The US accused Juan Orlando Hernandez of using drug money to commit electoral fraud

The US accused former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández on Thursday of operating his country as a “narco-state” and of using bribes he received from drug traffickers such as Joaquín “el Chapo” Guzman to commit electoral fraud in the two elections he attended.

A few hours after Hernandez took off for New York to be tried there, the US Department of Justice released the full indictment against the former president, who he says was part of a conspiracy to transport more than 500 tons of cocaine to the United States.

“Hernandez abused his position as president of Honduras between 2014 and 2022 to operate the country as a narco-state,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a press conference in Washington.

The extradition to the United States of the former Honduran president was completed this Thursday with his handcuffed transfer to Hernán Acosta Mejia Air Base, in southern Tegucigalpa, from where he was taken on a plane to New York, to be tried on three charges associated with drug trafficking.

The helicopter that took Hernández to the Air Base took off at about 11:30 local time (17:30 GMT) from a special unit of the National Police, where the former ruler had been held since February 15, when he was captured in front of his residence, the day after the US asked Honduras for his provisional detention with purposes of extradition.

In the “Operation Liberation” to extradite Hernández, under strict security measures, between 800 and 1,000 members of the National Police participate, as Security Minister Ramón Sabillón said on Thursday.

Five minutes later, the FAH helicopter arrived at Hernán Acosta Mejía Air Base, where Hernández was taken inside that military facility. The US Anti-Drug Agency (DEA) plane that will take Hernandez arrived at Hernán Acosta Mejia Air Base at around 12:00 local time (18:00 GMT).

Before his transfer, his wife, Ana Garcia, released a video in which Hernandez proclaims his innocence: “I am innocent, I have been and am being subjected to an unfair trial.”

“Truth is a liberating force when it is revealed. In my prayer, that of my family and that of thousands of Honduran families, that the truth is revealed and prevailed in my case,” Hernandez said.

Hernández, 53, who ruled between 2014 and 2022, goes down in history today as the first former president of the Central American country to be requested by the United States and taken on extradition to that country, to prosecute him for drug trafficking.

The first charge against Hernandez against the United States is for “conspiracy to import a controlled substance” into that country, with the “knowledge that such substance would be illegally imported” into U.S. territory, “into waters at a distance of 12 miles off the coast of the United States.”

In addition, he is accused of “manufacturing, distributing and possessing with the intention of distributing a controlled substance on board an aircraft registered in the United States”.

The second charge is for “using or carrying firearms, or assisting and instigating the use, power and possession” of “machine guns and destructive devices”.

Count three refers to a “conspiracy to use or carry firearms, including machine guns and destructive devices, during and in connection with, or possess firearms, including machine guns and destructive devices, in support of the conspiracy to import narcotics,” according to the US prosecution.

(With information from EFE)

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