Honduran ex-president Juan Orlando Hernández released from US prison after Trump pardon
Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, has been released from a U.S. prison, according to online federal inmate records, after receiving a pardon from U.S. President Donald Trump on drug-related charges.
Records show Hernández was released Monday from the high-security USP Hazelton facility in West Virginia.
Hernández was convicted in March 2024 of conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States and possession of machine guns. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison.
The US president said on Friday that Hernández had been “treated very harshly and unfairly” in a social media post announcing the decision.
Writing on her social media on Tuesday, Hernández’s wife, Ana García de Hernández, thanked Trump for the pardon and said her husband was now a free man.
Hernández, a member of the National Party of Honduras who served as the country’s president from 2014 to 2022, was extradited to the United States in April 2022 to stand trial on charges of leading a violent drug trafficking conspiracy and helping to smuggle hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States.
During his trial, New York prosecutors said Hernández ran the Central American country as a “narco-state” and accepted millions of dollars in bribes from drug traffickers to evade the law.
He was also ordered to pay a fine of $8 million (£6 million) as part of his sentence.
Trump explained the reasons for his pardon on Sunday while speaking to reporters on Air Force One.
He said the investigation into Hernández was “set up by the Biden administration,” referring to his predecessor in the White House.
“Basically, they said he was a drug dealer because he was the president of the country,” Trump said.
Hernández’s release comes as Honduras finds itself in a “technical tie” for the election of a new president.
As of Monday afternoon, there were just 515 votes separating right-wing candidate Nasry Asfura from his closest challenger, Salvador Nasralla, a former television host representing the country’s centrist party.
Trump criticized Nasralla on Friday, writing that he was “a borderline communist.”
He called Asfura a “defender of democracy” and praised him for his campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, with whom Trump has engaged in a war of words in recent months.
For his part, Nasralla pledged to cut ties with Venezuela in the event of victory.
The Trump administration has accused the left-wing Maduro – whose re-election last year was considered illegitimate by many countries – of being the leader of a drug cartel.
He said his efforts to combat drug trafficking justified a military buildup in the Caribbean. The administration also carried out strikes against ships it said were used for smuggling – although some analysts described the measures as a way to pressure Latin American leaders.
Honduras has been governed since 2022 by President Xiomara Castro, who has established close ties with Cuba and Venezuela.
Additional reporting by Nadine Yousif
