Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, captured on Tuesday as a result of an extradition request from the United States for drug trafficking, was subjected to “humiliation” during the arrest, his wife, Ana García, denounced this Saturday.
Hernández “was subjected to a horrific and humiliating scorn” and “for more than 17 hours we faced the horror, we feared for our lives and integrity, suffering the constant siege of 600 security agents,” García denounced in a statement, announcing that he would present the accusations before the “competent authorities”.
The United States requested Hernández’s extradition from Honduras on Monday, accusing him of exporting 500 tons of cocaine and receiving bribes from capos such as the Mexican Joaquín “Chapo” Guzmán, while he was president of Congress and then in two terms as president of the Republic between 2010 and 2022.
Immediately the former president’s house was surrounded by a strong police contingent.
On Tuesday, Hernández left his residence and immediately Honduran law enforcement officers put a bulletproof vest on him and handcuffed his hands and feet, in an operation led by Police Director Ramón Sabillón, with the support of the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). ).
He was immediately transferred to the headquarters of the Special Police Forces in Tegucigalpa.
He appeared before a judge on Wednesday who read the charges to him and returned him to police headquarters to appear once more for a second court hearing on March 16.
In a “cruel and degrading way” there was “an overexposure to the public through the media, even using drones that flew over our house abruptly invading our privacy,” the former first lady said.
Hernández, who left the Honduran presidency on January 27, has been implicated by New York prosecutors as having ties to drug trafficking. His brother, former deputy “Tony” Hernández, was sentenced in March 2021 to life imprisonment in the United States for that crime.
In a statement, the head of US diplomacy, Antony Blinken, pointed out that “according to multiple credible media reports”, Hernández “has engaged in significant corruption by committing or facilitating acts of corruption and drug trafficking, and by using the proceeds of activities illicit for political campaigns”.
