While president from 2014 until last month, he had the support of US officials waging the war on drugs and some diplomats who did not see a better option.
But less than three weeks out of office, his utility exhausted, the US government moved for his extradition and the chance to make him an example in a region wracked by corruption.
Hernández was scheduled to make his initial court appearance in Tegucigalpa on Wednesday. He was arrested on Tuesday at the request of the US government on charges of drug trafficking, using weapons for drug trafficking and conspiracy to use weapons in drug trafficking.
US prosecutors in the Southern District of New York have accused Hernández in recent years of funding his political rise with profits from drug traffickers in exchange for protecting their shipments.
All the while, popular discontent with his government grew in Honduras.
There weren't enough jobs, street gangs controlled entire towns and neighbourhoods, drought and hurricanes hit swaths of the country in a devastating one-two punch and Hernández began to symbolise all their troubles.
Hondurans fled by the thousands, literally walking out of the country with nothing but a change of clothes in their knapsacks. Migrant caravans drew international attention and never lacked groups of young migrants shouting "Get out JOH!" using his initials.
"How great that they arrested him, he was very corrupt," said Ilchis Álvarez, a Honduran migrant in southern Mexico.
"He was in the government for 12 years, caused a lot of people to migrate, there was a lot of corruption, there was a lot of unemployment," said Álvarez.
When Xiomara Castro's third run for president gained traction with the help of timely alliances, Hondurans' dissatisfaction coalesced around her candidacy. They swept her into office in last November's elections intent on punishing Hernández and his National Party.
