Although Hernández’s departure was initially scheduled for 07:00 local time (10:00 Argentine time), the Minister of Security, Ramón Sabillón, reported this Thursday that it was rescheduled for 1:00 p.m. (4:00 p.m. Argentine time).
“I wanted to report the delay of the DEA flight [agencia antidrogas de Estados Unidos]: He is going to come until one in the afternoon and that has postponed our plans,” the minister explained at a press conference.
Juan Orlando Hernández, once a Washington ally, is being held in a prison at the Special Police Forces barracks in eastern Tegucigalpa, known as Los Cobras. From there he will be taken to the Honduran Air Force base at the Toncontín airport, south.
He must then board an American aircraft that will take him to New York, where he will be imprisoned and put on trial.
In the request, US prosecutors claimed that between 2004 and 2022, even before he was president, “Hernández participated in the violent drug trafficking conspiracy to receive shipments of multiple tons of cocaine.”
Through the conspiracy, “approximately 500,000 kilograms of cocaine were transported through Honduras to the United States,” the document added.
The extradition, initially approved by a judge, was later ratified at the end of March by the 15 magistrates of the Plenary of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) of Hondurasall of them appointed during the first government of Hernández.
In a statement, the former president’s family announced that they hired lawyers Raymond Colón and Daniel Pérez in New York to take on their case and henceforth be spokespersons for the process.
Hernández’s family reiterated the “innocence” of the former president and considered him “a victim of the revenge of the drug traffickers that he himself extradited or that forced him to flee to the United States.”
As the former president has argued, the drug lords that his government helped extradite seek agreements with the US prosecutor’s office to reduce their sentences, “and based on lies,” they accuse him “of committing acts at odds with Honduran law.”
The former president even proudly showed Washington’s praise for his government’s work in drug seizures.
Even in 2017, when he managed to be elected for a second term amid accusations of fraud by the opposition and citizen clashes that left thirty people dead, the United States was one of the first governments to salute his victory.
Hernández left power on January 27, 2022. Days later, the State Department announced his inclusion on a list of corrupt characters, and then requested his extradition.
Juan Orlando Hernández was arrested on February 15, at the request of the United States.
His brother, former deputy Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández, was sentenced to life in prison in March 2021, also accused of manufacturing his own cocaine under the brand name of his initials, “TH.”
At trial, federal prosecutors noted that “Tony” operated with his brother and government institutions, turning Honduras into a “narco-state”.
Another former official awaiting extradition is the former head of the National Police Juan Carlos ‘El Tigre’ Bonilla, accused of “supervising” the drug trafficking operations of the former president.
“Three life sentences could make me a living dead,” Hernández said, anticipating the harsh sentences that could await him.
“I never believed that this fight for peace of us Hondurans would lead us to be known as a narco-state. I knew that this fight would not be easy, it would have many risks,” he lamented a few days ago.
Source: Ambito
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