The Attorney General of the State of Honduras, Johel Zelaya, called on the national security organizations and the International Police (Interpol) this Monday execute an arrest warrant from 2023 against former President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was last week pardoned by the President of the United States, Donald Trump.
“I inform the Honduran people that I have instructed the ATIC (Criminal Investigation Technical Agency), and I also call on the state security agencies and our international allies such as Interpol to execute the international arrest warrant against the former president.” Juan Orlando Hernandez, “We are accused of crimes of money laundering and fraud,” Zelaya said on the social network
The alleged crimes against Hernández are linked to a multi-million-dollar case that also affected former lawmakers, businessmen and individuals, in which state funds were diverted to finance the 2013 political campaign.
“We have been torn apart by the tentacles of corruption and criminal networks that have deeply shaped the life of our country,” he added.
The Attorney General explained that “the first line of investigation” of the case had already been completed and that the then director of the Directorate of Children, Youth and Families, Dulce María Villanueva Sánchez, had been arrested for alleged irregularities at the top of the organization.
“Our commitment is to truth and justice, as I promised on my first day at the helm of this institution,” he emphasized.
Hernández, who was serving a 45-year sentence for drug trafficking in the United States, was released from prison on December 1 pardoned by President Donald Trump.
He did so in a context in which Washington has sent part of its navy to the Caribbean coast to stop drug trafficking in its territory and has sunk around twenty suspected drug boats, killing more than 80 people.
He was captured in Tegucigalpa in February 2022, less than three weeks after he left power in Honduras in response to an extradition request from the United States, which was fulfilled in April of that year.
Prosecutors who tried Hernández in the United States accused him of turning Honduras into a “drug state” and profiting from the trial, allegations the politician described as “slander.” And he was found guilty in June 2024.
Saying the Central American politician had been “treated very harshly and unfairly,” Trump announced the presidential pardon on Nov. 28, less than 48 hours before Hondurans went to the polls to elect leftist Xiomara Castro’s successor as president.
The US president also expressed his support for Nasry “Tito” Asfura, the right-wing National Party candidate and Hernández’s successor.
Asfura leads the exam, which had been blocked since Friday and resumed this Monday, but with an advantage over Salvador Nasralla, the former television presenter and candidate of the Liberal Party.
With 97% of votes counted, Asfura has 40.52% of the vote and Nasralla has 39.18%. Almost 40,000 votes separate the two candidates for president.
Given the repeated declines in the count and the advantage of his main opponent, Nasralla said this Monday on his X network account that “the system is rigged.”
For its part, the ruling Libre party called on Sunday afternoon for the “total annulment” of the elections and called for mobilizations, protests and strikes. At the same time, she called on government representatives not to cooperate with the change of government.
The research shows that its candidate and political successor to President Xiomara Castro, Rixi Moncada, is in third place with 19.32% of the vote, far from the two main opponents.
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