US seeks extradition of former Honduran president Hernandez on drugs charges

Tegucigalpa  — Former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez said Tuesday he is ready to collaborate with national police, hours after authorities surrounded his house amid US government requests that he be arrested and extradited to Washington.

Speculation had been swirling for months that the US was planning to request Hernandez’s extradition when he left office amid accusations that he colluded with drug traffickers. Leftist leader Xiomara Castro replaced him as president in January.

Honduras’s Supreme Court — which will decide on the extradition request — was  due to meet on Tuesday to name a judge to oversee the case, a judiciary spokesperson said. The process could last between three and four months, according to the spokesperson.

Hernandez had been holed up in his home, according to one of his lawyers, after scores of police officers surrounded it late on Monday.

“The national police, through my proxies, have already received the message that I am ready to collaborate and voluntarily arrive with their accompaniment, at the moment the judge appointed by the honourable Supreme Court of Justice decides, in order to face this situation and defend myself,” Hernandez said in a message shared on Twitter.

Just a few hours after leaving office, Hernandez joined the Central American Parliament (Parlacen), a six-country regional body which affords its members immunity from prosecution.

However, any immunity bestowed by Parlacen, which comprises elected officials as well as former presidents and vice-presidents, can be removed or suspended at the request of a member’s home country.

A lawyer for Hernandez, Felix Avila, told a local TV channel that if a Supreme Court judge orders his client’s arrest, the former president “has said that if he is allowed, he is willing to surrender voluntarily”.

A senior Honduran official, speaking anonymously because they were not allowed to speak to media organisations about the subject, said  the US “requested the provisional arrest of former president Juan Orlando Hernandez for extradition purposes”.

The US state department referred queries to the justice department, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the US attorney’s office in Manhattan declined to comment.

Washington’s request for extradition is a stark contrast to a period when the US government saw Hernandez as a vital ally in the volatile Central American region during his eight years in power.

The US had already placed Hernandez on a blacklist, and US secretary of state Antony Blinken in February said there were credible reports Hernandez “has engaged in significant corruption by committing or facilitating acts of corruption and narco-trafficking.”

Reuters