Extradition from Mexico to the United States—Roberto Bueno Hernández

The first person to be extradited from Mexico to the United States since the Mexican Supreme Court ruled that individuals facing life in prison could be extradited to the United States has been sent from Mexico City to Houston.^[1] Roberto Bueno Hernández was arrested in Mexico in March 2005 on an indictment out of Alabama for drug trafficking.^[2]

Mr. Hernández’s extradition comes at a time when relations between the US and Mexico have become slightly frosty.^[3] Last week, President Vicente Fox hailed the Mexican Supreme Court’s decisions, saying that it might become easier for Mexico to deal with its growing drug trafficking problem if extradition becomes easier.^[4] But those efforts might be hampered, nonetheless, by Mexico’s decision to join the International Criminal Court, which was met by a threat from the Bush Administration “to cut $11.5 million in drug-eradication aid.”^[5] And Mexico is becoming increasingly irked by US attempts to enforce domestic laws extraterritorially; on February 3, “the Treasury Dept. forced a Sheraton Hotel in Mexico City to expel Cubans who were discussing oil drilling in Cuban waters with American oil executives, citing a law that bars U.S. subsidiaries from doing business with the communist island.”^[6] The expulsion outraged Mexican officials.^[7] Mexico also managed to anger the US by not expressing solidarity with the US immediately after 9/11, and by using its temporary seat on the UN Security Council to oppose US efforts to secure a resolution authorizing the invasion of Iraq.^[8]

Despite the heightened rhetoric between the two countries, however, there is some back-channel cooperation between the two countries. Recently we mentioned the seemingly extrajudicial removal of some individuals from Mexico, and the two countries share drug trafficking intelligence.^[9]

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[1] Trafficker Extradited to U.S., El Universal, Feb. 22, 2006.
[2] Id.
[3] See Geri Smith, What Happened to “Los Dos Amigos”?, Bus. Week, Feb. 22, 2006.
[4] El Universal, supra note 1. See also our post on his comments.
[5] Smith, supra note 3.
[6] Id.
[7] Id.
[8] Id.
[9] Id.