Honduras seeks arrest of ex-President Hernández after Trump pardon : NPR
Farmers protest President Donald Trump’s pardon of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025.
Moses Castillo/AP
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Moses Castillo/AP
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Honduras Attorney General Johel Zelaya said Monday he has ordered Honduran authorities and asked Interpol to execute a 2023 arrest warrant for ex-President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was pardoned by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Hernández was released from U.S. federal prison last week after Trump pardoned him. Hernández was sentenced last year in a US federal court to 45 years in prison for helping to transport tons of cocaine to the United States.
Hernández went from being a suspected ally of the United States in the war on drugs to being subject to a U.S. extradition request shortly after leaving office in 2022. He was arrested and sent to the United States by current President Xiomara Castro of the social-democratic LIBRE party.
Zelaya included a photo of the two-year-old order signed by a Supreme Court magistrate for alleged fraud and money laundering charges. The order states that it is to be carried out “in the event that the accused is released by the United States authorities.”
Dozens of Honduran officials and politicians have been implicated in the so-called Pandora affair, in which Honduran prosecutors alleged that government funds were diverted through a network of nongovernmental organizations to political parties, including Hernández’s 2013 presidential campaign.
Hernández’s lawyer, Renato Stabile, said in an email: “This is obviously a strictly political move by the defeated Free Party to try to intimidate President Hernández as he is expelled from power in Honduras.” This is a shameful and desperate piece of political theater and these accusations are completely baseless. »
A screen shows former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who posted a message on TikTok thanking U.S. President Donald Trump for pardoning him, at a cafe in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025.
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Zelaya had said after Trump announced his intention to pardon Hernández that his office should take steps to end impunity.
Hernández’s wife said after his release that the former president was in an undisclosed location for his safety.
The drama comes while Honduras is still waiting to know who its next president will be.
Trump endorsed Nasry Asfura, a former mayor of Tegucigalpa from Hernández’s conservative National Party. Asfura led Salvador Nasralla, also a Liberal Party conservative, by barely a percentage point as the vote count progressed slowly.
A victory for Asfura could potentially facilitate Hernández’s return to Honduras. Nasralla has made the fight against corruption the centerpiece of his campaign and has said Hernández stole the 2017 election from him in a vote full of irregularities.
Hernández has consistently denied any wrongdoing during his tenure and insisted he was one of the United States’ strongest anti-drug allies.
Trump had announced plans to pardon Hernández just days before national elections in Honduras, adding a new element to a tight contest. While some Hondurans remain nostalgic for Hernández’s two terms, many were shocked that a man convicted of drug trafficking in a closely watched trial could suddenly be released early in his sentence.
Trump said the Hondurans requested clemency for Hernández and that after reviewing his case, he decided that Hernández had been unfairly treated by prosecutors.
