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Honduran court approves extradition of former president Hernández to U.S. on drug, weapons charges

By Kevin Sieff

MEXICO CITY — A Honduran judge has ruled that the country’s former president, Juan Orlando Hernández, can be extradited to the United States, removing the last major roadblock to Hernández’s prosecution in a U.S. courtroom.

Hernández was president of Honduras from 2014 until January. He was considered a U.S. ally during much of that time, even as U.S. prosecutors alleged he was working to traffic drugs throughout his presidency. He has denied wrongdoing.

Honduran authorities detained Hernández last month after the United States requested his extradition to face drug trafficking and weapons charges in federal court. That action stunned Hondurans who had opposed Hernández for years — decrying him as a “narcopresidente” — but believed that the impunity he had enjoyed while in office would continue into his retirement.

Honduran president, a Trump ally implicated in drug trafficking, tries to win over Biden

Even after his arrest, many Hondurans believed Hernández would use his clout to keep Honduran courts from approving his extradition. That scenario apparently has not come to pass. The judge’s ruling, announced late Wednesday, allows Hernández three days to appeal, after which he could be sent to the United States immediately. He remains in a Honduran prison.

The Honduran Supreme Court said it approved Hernández’s extradition on charges of manufacturing, trafficking and distributing illicit substance brought by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York. The charges also included the use of firearms linked to the trafficking of drugs, the Supreme Court said in a statement.

Hernández’s brother, Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández, was convicted by the U.S. court of drug trafficking and weapons charges and sentenced last year to life in prison. Prosecutors named Juan Orlando Hernández an unindicted co-conspirator in that case.

The prosecutors alleged that Juan Orlando Hernández agreed “to facilitate the use of Honduran armed forces personnel as security” for drug traffickers. In a separate court filing, witnesses alleged that Hernández said he wanted to shove drugs “right up the noses of the gringos” by flooding the United States with cocaine.

Hernández was a particularly close ally of the Trump administration due to his willingness to help stop Central American migrants from reaching the U.S. border.

“President Hernández is working with the United States very closely,” President Donald Trump said in December 2019. “You know what’s going on on our southern border. And we’re winning after years and years of losing.”

Hernández’s wife, former first lady Ana García Carías, told journalists Wednesday she was surprised the United States was attempting to prosecute, given his cooperation with Washington.

“I regret that this happens to someone who has been [a U.S.] ally,” she said.

Former Honduras president Juan Orlando Hernández arrested; U.S. seeks extradition on drug trafficking charges

Hernández, who was barred by term limits from running for reelection, had hoped his National Party would win the presidential election in November and extend some protection against a U.S. prosecution. But the National Party suffered a surprising loss to democratic socialist Xiomara Castro, who was inaugurated to succeed him in January.

The Biden administration has expressed hope that Castro’s presidency could lead to a shift away from the corruption that plagued Honduras under Hernández and which, administration officials say, led in part to high levels of migration.

Hernández says the United States is relying on false information in its case against him. He tweeted this year that the claims are based on the accounts of “drug traffickers and confessed assassins who were extradited by my government or had to flee and hand themselves in to U.S. authorities for fear of being extradited.”


 Kevin Sieff has been The Washington Post’s Latin America correspondent since 2018. He served previously as the paper's Africa bureau chief and Afghanistan bureau chief. 

Ex- Honduras first lady Rosa Bonilla convicted of corruption

By Associated Press

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — A court in Honduras convicted former first lady Rosa Elena Bonilla of corruption Thursday for the second time.

Bonilla was sentenced to 58 years in prison in September 2019 for embezzling more than $1 million in government money between 2010 and 2014, when her husband Porfirio Lobo was president.

But the Supreme Court of Justice overturned her conviction six months later, citing procedural problems and ordering a new trial.

On Thursday, that second trial resulted in a conviction too.

Honduras’ court system said via Twitter Thursday that the court had unanimously convicted Bonilla of embezzlement and fraude. Her private secretary at the time, Saúl Escobar was also convicted Thursday.

The court ordered them jailed while awaiting sentencing, which was scheduled for Monday.

“They were accused of appropriating public funds that were designated for social projects,” Lucía Villars, spokeswoman for the court system said.

The investigation that led to the charges had started with the Organization of American States anticorruption mission in Honduras.

According to prosecutors, Bonilla took some $480,000 from an account for the first lady’s office and deposited it in her personal account four days before Lobo left office. The defendants also allegedly took $650,000 from the office through checks written to nine front businesses between 2010 and 2014.

Bonilla was originally arrested in February 2018.