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- author, Juan Francisco Alonso
- scroll, BBC World News
Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, sentenced to 45 years in prison for drug trafficking in the United States, may be released.
the reason? The President of the United States, Donald Trump, announced on Friday (11/28) that he would pardon the former president, considering that he was “treated very harshly and unfairly,” as he wrote on his “Truth Social” website.
The moment chosen to grant a presidential pardon to the Central American politician, who was declared guilty by a New York court in June 2024, draws attention.
First, the announcement came less than 48 hours before elections in Honduras that will determine the successor to leftist Xiomara Castro — an opportunity Trump did not miss. The Republican also announced his support for Nasri “Tito” Asfoura, the right-wing National Party candidate and an ally of Hernandez.
Moreover, the fact that Trump pardoned a politician accused of smuggling about 500 tons of cocaine into the United States is surprising, especially since in recent weeks Washington sent part of its naval forces to the coasts of the Caribbean Sea to curb drug trafficking and sank about 20 suspected speedboats, killing more than 80 people.
Prosecutors who took Hernandez to the dock accused him of turning Honduras into a “drug state” and profiting from it, accusations the politician described as “slander.”
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Meteoric career
Before becoming the first former head of state convicted of drug trafficking in the United States since Panama’s Manuel Noriega, in 1992, Hernandez had already broken other records. In 2014, he became the country’s youngest president since 1980, and in 2017, the first president to be re-elected in decades.
The story of the politician known in Honduras with the initials JOH began on October 28, 1968, in the city of Gracias, Lempira Province, where he grew up as the 15th of 17 children.
After completing his studies at the Liceo Militar del Norte, in San Pedro Sula, he studied law at the National University of Honduras.
At the university, he began his political career, heading the Student Association between 1988 and 1989.
After graduating, he began working in the First Secretariat of Congress as an assistant to his brother Marcos Augusto, then as a deputy – and there he began to build his networks in the powerful National Party.
After completing public administration studies at the State University of New York (USA), he ran for the position of Lempira MP, a position he held for four terms from 1998 onwards.
In 2010, he assumed the presidency of Congress during the government of Porfirio Lobo, where he promoted a security and tough agenda against organized crime, which secured him support from conservative and business sectors.
In 2012, he won the National Party primary, and the following year he won the presidential election.
“I am Juan Orlando Hernández and I come from the lands of the invincible leader Lempira; with the support of the people, I am the President of Honduras,” he announced during his inauguration ceremony on January 27, 2014.
During political campaigns and events, this association with the indigenous leader was often evoked.
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Troubled management
Hernandez took office promising “to do whatever I have to do to restore peace and tranquility to my people,” who were then affected by high levels of violence linked to drug trafficking.
Organized crime has infiltrated many institutions and increased the homicide rate, making Honduras the most violent country in the world in the past decade, according to the United Nations.
Hernandez’s willingness to extradite drug trafficking suspects to the United States, and some reforms in the security services, were signs of his determination to moralize the country.
However, suspicions about his gang ties exploded when his brother — former congressman Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernandez — was arrested in Miami in 2018 by federal agents and charged with trafficking.
He said before Congress in 2021, after his brother was sentenced to life imprisonment and evidence accumulated against him: “I was not and will not be a friend of any of these criminals, and I will continue my struggle until the last day of my government, whatever the cost.”
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If that wasn’t enough, allegations of misappropriation of Social Security funds sparked mass demonstrations demanding his resignation.
The decision not to renew the mandate of the Anti-Corruption and Impunity Support Mission in Honduras (MACCIH), which was created in agreement with the Organization of American States (OAS), worsened its image.
However, the politician sought a second term, although the Constitution prohibits immediate re-election. The re-election bid of his rival Manuel Zelaya was used as justification for his ouster in 2009.
A controversial Supreme Court ruling allowed Hernandez to run in the election that the Organization of American States had requested to be returned, claiming that irregularities made it “impossible to determine the winner with the necessary degree of certainty.”
His re-election announcement sparked a new wave of protests, which were violently suppressed and left at least 23 people dead, according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The OAS request was ignored, and Hernandez remained in office until 2022.
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Playing for two teams?
In February 2022, just days after leaving the presidency, Hernandez was arrested, and weeks later extradited to the United States to face drug trafficking charges.
“He paved a highway to transport cocaine to the United States, protected by machine guns,” prosecutors said.
Gone are the days when Washington was considered a reliable ally in the war against drugs, providing more than $50 million in aid and military assistance. In 2019, Trump himself thanked him for his cooperation.
Although allies of Trump and Hernandez say he was treated unfairly by Democrat Joe Biden’s government, the investigations began during the Trump administration.
During the investigation, prosecutors discovered that Hernandez had had ties to drug traffickers since at least 2004 — long before he became president — and had facilitated the shipment of about 500 tons of cocaine to the United States.
With the help of phone records and statements from judicial cooperators, investigators concluded that drug dealers paid millions of dollars in bribes to allow drugs to be shipped, “with virtual impunity.”
Prosecutors stated that the alliance with the cartels was not only aimed at “enrichment,” but also “to remain in power (…) in a corrupt manner.”
According to the accusation, the politician used the money he obtained from drug traffickers to bribe the authorities and manipulate the presidential elections he ran in his favor.
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Hernandez denied all the accusations and claimed that he was “wrongly and unfairly accused.”
But the evidence and testimony presented in court contradicted his story.
“We are going to put drugs in the faces of foreigners,” he allegedly told drug trafficker Giovanni Fuentes Ramírez, according to a witness report.
Another defendant, former Mayor Alexander Ardon, claimed that he handed over millions of dollars to both Hernandez and former President Lobo to ensure free routes for transporting cocaine.
Ardon estimates that, with the help of Honduran authorities, he was able to move about 250 tons of cocaine — in partnership with Tony Hernandez, the former president’s brother, and Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, both of whom have been sentenced to life in prison in the United States.
In June 2024, Judge Kevin Castel sentenced the former president to nearly half a century in prison and imposed a fine of US$8 million.
But Hernandez’s legal troubles are not limited to the United States. In Honduras, shortly after his extradition, courts confiscated 33 properties, eight companies and 16 vehicles linked to him, according to the Public Ministry.
It now remains to be seen when the former president will be formally pardoned and released, and whether he will return to Honduras to resume his political career.