For years, U.S. officers confronted an uncomfortable dilemma: The president of Honduras was one among Washington’s high allies in Central America — however proof was mounting that he was additionally a drug trafficker.
U.S. prosecutors recognized President Juan Orlando Hernández as a co-conspirator in a drug smuggling case in opposition to his brother and by final fall appeared able to indict him.
However the Biden administration resisted. White Home officers have been reluctant to go after a sitting head of state — particularly one whose authorities had acquired a whole lot of tens of millions of {dollars} and different essential assist from the People.
They urged prosecutors to attend at the least till Jan. 27, when Hernández left workplace and a brand new president was sworn in.
All of it got here to a dramatic head late Monday when State Division officers formally requested his extradition on drug trafficking and weapons costs.
The request alleged that Hernández took half in a “violent drug-trafficking conspiracy” that since 2004 has smuggled greater than 1 million kilos of cocaine into america. It additionally alleged that he had acquired tens of millions of {dollars} in bribes for arranging shipments and defending traffickers from prosecution.
On Tuesday, Honduran police descended on an upscale neighborhood within the capital, Tegucigalpa, and escorted Hernández out of his residence, his wrists and ankles in chains.
His arrest was a cathartic second for abnormal Hondurans, who turned in opposition to Hernández way back. Throughout the nation, individuals took to the streets to gentle fireworks and chant what had turn out to be a well-liked slogan: “Out with the narco dictatorship!”
“Honduras has been a narco state,” mentioned avenue vendor Cilas Izaguirre, who waited outdoors Hernández’s residence Tuesday morning, hoping for an opportunity to yell on the former president as he was led away. “He has to pay for the whole lot he has performed.”
It stays to be seen whether or not Hernández will truly be extradited.
After leaving workplace, he was elected as a member of the Central American Parliament, which legal professionals have argued might give him immunity from prosecution. His right-wing Nationwide Celebration controls a big portion of Congress.
And as president, Hernández stacked the Supreme Courtroom — which is able to rule on the extradition request — together with his allies.
No matter occurs, there was no denying that the picture of the previous president in handcuffs represented a steep fall from grace for a person who was as soon as celebrated by high American leaders for combating corruption.
At a 2016 summit geared toward deepening ties between the U.S. and Central America, then-Vice President Joe Biden beamed in {a photograph} with Hernández and two different since-disgraced presidents, Jimmy Morales of Guatemala and Salvador Sánchez Cerén of El Salvador.
On the time, file numbers of younger migrant kids have been fleeing violence and poverty within the area and arriving on the U.S. border. Biden, who was tasked with addressing the disaster by President Obama, lobbied Congress for greater than a billion {dollars} in help for Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador to deal with the “root causes” of migration, greater than tripling current U.S. help to the area.
In an opinion piece for the New York Occasions, Biden lauded Honduras for combating corruption. He and others within the Obama administration stood by Hernández even after his handpicked Supreme Courtroom helped him change the Structure to let him search one other time period, and even after he was accused of stealing the 2017 presidential election.
Eric Olson, an knowledgeable on Central America, mentioned Biden’s method then was to glad-hand and amiably attempt to persuade the presidents to cooperate with the U.S. aim of lowering migration.
“On the time, the U.S. coverage was to persuade,” mentioned Olson, a fellow on the nonpartisan Wilson Middle suppose tank in Washington. “Finally, they got here to the conclusion that these guys weren’t cajole-able. The situation has modified, they lastly wakened and smelled the espresso and realized how deeply corrupt” the officers have been.
The drug trafficking allegations helped flip the tide.
In 2018, U.S. authorities arrested the president’s brother, Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández, on drug trafficking costs. Throughout the trial, witnesses testified that the previous congressman was aided by the president, who they mentioned used his political energy to maneuver cocaine from Colombia to america.
Prosecutors alleged that Tony Hernández accepted a $1-million bribe from the Mexican kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman on behalf of his brother and that he carried an Uzi machine gun inscribed together with his brother’s initials.
Juan Orlando Hernán-dez has repeatedly denied these claims.
The Trump administration appeared keen to show a blind eye to the drug trafficking allegations so long as Hernández cooperated on holding again migrants.
The tone shifted significantly when Biden took workplace.
Vice President Kamala Harris, whose portfolio contains immigration coverage in Central America, by no means met or talked to Hernández. Different senior administration officers, together with USAID Director Samantha Energy, averted him by staying out of Tegucigalpa and visiting the Honduran metropolis of San Pedro Sula as a substitute.
After Hernández’s brother was sentenced to life in jail in a New York federal court docket final March, Harris pressed for an indictment in opposition to him. However the prevailing view within the White Home was to attend.
Solely hardly ever has the U.S. authorities tried to prosecute a sitting president — the Clinton administration pushed to take away Slobodan Milosevic as president of Serbia and take a look at him in worldwide courts for the mass slaughter of Bosnians.
But when the chief is seen as an ally, even a shady one, Washington tends to not act.
The Biden administration, uneasy in coping with more and more autocratic and corrupt governments elsewhere in Central America, rushed to embrace Hernández’s left-leaning successor, Xiomara Castro, who roundly defeated his get together’s candidate within the November presidential election.
Harris made a high-profile look at her inauguration.
The Biden administration had already signaled Hernández’s days may be numbered. In July, he was blacklisted together with about 50 different officers and businesspeople from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador deemed by the State Division to be too corrupt to work with or enable into america.
The extradition request accuses Hernández of drug trafficking by 2022 and of utilizing drug earnings to run campaigns for himself and members of his get together.
It additionally alleges that as president he shared particulars about Honduran and U.S. army anti-drug operations together with his drug trafficking companions.
Whereas the extradition request was broadly hailed, some mentioned it got here too late.
“This was simply the newest instance of supporting an autocratic, corrupt regime in Latin America as a result of it claimed to be powerful on medicine, powerful on migrants, or each,” mentioned Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, a Vermont Democrat and a longtime critic of Hernández. “All through the previous eight years of decay, depravity, and impunity, successive U.S. administrations sullied our popularity by treating Hernández as a buddy and associate.”
Dana Frank, a professor of Honduran historical past at UC Santa Cruz, mentioned U.S. officers helped Hernández maintain on to energy for 2 phrases by persevering with to supply his authorities with crucial help and legislation enforcement cooperation.
She mentioned U.S. officers nearly actually knew about Hernández’s alleged ties to drug traffickers properly earlier than the case in opposition to his brother.
“There was army help and intelligence sharing as much as the tip,” she mentioned. “Now all of the sudden they’re dumping their little monster and searching heroic.”
Occasions employees writers Linthicum reported from Mexico Metropolis and Wilkinson from Washington. Particular correspondents Cerrato reported from Tegucigalpa and Cecilia Sanchez from Mexico Metropolis.
