Donald Trump stormed the presidential campaign in Honduras on Friday by announcing that he would grant a full pardon to that country’s former president. Juan Orlando Hernandez, sentenced in the United States to 45 years in prison on cocaine and weapons trafficking charges. advertising, … It was formulated in Florida two days before elections in Honduras, and immediately turned into a political earthquake in Tegucigalpa and Washington.
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The wife of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, Ana Garcia (2-D), prays with her children Ana Daniela Hernández García (I), Isabella Hernández Garcia (2-D) and Juan Orlando Hernández García (D) during a press conference on Friday, in Tegucigalpa (Honduras)
The president highlights an unexpected element in the Honduran race: the intervention of the continent’s greatest power on behalf of a candidate and in defense of a former president convicted by the American judicial system. Trump, as he recently did with Argentina, conditions aid and support on the victory of the right-winger Tito Asvora, from the National Party.
Hernandez, who has now been pardoned, and from the same party, ruled Honduras between 2014 and 2022, and was arrested by Honduran police in February 2022 at the request of Washington, when Joe Biden was ruling. Less than two months later, he was extradited in an operation that included Drug Enforcement Administration agents. He was accused of building a protection system for major drug traffickers over years, receiving millions of dollars in bribes — including, according to prosecutors, one million provided by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán — and After he facilitated the shipment of at least 400 tons of cocaine towards the United States.
A federal jury convicted him in March 2024, and a judge sentenced him to 45 years in prison, which he is now serving.
The investigation, which was largely dropped during Trump’s first term, revealed… Although his extradition and trial took place during the Biden administration. It involved prosecutors from the Southern District of New York and federal agents who were following the trail of the Sinaloa Cartel in Central America. The case accelerated after the 2018 arrest of his brother, Juan Antonio Hernandez, in Miami. His trial revealed a network of payments, institutional protection, and the use of police and military forces to secure shipments that crossed Honduras toward Guatemala and Mexico.
Trump’s announcement, if confirmed, represents a complete reversal of the ruling that the Justice Department considered symbolic, which labeled Hernandez responsible for turning the country of Honduras into a protected corridor for cocaine trafficking.
Trump justified the pardon from a personal and political standpoint
“Juan Orlando Hernandez was treated with extreme cruelty and unfairness,” he said in a message on his social network. “I will give you complete and complete forgiveness.” He added in another message: “Congratulations on your upcoming pardon!” Let’s make Honduras great again!
Mar-a-Lago also stressed that the United States would be “very supportive” of Honduras if the candidate he supports wins, and that if he does not win, Washington will no longer invest its resources “in support of a bad leader.” He linked leftist candidate Rexy Moncada, who was Minister of Finance and Defense, to Chavismo and Castroism.
With these words, Trump opened a new diplomatic front and hinted that he would tie his future relationship with Honduras to the outcome of the elections. Honduras, a country with a population of 10.6 million, is one of the main sources of immigration to the United States, most of which is irregular. During the Biden years, about 200,000 Hondurans annually tried to enter the country.
Sunday’s elections come in a climate of deep institutional mistrust
There are three candidates with real options: Nasri “Tito” Asfora, former mayor of Tegucigalpa and central figure in the National Party; Moncada, candidate of the ruling Free Party; and Salvador Nasrallah, a television broadcaster running for the Liberal Party. The Electoral College has acknowledged the system’s shortcomings, and observers are warning of tensions and irregularities in this year’s primaries.
In this scenario, Trump explicitly sided with Asfoura. This is the second time this week that he has supported her. He presented it on Wednesday as the only option to prevent what he calls “narcoterrorism,” referring to the Honduran left, especially the circle of President Xiomara Castro and former President Manuel Zelaya. “Tito and I can work together to fight the drug communists and provide aid to Honduras,” he wrote.
Asfoura, who sought support in Washington, did not comment on the amnesty announcement. But representatives from his party celebrated Trump’s gesture They stressed that this measure “does not depend on the outcome of the elections.” Official candidate Rexy Moncada denounced those who “seek from abroad to revive criminals” and accused “financial elites” of “pulling the strings in Washington.”
Hernandez’s number dropped after multiple testimony — many from drug traffickers seeking reduced sentences — that described a bribery scheme, institutional manipulation and armed protection of his cocaine routes. The court that convicted him described his tenure as “one of the most severe examples of state corruption linked to drug trafficking” in the region.
Trump’s decision comes at a time when… His government is promoting a military operation in the Caribbean against drug trafficking. Since September, more than 80 people have been killed in attacks on ships that the United States claims were transporting drugs.