Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández's extradition to the United States began this Thursday with his handcuffed transfer to Hernán Acosta Mejia Air Base, south of Tegucigalpa, from where he will be taken on a plane to New York, to stand trial 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 United States accuses Hernandez of three counts associated with drug trafficking and the use of weapons to bring drugs into that country, as reported by the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa on February 15.
Then, the diplomatic legation indicated in a statement that “in total, since about 2004, the conspiracy has transported more than approximately 500,000 kilograms of cocaine through Honduras to the United States.”
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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