Donald Trump has announced that he will pardon the former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted of drug trafficking charges in a US court last year. The US president stated that Hernández had been 'treated very harshly and unfairly' in a social media post regarding the pardon.
Hernández was found guilty in March 2024 of conspiring to import cocaine into the US, as well as possessing machine guns, leading to a 45-year prison sentence. Trump's announcement comes days before Honduras holds its general election, where he is endorsing conservative candidate Nasry 'Tito' Asfura.
A member of the National Party, Hernández served as Honduras's president from 2014 to 2022 and was extradited to the US in April 2022 for his role in drug trafficking. The recent electoral landscape shows a tight race, with polls indicating a competitive environment among candidates including Asfura, former defense minister Rixi Moncada from the ruling left-wing Libre Party, and television host Salvador Nasralla from the centrist Liberal Party.
Trump's criticism of Moncada and Nasralla has positioned Asfura as 'standing up for democracy,' particularly regarding his opposition to Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro. This stance has implications given the US's contentious relationship with Maduro, who has been accused of running a drugs cartel.
Honduras, now under President Xiomara Castro since 2022, has seen a shift in foreign relations, including closer ties with Cuba and maintaining cooperative relations with the US, which has military bases targeting organized crime in the region. Legal experts have raised concerns about the legality of US military actions in the Caribbean aimed at drug trafficking, calling for more transparency in operations.
