Honduras handed an ally of imprisoned former president Juan Orlando Hernandez over to the United States on Wednesday to face drug trafficking charges, police said. The move comes amid a diplomatic dispute with Washington that saw President Xiomara Castro, Hernandez’s successor, announce the end of an extradition treaty between the two countries.
Mario Jose Calix was handed over to US agents at an airport north of the capital Tegucigalpa and put on an airplane headed for the United States, authorities said. “The plane is already in the air,” police spokesman Edgardo Barahona said.
Calix, 42, was taken to the airport in handcuffs under heavy guard from the police special forces headquarters where he had been held since June. The former local deputy mayor is accused by US authorities of conspiring to import large quantities of cocaine into the United States and using machineguns to protect shipments.
The extradition was the last to be processed before Castro announced the cancellation of the treaty with the United States, according to judiciary spokesman Melvin Duarte. Fifty Hondurans accused of drug trafficking have been extradited to the United States over the past decade, including Hernandez, who was sentenced in June in New York to 45 years in prison.
In a surprise move, Castro announced on August 28 the end of the extradition treaty in response to what she called interference by US Ambassador Laura Dogu, who criticized a meeting of senior Honduran officials with Venezuela’s defense minister. Dogu told reporters that she was surprised to see then Honduran defense minister Jose Manuel Zelaya — Castro’s nephew — and military chief General Roosevelt Hernandez sitting next to a “drug trafficker” in Venezuela.
Castro’s government is a staunch ally of Venezuela, which is under pressure from Washington and other countries following the disputed reelection of President Nicolas Maduro in July. Castro has hinted that Washington planned to use the extradition treaty against Honduran military leaders, even referring on Tuesday to a “coup d’état” brewing.
The opposition has accused Castro of ending the pact and inventing conspiracies to protect members of her government and family. The president’s brother-in-law Carlos Zelaya resigned as a lawmaker on Saturday following accusations that he met drug traffickers in 2013 to seek campaign financing for her party. Shortly afterward, Castro’s nephew Jose Manuel Zelaya resigned as defense minister.
