Honduras judge signs arrest order for ex-President Hernandez

FILE - In this Aug. 13, 2019 file photo, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez answers questions from the Associated Press, as he leaves a meeting at the Organization of American States, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras -

A Honduran judge signed an arrest order Tuesday for former President Juan Orlando Hernandez, a step toward fulfilling a request by the United States government for his extradition on drug trafficking and weapons charges.

The U.S. move came less than three weeks after Hernandez left office, and follows years of accusations about the Honduran leader's alleged links to drug traffickers.

The Supreme Court of Justice designated a judge to handle the case and hours later the judge signed an order for Hernandez's arrest, said court spokesman Melvin Duarte. The security ministry, which has Hernandez's home surrounded, will coordinate to make sure he appears before the judge within 24 hours.

Hernandez had said he would turn himself in once there was an order.

Honduran security forces surrounded Hernandez's neighborhood Monday night and on Tuesday the Supreme Court of Justice met to choose a judge to handle the extradition request.

Honduran Security Minister Ramon Sabillon, who was fired by Hernandez as head of the National Police in 2014, said Tuesday that Hernandez had conspired "with cartels to traffic (drugs) and corrupt many public institutions, which led to social deterioration and undermined the application of justice in Honduras."

He said the main charges Hernandez faces in the U.S. were drug trafficking, using weapons for drug trafficking and conspiracy to use weapons in drug trafficking.

U.S. prosecutors in New York had repeatedly implicated Hernandez as a co-conspirator during his brother's 2019 drug trafficking trial, alleging that his political rise was fueled by drug profits.

His brother, Juan Antonio "Tony" Hernandez was sentenced to life in prison on drug and weapons charges in March 2021. At his sentencing Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Laroche characterized the crimes as "state-sponsored drug trafficking."

Nicole Navas, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Justice, declined comment late Monday about the U.S. extradition request.

In a video released by Hernandez's legal team, apparently from inside his home, attorney Felix Avila said that no arrest order had yet been issued.

Hernandez released an audio recording via Twitter early Tuesday thanking his supporters. "It is not an easy moment," he said. "I don't desire it for anyone."

He said his lawyers had informed the National Police that "I am ready and prepared to cooperate and go voluntarily ... to face this situation and defend myself" if an arrest order is issued.

The identity of the judge chosen to handle the case was not immediately released. However, the court's president, Rolando Argueta, is known to be close to Hernandez, and all 15 Supreme Court justices were selected by Congress in 2016 during Hernandez's first presidential term. They serve seven-year terms, and most come from his National Party.

The U.S. moves were a long-awaited fall for a leader reviled in his home country who enjoyed support from the Trump administration but had been kept at arm's length by the Biden White House, which has targeted Central America's endemic corruption as a root cause of migration.

Last year, U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy was one of a dozen senators who supported a bill that sought to isolate Hernandez by imposing sanctions on him and prohibiting the export of tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets that Honduran security forces deployed in recent years against protesters.

"Throughout the past eight years of decay, depravity, and impunity, successive U.S. administrations sullied our reputation by treating Hernandez as a friend and partner," Leahy said in a statement Tuesday. "By making excuse after excuse for a government that had no legitimacy and that functioned as a criminal enterprise, U.S. officials lost sight of what we stand for and that our real partners are the Honduran people."

Dana Frank, a Honduras expert and professor of history emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said the U.S. wants to look heroic for finally trying to bring Hernandez to justice, but that successive administrations going back to President Barack Obama enabled Hernandez.

"Hernandez was able to wreak havoc with Honduras, with devastating costs, in large part because the U.S. supported him up to the last minute," Frank said.

Honduran criminal lawyer Marlon Duarte said that the extradition process against Hernandez, if it moves ahead, would not last more than three months.

Once an arrest order is issued, Hernandez would have to turn himself in or be forcibly taken into custody, he said. At an initial hearing, Hernandez would be informed of the charges and he would be held on a military base.

Within two months, another hearing would be held in which the U.S. evidence would be presented and the judge would make a decision on whether he should be extradited.

If the judge rules for extradition, Hernandez would have three days to appeal. Then the appellate court -- also named by the Supreme Court -- would decide within five days whether to confirm the extradition or overturn the judge's decision. If the judge denies extradition, the U.S. government would have an opportunity to appeal.

Hernandez left office Jan. 27 with the swearing in of President Xiomara Castro. The same day, he was sworn in as Honduras' representative to the Central American Parliament.

One of his lawyers, Hermes Ramirez, told local media his client had immunity as a member of the regional parliament and said government forces were not following proper procedures. He said Hernandez was inside the home.

Various contingents of the National Police, including special forces as well as military police, were present around Hernandez's neighborhood Monday night. Barriers at all of the entrances kept out media and even residents.

Members of the security forces entered the area with weapons, wearing balaclavas and with handcuffs dangling from their ballistic vests.

Hernandez often pointed to the fact that Honduras began allowing the extradition of its citizens on drug trafficking charges while he was president of the Congress as part of his defense.

But U.S. prosecutors have alleged that he was taking bribes from drug traffickers on the promise of protecting them once he was president.

Hernandez took office on Jan. 27, 2014. He used a friendly Supreme Court to overcome Honduras' constitutional ban on reelection and won a second term in 2017 in elections marred by irregularities.

Around midnight Monday, 56-year-old Jorge Arturo Vega, a supporter of new president Castro's Liberty and Refoundation party, stood outside a police barricade at Hernandez's neighborhood celebrating.

"This is a party we've been waiting a long time for," Vega said, thinking back over the dozen years since Hernandez came up in Congress. "We couldn't stand this drug trafficker, criminal, killer in the presidential house any longer."

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Sherman reported from Mexico City. Associated Press writers Elmer Martinez in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and Claudia Torrens in New York, contributed to this story.