US Magistrate Judge Stewart D. Aaron of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York set May 10 as the arraignment date for the former Honduran leader. Hernandez’s lawyer did not make a request for bail at the hearing, which was conducted via video link, according to AFP.
A day prior, Hernandez boarded a plane handcuffed and in the custody of US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officials.
He is accused of helping drug runners to smuggle some 500 tons of cocaine, as well as at least two instances of accepting bribes from drug lords in Honduras and Mexico. He faces three counts of weapons and drug offenses.
According to the US Department of Justice, the activities for which Hernandez is charged happened as early as 2004, when he was a lawmaker in the Honduran parliament.
“Juan Orlando Hernández, the recent former President of Honduras, allegedly partnered with some of the world’s most prolific narcotics traffickers to build a corrupt and brutally violent empire based on the illegal trafficking of tons of cocaine to the United States,” US Attorney Damian Williams said in a Thursday statement.
“Hernández is alleged to have used his vast political powers to protect and assist drug traffickers and cartel leaders by alerting them to possible interdictions, and sanctioning heavily armed violence to support their drug trade,” Williams added.
Hernandez left office in January after declining to seek reelection, having been in office since 2014. His neoliberal pro-Washington government oversaw extensive privatizations of social services, accompanied by skyrocketing violence that drove indigenous people, LGBTQ people, and other poor and marginalized Hondurans to seek refuge northward as far as the United States.
His successor, leftist Xiomara Castro, quickly complied with the US extradition request, and Hernandez was arrested in February. Her husband, Manuel Zelaya, was overthrown as Honduras’ president in 2009 after the US objected to his administration’s close relationship with Cuba and Venezuela.