enchantment.
Hernández left workplace Jan. 27 with the swearing in of President Xiomara Castro. The identical day, he was sworn in as Honduras’ consultant to the Central American Parliament.
One in all his legal professionals, Hermes Ramírez, informed native media his shopper had immunity as a member of the regional parliament and mentioned authorities forces weren't following correct procedures. He mentioned Hernández was inside the house.
Varied contingents of the Nationwide Police, together with particular forces in addition to navy police, had been current round Hernández’s neighborhood Monday evening. Limitations at all the entrances stored out media and even residents.
Members of the safety forces entered the realm with weapons, carrying balaclavas and with handcuffs dangling from their ballistic vests.
Hernández typically pointed to the truth that Honduras started permitting the extradition of its residents on drug trafficking prices whereas he was president of the Congress as a part of his protection.
However U.S. prosecutors have alleged that he was taking bribes from drug traffickers on the promise of defending them as soon as he was president.
Hernández took workplace on Jan. 27, 2014. He used a pleasant Supreme Court docket to beat Honduras’ constitutional ban on reelection and gained a second time period in 2017 in elections marred by irregularities.
Sherman reported from Mexico Metropolis. Related Press writers Elmer Martínez in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and Claudia Torrens in New York, contributed to this story.