U.S. asks Honduras to extradite ex-president

Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, handed himself over to the National Police and soldiers who surrounded his home in Tegucigalpa on Monday night. The Honduran Supreme Court of Justice appointed a justice to oversee an extradition request from the U.S. Embassy during an emergency session Tuesday. Hernández left office less than three weeks ago when Xiomara Castro was sworn in as the nation’s first female president. Because the United States rarely brings legal challenges against sitting heads of state, a Honduras judge delayed approving an arrest order until Hernández’s term had ended.

What did he do? U.S. prosecutors accuse him of soliciting $1.6 million from drug traffickers to support his presidential campaign, accepting bribes while in office, and allowing state-sponsored drug crimes. Honduran elites and lawmakers, including Hernández’s brother, have implicated him in their testimony. While Hernández was in office, hundreds of thousands of migrants left Honduras because of poverty or to escape gang violence and natural disasters.

Dig deeper: Read Carolina Lumetta’s report in The Stew on how U.S. investments in South America aim to combat corruption that contributes to the U.S. border crisis.