Honduras: security forces surround ex-President Hernández’s residence

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Honduran security forces with assault rifles have stationed themselves tonight around the residence of former president Juan Orlando Hernandez, who is reportedly being sought for extradition by the United States.

One of the neighbors of the San Ignacio residence, in the east of Tegucigalpa, the pro-government congressman Rasel Tomé, told journalists that the forces of law and order had prevented him and other neighbors from entering his house, which he considered to be irregular.

The police movement took place after the Honduran Foreign Ministry informed on the social network Twitter that “according to law, it has sent to the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) official communication from the US Embassy, requesting the formal provisional arrest of a Honduran politician for extradition to the United States of America”, without identifying that it was Juan Orlando Hernández.

Unofficially it has transpired that the note that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation sent today to the Supreme Court of Justice was “on the occasion of sending note verbale number 119 dated February 14, 2022, regarding the formal request for provisional arrest for extradition to the United States of America of Juan Orlando Hernandez, aka Juan Orlando Hernandez, aka JOH”.

The lawyer Hermes Ramírez, who is defending Hernández, told TV Channel 5 in Tegucigalpa that the security forces were stationed near the residence of the former president in an alleged action to capture him, violating his rights and qualifying the operation as “an outrage”.

He added that the former president was at his residence but did not say if he would surrender to the authorities. However, according to unofficial versions spread by the local press, Hernández is not at his house, which would also be in darkness.

The dozens of military and police officers who cordoned off the area do not allow journalists to enter the vicinity of the former president’s house.

Hernandez’s defense went to the Supreme Court of Justice last Thursday to request information about possible legal proceedings against him.

At that time, Ramírez told journalists briefly that he had been instructed by Hernández to “know about those accusations or those judicial processes that are in progress”.

He added that “it is public knowledge” that some people or political sectors have filed lawsuits against the former ruler, of whom he said that “he is calmly at home” and “waiting for the result of these proceedings”.

With information from EFE

More: Latin America news in English, every day from The Rio Times.