The former president was taken from a military hospital where he was recovering from liver surgery and a heart condition and put on a plane, according to his lawyer Mauricio Berreondo. He said the plane was bound for New York after a stop in Miami.

"I blame the government for what could happen to him," Berreondo said. "Portillo is sick and there are several pending appeals."

He said one appeal had to do with establishing the state of Portillo's health.

Portillo, who was Guatemala's president from 2000-2004, was taken out of the hospital on orders of Interior Secretary Mauricio Lopez Bonilla, Berreondo said.

An Associated Press reporter saw a small white jet carrying Portillo dressed in a black sweatshirt take off late morning local time.

"This decision is an important affirmation of the rule of law and due process in Guatemala," the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala said in a statement. "We commend the Guatemalan authorities in the strengthening of rule of law and the fight against organized crime and corruption."

Portillo was turned over to U.S. authorities in the same week that the high court threw out a genocide conviction in another high-profile case against an ex-president, former dictator Efrain Rios Montt. That decision that has been widely questioned and criticized, including in the United States.

Guatemala has been struggling to build a credible justice system, including with the help of a U.N.-sanctioned team of international prosecutors.

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