The US has charged mild Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez with drug and weapons offences, the Justice Department stated, accusing the 53-twelve months-dilapidated of abusing his energy to scamper Honduras love a “narco-converse”.
The costs had been launched on Thursday rapidly after Hernandez was once taken in handcuffs to a US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) airplane within the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, and extradited to the United States.
Filed by prosecutors in Unique York, the indictment charged Hernandez with three counts of drug and weapons offences.
“Hernandez abused his enviornment as President of Honduras … to function the country as a narco-converse,” US Lawyer Traditional Merrick Garland suggested journalists.
A ruling by Honduras’ Supreme Court in slack March cleared the way for Hernandez, who served as president from 2014 until January of this twelve months, to be extradited to face fees in a Unique York court docket.
The US Justice Department stated in a assertion that Hernandez – once viewed as a key US ally within the warfare on treatment – “participated in a inappropriate and violent drug-trafficking conspiracy to facilitate the importation of millions of kilograms of cocaine into the United States”.
“Hernandez allegedly got thousands and thousands of greenbacks to command his public enviornment of enterprise, rules enforcement, and the defense force to enhance drug-trafficking organizations in Honduras, Mexico, and in other areas,” it stated, along with approximately $1m from Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
Hernandez has denied the full fees, asserting they are a part of a attach orchestrated by enemies who try and safe support at him.
The mild president misplaced his immunity after handing energy to Xiomara Castro, the country’s first feminine president, in slack January. The US indictment was once filed the identical day she took enviornment of enterprise, on January 27, nonetheless was once saved sealed until Thursday.
Damian Williams, the US authorized official for the Southern District of Unique York, stated all the way through a news convention on Thursday evening that Hernandez was once furious by “rampant corruption and big cocaine trafficking” that spurred violence in Honduras.
“Honduras grew to develop into one of possibly the most violent countries within the enviornment all the way during the defendant’s presidency, and whereas Hernandez amassed money and political impact, the folks of Honduras persevered stipulations of poverty and violence,” he stated.
“This indictment reflects years of work by my enviornment of enterprise and the DEA, investigating and prosecuting members of this conspiracy,” stated Williams, along with that “it is now [Hernandez’s] turn to face justice”.
Used US ally
Al Jazeera’s Teresa Bo, reporting from Buenos Aires earlier within the day, stated Hernandez had been a in actuality end ally of the US whereas keeping enviornment of enterprise. “If truth be told, he met with Vice President Biden when he was once [part of] the Obama administration. He met with mild President Donald Trump,” Bo stated.
“He was once regarded as to be doing the correct ingredient at the time because he was once struggling with against unlawful immigration and helping the United States in that combat.”
She added that whereas right here is not very any longer the first time that a mild chief has been accused of drug trafficking, “it’s very, very valuable – in particular [in reference] to the United States protection within the converse and the warfare on treatment”.
Some Hondurans had valuable within the streets of Tegucigalpa, the capital, when Hernandez was once arrested in February. Lots of of police officers had surrounded his home after a decrease court docket capture issued a warrant for his arrest following the US extradition demand.
“The authorities are finally doing what they are able to even simply soundless be pleased performed a prolonged time within the past: penalise and put within the help of bars the folks which be pleased robbed this country,” Aaron Hernandez, a 31-twelve months-dilapidated Honduran truck driver, suggested Al Jazeera after the Supreme Court’s resolution.
But others be pleased arrive out in enhance of Hernandez, asserting they imagine he did nothing inferior.
“If a citizen is tried, they needs to be tried in our country,” the ex-president’s wife, Ana Garcia, a attorney, stated as she joined about a dozen protesters outdoors the Supreme Court in slack March to proclaim Hernandez’s innocence.
Diverse the allegations against Hernandez emerged in two trials in Unique York — these of Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernandez, the president’s brother and himself a mild Honduran congressman, and Geovanny Fuentes Ramirez.
Each and every men had been a part of a sprawling drug trafficking case filed in 2015 and both got existence sentences. Prosecutors labelled the mild president a “co-conspirator” within the identical case.
In a letter printed when the Supreme Court issued its resolution, Hernandez maintained that he’s innocent and stated he’s the “sufferer of revenge and conspiracy”.
His household additionally stated in a assertion at that time that they had been “prepared and assured that we’ll be ready to speak the US justice system that these accusations are a revenge attach from Honduran narcos whose empire of crime and violence Juan Orlando destroyed”.
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Al Jazeera and news agencies