CONTINUE
The US has requested in Honduras the arrest and extradition of former President Juan Orlando Hernández for alleged links to the drug trafficking business.
In principle, the Honduran Foreign Ministry only spoke of the request for the extradition of a “politician” from the Central American country. But Salvador Nasralla, current vice president, confirmed to the AP agency that he treated Hernández, who led the country until the end of my past.
The possibility that Hernández, president of Honduras for eight years, was persecuted by the US for his ties to drug trafficking was very high. His brother, Juan Antonio 'Tony' Hernández, who was also involved in politics in Honduras, was sentenced in March last year by a New York jury to life in prison on charges of drug trafficking and illegal use of weapons.
During the investigation and decision of Tony Hernández, the number of the former Honduran president came up frequently.
According to the US tax office, Tony Hernández arranged drug bribes for his brother in exchange for protection for his roga shipments. The corrupt practice began when the former president was a deputy. Some of the bribes were used to distribute them with other deputies and get his support to be president of Congress, a freighter that he achieved in 2010.
In 2013, he ran for president of Honduras and, according to these investigations, much of the funding for his campaign came from the cartels. The US tax agency assured that 1,6 million were pocketed for his campaign and that of other National Party candidates.
The world's most famous narco, Mexican Joaquín 'Chapo' Guzmán, also contributed a million dollars to the campaign in exchange for Hernández, once in office, protecting his shipments through Honduras. According to the US, Hernández continues to receive bribes in the presidency of the Central American country.
The extradition request comes several times after it was agreed that the US had included Hernández on the List of Corrupt Anti-democratic Actors for "commissioning or facilitating acts of corruption and drug trafficking and the use of those funds in illicit activities." for political campaign beneficiaries”.
The Honduran police had yesterday surrounded the residence of Hernández, who left office on January 27 after the entry as president of Xiomara Castro and who immediately entered as deputies in the Central American Parliament, an organ of political integration of the region with headquartered in guatemala
Security forces surround the residence of former Honduran president Hernández – EFE
Hernández's lawyer, Hermes Ramírez, assured the Honduran press that the former president enjoys immunity as a deputy of that body and that the extradition request is "a violation of the rule of law" and an "abuse."
Hernández has defended that the suspicion against him of links with drug trafficking is a revenge of the leaders of the cartels against him and that in his mandate violent crime and drug trafficking were reduced in Honduras.
During the presidency of Donald Trump, Hernández achieved a good relationship with the US, which was very interested in controlling migratory flows from Central America and was one of the countries that followed Trump and announced the transfer of the embassy from their countries in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Once out of the presidency, Hernández's ability to maneuver in the face of protests from the US is much less. It remains to be seen if he manages to avoid the extradition order and a future similar to that of his brother.
