Trump’s pardon of a convicted trafficker undermines drug war narrative

MEXICO CITY — Convicted drug trafficker Juan Orlando Hernández, who prosecutors say “paved a cocaine highway” into the United States, walked out of a West Virginia prison a free man this week.

That’s thanks to President Trump, who granted a full pardon to Honduras’ former right-wing leader Hernández on Monday. 45 years in prison For supporting what a U.S. attorney general described as “one of the largest and most violent drug trafficking conspiracies in the world.”

Trump’s extraordinary delay enraged many in Latin America and raised critical questions about the president’s escalating military campaign in the region, which he insists is aimed at combating the drug trade.

Trump on Tuesday warned of “ground attacks” in the near future in Venezuela, where the White House described leftist leader Nicolás Maduro as a “drug dictator” and appeared determined to remove him from power.

“If Trump is an alleged drug warrior, why did he pardon a convicted trafficker?” Dana Frank, professor emeritus at UC Santa Cruz who specializes in recent Honduran and Latin American history, described the drug war narrative adopted by the White House as little more than an excuse to push U.S. economic and political interests in the region and justify a “hemispheric assault on governments that do not follow what the United States wants.”

The United States has killed dozens of low-level drug traffickers in missile attacks on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific and deployed 15,000 troops and a fleet of warships and fighter jets off the coast of Venezuela.

Venezuela, home to the world’s largest known oil reserves, has been controlled by Maduro’s leftist authoritarian government since 2013.

The White House has gone to great lengths this year to portray Maduro as a drug-trafficking mastermind who runs a smuggling network known as the Cartel de los Soles, staffed by high-ranking Venezuelan military officials. management last month set Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist group.

But security experts in Venezuela and law enforcement officials in the United States say the Cartel de los Soles is not a well-organized drug trafficking organization like the Mexican cartels. They also say it’s unclear whether Maduro is turning to illegal activities or looking the other way, perhaps to build loyalty while his generals grow rich. Maduro said the accusations were false and that the United States was trying to oust him to gain access to Venezuelan oil.

The evidence against Hernández, on the other hand, was much more devastating.

Hernández was involved in multiple drug trafficking cases filed by U.S. authorities, who accused him of helping traffic 400 tons of drugs through Honduras and accepting millions of dollars in bribes from Mexican cartel kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. Prosecutors said Hernández used his military to protect smugglers and once boasted that he would flood the United States with cocaine and “put the drugs in foreigners’ noses.”

Hernández insisted that the case against him was politically motivated and that his conviction in 2024 was based on uncredible testimony from witnesses who were largely convicted drug traffickers. The Trump administration cited those reasons when announcing the president’s pardon this week.

Hernández’s wife, Ana Gracía de Hernández, suggested the pardon was an act of justice, writing on social media: “After nearly four years of pain, waiting, and difficult trials, my husband Juan Orlando Hernández is BACK a free man, thanks to the presidential pardon granted by President Donald Trump.”

The pardon appears to be related to the Trump administration’s effort to influence the results of the recent Honduran presidential election.

Ahead of Sunday’s vote, Trump threatened on social media that he would cut aid to Honduras if voters did not elect conservative candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura, a member of the conservative National Party that includes Hernández. Trump also criticized the current Honduran president, leftist Xiamora Castro.

Election results were still being counted on Tuesday, but Asfura appeared to be neck-and-neck with another conservative Liberal Party candidate, Salvador Nasralla. Castro was far behind.

Since returning to the White House this year, Trump has sought to dominate Latin America like few presidents in recent memory, making deals with right-wing leaders such as Argentina’s Javier Millei and El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele and punishing left-wing governments with tariffs and sanctions.

Trump and his officials have publicly sought to influence other elections by supporting right-wing candidates in recent elections in Argentina and Peru.

“This is the tyranny of the democratic process,” Frank said. “This is a heartbreak for the sovereignty of these countries.”

Trump has repeatedly intervened in the justice system in his own country through pardons.

Trump’s decision to pardon Hernández comes amid the president’s pardon actions, with pardon attorney Ed Martin publicly advocating Justice Department investigations that would burden Trump’s political enemies and leniency his friends and allies. “There is no MAGA left behind,” Martin wrote on social media in May.

Legal experts say the president’s pardons and commutations target individuals accused of abuse of power and white-collar crimes — the kinds of crimes Trump has been accused of throughout his adult life.

In the past few weeks alone, the president has offered commutations to former congressman George Santos, who was convicted of defrauding donors, and to private equity executive David Gentile, who was convicted of a $1.6 billion scheme that prosecutors say defrauded thousands of ordinary investors.

He also pardoned Changpeng Zhao, a crypto finance executive with ties to the Trump family who pleaded guilty to money laundering, and Paul Walczak, a nursing home executive with ties to the Trump family who pleaded guilty to tax crimes, only for his mother to show him mercy at a Mar-a-Lago dinner.

Acts of mercy have divided Trump’s base of supporters; Some of them think the president is protecting conservative voices who have faced political investigations during the Biden administration. Others think Trump is still protecting his wealthy allies as much of the country faces an affordability crisis.

Linthicum was reportedly from Mexico City and Wilner was from Washington.