TEGUCIGALPA — Honduras’s Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling Friday ordering the extradition of former president Juan Orlando Hernandez, 55, to the United States on drug trafficking and weapons charges, clearing the final legal obstacle to a transfer 18 months in the making. Hernandez, who governed from 2014 to 2022, is accused of operating a state-protected drug corridor that moved more than 500 metric tons of cocaine to the United States over eight years.
Hernandez was taken into custody at his home Saturday morning under heavy police guard and transferred to a maximum-security facility pending the U.S. government’s formal extradition request. His brother, former congressman Tony Hernandez, is already serving a life sentence in the United States for the same drug conspiracy.
Diego Vargas is Media Hook’s Latin America Correspondent.
Written by Diego Vargas, Latin America Correspondent