president of the United States, Donald TrumpIt was reported that the government of former President Joe Biden ‘set a trap’ Former President of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernandez This justified the decision to grant him a pardon, even though the former Honduran head of state received a conviction in 2024 in American courts on three counts of drug trafficking. The pardon announcement was made on Friday, but the president expanded his arguments on Sunday during a conversation with the press at the White House. Air Force One.
Trump confirmed that his conclusion came after an internal review. “The people of Honduras truly believed that they had been set up (…) a trap by the Biden administration, and I looked at the facts and agreed with them.”The president said.
The president avoided blaming Biden directly and directed his criticism at the team that accompanied the Democrat during his administration. Trump stated that Biden’s advisors were part of the alleged setupAlthough he did not mention specific names or positions. This accusation comes in a political context characterized by the Honduran elections that took place on Sunday, in which Trump renewed his support for the Honduran government. Nasri “Tito” AsfouraConservative candidate for the National Party.
The president expanded his position on the Hernandez case and questioned the reasons that led to the Honduran conviction. “If someone is selling drugs (in a country), it does not mean that the president should be arrested and imprisoned for life.”He mentioned. The phrase refers to allegations by the US Attorney’s Office, which linked the former president to activities related to drug trafficking since 2013.
Hernandez was extradited in April 2022, when he traveled from Tegucigalpa to New York to face charges in federal court. In March 2024, the judge imposed He was sentenced to 45 years in prison for crimes related to cocaine and weapons traffickingfollowed by five years of supervised release. The ruling was based on testimony and documents provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
The former Honduran president has appeared in judicial reports since 2019, when the Department of Justice submitted a file that mentioned his name to New York courts. The document was incorporated into the case against his brother. Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernandez AlvaradoHe was sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes related to shipping cocaine into the United States.
According to the Attorney General’s Office and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Juan Orlando Hernandez was part of a group of individuals investigated since the year he won the presidential election, on charges linked to operations related to the importation of cocaine into the territory of the United States. The accusation described contacts, political protection, and alleged alliances between criminal structures and figures close to the former president.
The pardon announced by Trump surprisingly modified the judicial status of the former Honduran president, although it did not change the background documented in the courts. The decision came without new evidence or additional reports being presented publicly that would change the basis of the penalty imposed in 2024.
(With information from EFE)