EXPLAINER: Ex-Honduras leader long in US prosecutors’ sights

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN
Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández was arrested at the request of the United States on drug trafficking charges Tuesday and a Honduran judge will decide if he is eventually extradited to stand trial in the U.S. While Hernández was president, he was untouchable for Honduras’ co-opted justice system and successive U.S. administrations made no move alienate him. The exceptions were prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, who have spent the last several years working their way up through Honduran drug trafficking organizations to who many believed was the inevitable pinnacle _ Hernandez.