Honduran prosecutor orders ‘immediate capture’ of former President Juan Orlando Hernández, pardoned by Trump

The outcome of Honduras’ elections remains undefined, but the shadow of former President Juan Orlando Hernández monopolizes media attention amid the vote count. The Attorney General of this Central American country, Johel Zelaya, on Monday ordered the “immediate capture” of former President Juan Orlando Hernández, pardoned by Donald Trump and released last week from prison in the United States where he was serving 45 years for his links to drug trafficking. “Comply,” underlines the official document which warns Hernández that he will be arrested if he sets foot on Honduran territory.

“We have been torn apart by the tentacles of corruption and by the criminal networks that have deeply marked the life of our country. That is why, within the framework of the International Day Against Corruption which is commemorated tomorrow, December 9, I inform the Honduran people that I have instructed the ATIC and I also urge the state security agencies and our international allies, such as INTERPOL, to execute the international arrest warrant against former President Juan Orlando Hernández, accused of money laundering and fraud crimes,” Zelaya reported on his profile on the social network X. “Our fight is head-on,” he added. “Honduras has paid too high a price for drug trafficking: families destroyed, young people murdered, communities taken over by organized crime and thousands of Hondurans forced to emigrate, fleeing the violence generated by this scourge,” Zelaya said.

The announcement comes a week after Hernández regained his freedom and celebrated with his return to social media, where he thanked Trump for pardoning him and his “courage” to bring justice. “I will grant a full pardon to former President Juan Orlando Hernández, who, according to many people I deeply respect, was treated very harshly and unfairly,” Trump wrote on his social network. “This cannot be allowed, especially now, when, with the electoral victory of Tito Asfura (this is the name of the conservative candidate he supports), Honduras is heading towards great political and financial success.”

Hernández’s arrest was straight out of a movie. He only got to enjoy 18 days as a free former president. After the handover of power to President Xiomara Castro at the end of January 2022, the politician was arrested at his home and the extradition process began, a hard blow for someone who defined himself as an unconditional ally of Washington. Hernández assumed the presidency of Honduras in 2014. His government claimed to have close relations with the United States in the fight against drug trafficking, for which they received cooperation and support in the fight against drugs and migration. The president boasted of a tough-on-crime policy, which was quickly tarnished by increasingly persistent complaints. In the letter he sent to Trump asking for clemency, he highlighted the faithful collaboration he maintained with different American agencies. “My conviction is unjust. Like you, I suffered political persecution,” he said in the letter. Hernández did not comment on the Honduran Attorney General’s announcement.

What has become clear to Honduran analysts is that Trump’s comments and decisions influenced the outcome of the election, still pending due to a delay in vote counting, partly due to the technical inability of the company hired to carry it out. Over the weekend, a new delay occurred, without the electoral authority informing the causes. The Organization of American States (OAS), through its electoral observation mission, criticized “the marked lack of expertise in the preparation and execution” of the vote count and called for speeding up the count, while the ruling party, Libre, demands the cancellation of the presidential election. The vote still maintains a very close result, but it gives a slight advantage to the conservative candidate Nasry Asfura, supported by Trump and who obtains 40.50% of the votes, while his rival, the liberal Salvador Nasralla, obtains 39.1% of the support while more than 88% of the ballots have been counted.