The Honduran Attorney General’s Office issued an arrest warrant for former President Juan Orlando Hernández this Monday (12/8). The former leader was sentenced by American justice to 45 years in prison for drug and arms trafficking, but was released on December 1 after obtaining a pardon from President Donald Trump.
On social networks, the Attorney General of Honduras, Johel Zelaya, communicated the request for arrest in the “Pandora II affair”, in which Hernández is accused of money laundering and fraud.
“I inform the Honduran people that I have instructed the Technical Agency for Criminal Investigation and I also urge state security agencies and our international allies, such as Interpol, to execute the international arrest warrant against former President Juan Orlando Hernández, accused of crimes of money laundering and fraud,” Honduran Attorney General Johel Zelaya said in a message on X.
President of Honduras between 2014 and 2022, Hernández was found guilty of three charges related to drug and arms trafficking by the North American justice system. According to the US Department of Justice, the former president aligned himself with drug cartels, which transported more than 400 tons of cocaine to North American soil, while he ruled Honduras.
Hernández and his wife, Ana García, thanked Trump for the pardon and said they had no plans to return to Honduras for now, due to allegations of “persecution” by the left-wing Libre party government.
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Pardon aims to influence Honduras elections
Donald Trump promised this pardon in November, in order to boost the campaign of conservative candidate Tito Asfura in the presidential elections in Honduras. The name Trump supports comes from the National Party, the same political group as Hernández.
On November 30, Hondurans went to the polls to choose their next president, in a hotly contested and controversial election, with two right-wing names leading the way.
The counting of votes, carried out by the National Electoral Council (CNE), has already been stopped several times and there is still no result after almost 10 days.
With 86.3% of the votes counted, the candidate supported by Trump, Tito Asfura, came first with 40.56% of the votes. The right-wing candidate Salvador Nasralla, of the Liberal Party, comes in second place, with 39.16%. The difference between the two is only 40,000 votes.
The government candidate, Rixi Moncada, from the left-wing Free Party, only appears in third position, with 19.31% of the votes, and no longer has any chance of being elected.
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