Trump to pardon ex-Honduras leader serving drug trafficking sentence in US | Donald Trump
Donald Trump said he would pardon former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, who is serving a 45-year prison sentence in the United States on drug trafficking and weapons charges.
“I will be offering a Full and Complete Pardon to Former President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was treated very harshly and unfairly, according to many people I respect very much,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Friday.
In March last year, Hernández was found guilty in US courts of accepting millions of dollars in bribes to protect US-bound cocaine shipments from traffickers he once publicly declared he would fight. Speaking during the trial’s closing arguments, assistant U.S. attorney Jacob Gutwillig said Hernández was “paving a cocaine highway to the United States.”
Hernández was convicted last June and said his conviction was unjust. He had served two terms as the leader of the Central American country of about 10 million people and was seen as one of the leading allies of the United States in Central America, especially by the Trump administration.
Trump’s announcement to pardon Hernández comes as the Republican leader has described himself as tough on drug problems.
The Trump administration has defined multiple drug cartels as: “foreign terrorist organizations” and used “war on drugs” claims to justify deadly air strikes on shipping in the Caribbean and Pacific. These attacks led the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations to condemn the operations. extrajudicial killings
The post was part of a broader message that Trump supported Tito Asfura for president of Honduras in the upcoming election; Trump said the United States would support the country if he wins. However, if Asfura loses the election this Sunday, Trump shared the message that “the United States will not throw bad money after bad money, because a wrong Leader can only bring disastrous results to a country, no matter what it is.”
Asfura’s party forged a close partnership with Washington under the rule of Hernández, who was in power from 2014 to 2022 and was arrested shortly after leaving office.
Honduras has been ruled since 2021 by Xiomara Castro, who has established close ties with Cuba and Venezuela, two countries mired in deep economic and human rights crises that the Trump administration views as dictatorships and has repeatedly criticized.
Castro has leaned towards a leftist stance but has maintained a pragmatic and even cooperative attitude in dealing with the Trump administrations. visited From U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. The president even backed down from threatening to end Honduras’ extradition treaty and military cooperation with the United States. Under Castro, Honduras also accepted citizens deported from the United States and served as a bridge for deported Venezuelans, who were then rounded up in Honduras by Venezuela.
As Hondurans head to the polls on Sunday, polls show Asfura, the former mayor of the capital Tegucigalpa, nearly tied with former defense minister Rixi Moncada of the ruling leftist LIBRE Party and television host Salvador Nasralla of the centrist Liberal Party.
The candidate who wins a simple majority on Sunday will govern Honduras between 2026 and 2030. Some political analysts fear more than one candidate will declare victory.
The Organization of American States and Washington expressed their concerns about Honduras’ election process and said they were monitoring the elections closely.
