Image source, AFP via Getty Images
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- Author, Will Grant
- Author title, BBC News correspondent for Mexico, Central America and Cuba
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The wife of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was released from a US prison on Monday, said her husband will remain in the North American country for the time being because his safety is not guaranteed if he returns.
Ana Garcia de Hernandez told the BBC: “It is very dangerous for a former president to return in these circumstances, as what the (Xiumara Castro) government planted was this hate speech.”
He added, “We do not believe that there are circumstances that allow him to return at this time. (…) Our desire is to be here, but we also have to think about the best conditions for our family to overcome the trauma that we have experienced during the past four years.”
Hernandez, a member of the conservative National Party that ruled Honduras between 2014 and 2022, was being held in a West Virginia prison after he was sentenced in June 2024 to 45 years in prison as the leader of an organization that brought more than 400 tons of cocaine into the United States.
But a few days ago, he received a pardon from the president of that country, Donald Trump.
On his Truth Social website, the US President referred to his decision and claimed that Hernandez was “treated very harshly and unfairly.”
The message was published hours before Honduran voters go to the polls on Sunday to elect a new president who will take office on January 27.
Although the winner is still unknown, an examination of 69% of the tables shows a big difference between the nationalist Nasri Asfoura and the liberal Salvador Nasrallah. Official candidate Rexy Moncada fell to third place.
Ana Garcia de Hernandez stated that her husband’s return to Honduras would depend “above all on the security conditions guaranteed to him.” She confirmed that she and her family cannot enter the United States due to the cancellation of their visas, but they will begin procedures to lift that penalty and will be able to meet the former president.
Garcia also said that members of Trump’s MAGA movement (Make America great again“Let’s Make America Great Again”) championed her husband’s case and interceded with Trump himself for his release.
Garcia pointed out that the US President promised during the election campaign that he would “ensure that no one is persecuted by the state” and that he fulfilled his promise to his wife.
Additionally, he compared Hernandez’s situation to Trump’s, because they were both investigated by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and convicted “without evidence.”
Between disbelief and ecstasy
Image source, Getty Images
News of the pardon was greeted with a mixture of disbelief and resignation in Honduras, except for Hernández’s followers, who were jubilant.
The former president was convicted of importing cocaine and possessing “destructive devices” such as machine guns, according to the New York court that tried him.
Prosecutors alleged that Hernandez ran Honduras as a “narco-state” and accepted millions of dollars in bribes from drug traffickers to protect them from the law.
Hernandez pleaded his innocence in court and claimed that he was “wrongly and unjustly accused.”
According to his wife, the Honduran politician was tried without evidence, “with testimony based on gossip,” and that his conviction was part of “a scenario promoted by the left.”
Prosecutors accused him of associating with “some of the world’s largest drug traffickers to build a corrupt, violent, and brutal empire based on the illicit trafficking of tons of cocaine into the United States.”
Three months after leaving office, he was arrested and extradited to New York to face federal charges.
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