Arrest warrant approved for ex-Honduras president Hernandez, wanted by U.S. on drug charges

Police arrested former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez at his home Tuesday, a step toward fulfilling a request by the United States government for his extradition on drug trafficking and weapons charges.

The U.S. move came less than three weeks after Hernandez left office, a move that follows years of accusations about the Honduran leader's alleged links to drug traffickers.

Hernandez exited his home flanked by police, shackled at the wrists and ankles, and wearing a bulletproof jacket. He got into a police vehicle and was driven away. A police helicopter that had been waiting nearby took flight, but appeared to just be escorting the caravan.

The Supreme Court of Justice designated a judge to handle the case and hours later the judge signed an order for Hernandez's arrest, said court spokesman Melvin Duarte.

Honduran security forces surrounded Hernandez's neighbourhood Monday night and on Tuesday the Supreme Court of Justice met to choose a judge to handle the extradition request.

Honduran Security Minister Ramon Sabillon, who was fired by Hernandez as head of the National Police in 2014, said Tuesday that Hernandez had conspired "with cartels to traffic [drugs] and corrupt many public institutions, which led to social deterioration and undermined the application of justice in Honduras."

He said the main charges Hernandez faces in the U.S. were drug trafficking, using weapons for drug trafficking and conspiracy to use weapons in drug trafficking.

2 prosecutions in New York preceded extradition request

Honduran criminal lawyer Marlon Duarte said that the extradition process against Hernandez, if it moves ahead, would take up to three months.

U.S. prosecutors in New York repeatedly implicated him in his brother's 2019 drug trafficking trial, alleging that his political rise was fuelled by drug profits. That brother, Juan Antonio (Tony) Hernandez, was sentenced to life in prison on drug and weapons charges in March 2021.

He had also been named as a co-conspirator by New York prosecutors in the sentencing of Honduran Geovanny Fuentes in a drug trafficking case.

Nicole Navas, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Justice, declined comment about the U.S. extradition request.

Hernandez released an audio recording via Twitter early Tuesday saying he was "ready and prepared to co-operate and go voluntarily … to face this situation and defend myself" if an arrest order was issued.

The Supreme Court's president, Rolando Argueta, is known to be close to Hernandez. All of the justices were selected to the court by the Congress in 2016, during Hernandez's first presidential term. They serve seven-year terms.

The majority come from his National Party.

It was a long-awaited fall for a leader reviled in his home country, who enjoyed support from the Donald Trump administration but had been kept at arm's length by Joe Biden's White House, which is targeting Central America's endemic corruption as a root cause of migration.

Last year, U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy was one of a dozen senators who supported a bill that sought to isolate Hernandez by imposing sanctions on him. He welcomed the arrest and appeared to take a shot at the Trump administration in a statement.

"Throughout the past eight years of decay, depravity, and impunity, successive U.S. administrations sullied our reputation by treating Hernandez as a friend and partner," Leahy said. "By making excuse after excuse for a government that had no legitimacy and that functioned as a criminal enterprise, U.S. officials lost sight of what we stand for and that our real partners are the Honduran people."

Some Hondurans celebrate

Hernandez left office on Jan. 27 with the swearing in of President Xiomara Castro. The same day he was sworn in as Honduras's representative to the Central American Parliament.

His lawyer, Hermes Ramirez, told local media his client had immunity as a member of the regional parliament and said government forces were not following proper procedures.

Various contingents of the National Police, including special forces, as well as military police were present around Hernandez's neighbourhood Monday night. Barriers at all of the entrances kept out media and even residents.

Members of the security forces entered the area with weapons, wearing balaclavas and with handcuffs dangling from their ballistic vests. Some neighbours said the house had been dark and they believe unoccupied.

Around midnight Monday, 56-year-old Jorge Arturo Vega, a supporter of President Castro's Liberty and Refoundation party, stood outside a police barricade at Hernandez's neighborhood, celebrating.

"This is a party we've been waiting a long time for," Vega said, thinking back over the dozen years since Hernandez came up in the congress.

"We couldn't stand this drug trafficker, criminal, killer in the presidential house any longer."