Trump to pardon ex-Honduras leader serving drug trafficking sentence in US | Donald Trump

Donald Trump announced that he would pardon Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras who is serving a 45-year prison sentence in the United States for drug and weapons trafficking.

“I will issue a full and complete pardon to former President Juan Orlando Hernández who was, according to many people I greatly respect, treated very harshly and unfairly,” Trump said Friday in an article on Truth Social.

In March last year, Hernández was convicted in U.S. courts of accepting millions of dollars in bribes to protect U.S.-bound cocaine shipments belonging to traffickers he once publicly said he was fighting. Speaking during closing arguments in the trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacob Gutwillig said Hernández had “opened a cocaine highway to the United States.”

Hernández was convicted last June and called his conviction unjustified. He had served two terms as leader of the Central American nation of about 10 million people and was considered one of the United States’ key allies in Central America, particularly by the Trump administration.

Trump’s announcement to pardon Hernández comes even as the Republican leader presents himself as tough on drug problems.

The Trump administration has labeled several drug cartels “foreign terrorist organizations” and used allegations of a “war on drugs” to justify deadly airstrikes against ships across the Caribbean and Pacific. The strikes prompted the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations to condemn the operations, calling them extrajudicial executions.

This message was part of a broader message from Trump supporting Tito Asfura for Honduras’ presidency in the upcoming election, with Trump saying the United States would support the country if it won. But if Asfura loses the election this Sunday, Trump said “the United States will not spend money after the fact, because a bad leader can only bring catastrophic results to any country.”

Asfura’s party forged a close partnership with Washington under Hernández, who governed from 2014 to 2022 and was arrested shortly after leaving office.

Honduras has been governed since 2021 by Xiomara Castro, who has forged close ties with Cuba and Venezuela, two countries mired in deep economic and human rights crises whose governments the Trump administration considers dictatorships and has repeatedly criticized.

Castro opted for a left-wing position, but she maintained a pragmatic, even cooperative, attitude in her dealings with the Trump administrations and received a visit from the US Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem. The president even backed down from his threats to end the Honduras extradition treaty and military cooperation with the United States. Under Castro, Honduras also welcomed its citizens expelled from the United States and served as a bridge for expelled Venezuelans who were later picked up by Venezuela in Honduras.

Hondurans will go to the polls on Sunday to vote in an election that remains uncertain, with polls showing Asfura, the former mayor of the capital Tegucigalpa, virtually tied with former Defense Minister Rixi Moncada of the ruling left-wing FREE Party, and television host Salvador Nasralla of the centrist Liberal Party.

Whichever candidate wins a simple majority on Sunday will govern Honduras between 2026 and 2030. Some political analysts fear that multiple candidates could claim victory.

The Organization of American States and Washington have raised concerns about the electoral process in Honduras and said they are closely monitoring the elections.