Central America
Honduran ex-president brought before judge as US seeks extradition
AFP
Honduran ex-president Juan Orlando Hernandez, detained pending a decision on his extradition to the United States on drug trafficking charges, will appear Wednesday before a judge in Tegucigalpa assigned to determine his fate.
Hernandez surrendered to police Tuesday, hours after the judge — whose name authorities are withholding for his own protection — issued a warrant for his arrest.
The former president is wanted in the United States over claims that he facilitated the trafficking of 500 tons of cocaine.
In power for eight years until three weeks ago, when leftist Xiomara Castro was sworn in as Honduras’s first woman president, Hernandez spent Tuesday night in the custody of the police special forces.
The 53-year-old rightwing politician, who served two successive terms clouded by corruption claims, was arrested hours earlier at his house in the capital Tegucigalpa by Honduran police in coordination with American agencies including the Drug Enforcement Administration.
He offered no resistance, and allowed officers to cuff his hands and feet and fit him out in a bullet-proof vest.
Dozens of people with banners celebrated outside Hernandez’s home, while in other cities, people took to the streets with loudspeakers singing “Juancho goes to New York,” using his nickname.
The US embassy in Tegucigalpa said in a statement Hernandez is accused of trafficking some 500 tons of cocaine through Honduras, knowing it would end up in the United States.
– ‘Defend myself’ –
The ex-president faces three charges: conspiracy to import a controlled substance into the United States, using or carrying firearms including machine guns, and conspiracy to use or carry firearms in support of the conspiracy to traffic narcotics.
Hernandez is accused of having conspired with his brother, former Honduran congressman Tony Hernandez, who was in March 2021 given life in prison in the United States for drug trafficking.
Spokesman Melvin Duarte said Hernandez’s appearance Tuesday was to start the process for the judge to weigh information received from the United States.
Previous extradition requests had taken no more than four months to adjudicate, he added.
Hernandez vowed Tuesday to cooperate with domestic authorities, saying in an audio message on Twitter he was ready to appear in court and “defend myself.”
Though Hernandez had portrayed himself as an ally of the US war on drugs during his tenure, traffickers caught in the United States claimed to have paid bribes to the president’s inner circle.
Alleged associate Geovanny Fuentes Ramirez was sentenced in the United States last week to life in prison and a fine of $151.7 million for smuggling tons of cocaine into the country — with Hernandez’s aid, according to prosecutors.
In that trial, a prosecutor said the then-president had received millions of dollars from drug traffickers for protection — including from Mexican narco kingpin Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman.
Last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that “according to multiple, credible media reports,” Hernandez “has engaged in significant corruption by committing or facilitating acts of corruption and narco-trafficking and using the proceeds of illicit activity to facilitate political campaigns.”
Hernandez denies the claims, which he said were part of a revenge plot by traffickers that his government had captured or extradited to the United States.
– ‘Bankrupt’ state –
His lawyer, Hermes Ramirez insisted Monday that his client enjoyed immunity from prosecution as a member of the Guatemala-based Central American Parliament, Parlacen.
Hernandez joined Parlacen hours after leaving office on January 27.
But some analysts told AFP the Parlacen charter gives members, in their country of origin, the same immunity they would have enjoyed as members of their own parliament, which in Honduras, does not exist.
They also said that any immunity conferred by Parlacen membership could be waived at the request of a national government.
During his term, Hernandez was accused of unjustly expanding presidential powers, including over the justice system and the country’s election tribunal.
His re-election in 2017 was met with widespread protests against an alleged fraudulent campaign in the poverty- and violence-ridden country.
Central America
Costa Rica faces historic vote on lifting presidential immunity for Rodrigo Chaves
Costa Rica, a country internationally recognized for its democratic and political stability, is heading toward an unprecedented decision: whether to lift President Rodrigo Chaves’s immunity so he can face a criminal trial over alleged irregular management of funds from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI).
On Wednesday, the Legislative Assembly formed a commission of three lawmakers to analyze the accusation against the president, which was forwarded earlier this month by the Supreme Court of Justice. The commission has 20 days, extendable for another 20, to issue a report so that the full Assembly can vote on whether to lift the president’s immunity.
Lifting the immunity would require 38 votes — two-thirds of the legislature — which is largely composed of opposition parties.
If immunity is removed, prosecutors would be able to continue their investigation and potentially question the president. If the motion fails, the case would return to the judiciary and remain pending until Chaves’s term ends in May 2026.
Since the country’s last civil war in 1948 and the abolition of the army later that year, Costa Rica has held uninterrupted elections, every president has completed their term without major issues, and none has ever had their immunity lifted — although several have faced judicial proceedings.
Central America
Honduras sees ongoing killings of land defenders and attacks on press, warns NGO
The Association for Participatory Citizenship (ACI PARTICIPA) denounced on Thursday that killings of land defenders and attacks aimed at silencing the press continue in Honduras.
“We continue to see murders of defenders of land and territory, as well as aggressions to silence the press. In 2024, there were 490 attacks and aggressions that constitute human rights violations,” said ACI PARTICIPA’s executive director, Hedme Castro, during the presentation of the 2024 Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in Honduras.
Castro noted that the aggressions range “from attempts on lives, threats, harassment, intimidation, and smear campaigns, which have become very frequent, to obstruction of work, surveillance, and criminalization.”
She highlighted that, although only seven defenders were killed in 2024 compared to 24 in 2023, “last year we saw a significantly high number of women murdered, and cases of missing children.”
Moreover, Castro criticized the authorities for failing to address the violence. “There is no response from the authorities to reduce the violence in the country; in fact, I believe that the ‘fathers of the nation’ (members of Parliament) are not setting the right example, and the situation in the Legislative branch is actually fueling violence,” she added, referring to frequent violent incidents in Congress.
The ACI PARTICIPA report also notes that the government led by President Xiomara Castro has made “an important effort over the past two years to improve citizens’ access to basic rights, helping to cushion the effects of economic deterioration, although a decent standard of living has yet to be achieved for the majority of Hondurans.”
Central America
Daniel Ortega’s last historic sandinista ally detained in Managua
Former Sandinista revolutionary commander and presidential economic adviser Bayardo Arce Castaño was arrested on Thursday in Managua for alleged irregular transactions involving state-owned assets, according to local media reports.
The arrest was carried out by agents from the Special Operations Directorate of the Police, who raided his residence in the southern part of the Nicaraguan capital. The Attorney General’s Office (PGR) is investigating Arce for “transactions and/or negotiations” that, according to authorities, do not comply with current legal standards.
Arce, 76, was one of the nine historic commanders of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) who led the overthrow of dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979. Since 2007, he had served as the economic adviser to dictator Daniel Ortega, and was the last of the historic commanders still aligned with the regime.
The Attorney General’s Office accused Arce of contempt after he refused to appear for questioning about properties registered in his name. Authorities allege that Ricardo Bonilla, Arce’s assistant, was also involved in questionable financial dealings and was jailed after failing to comply with a summons.
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