By pardoning drug traffickers and threatening Venezuela, Trump exposes his contradictions

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Less than 24 hours ago, the Republican announced on social media that he would grant a full pardon to former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, convicted in the United States of drug smuggling, in a decision considered a major victory for the authorities in a case against a former head of state. The pardon has not yet been officially granted.

The two publications revealed a marked dissonance in the president’s strategy, which sought to intensify the military campaign against drug trafficking while ordering the release of a man who, according to prosecutors, accepted “bribes from cocaine trafficking” and “protected drugs with all the authority and power of the state – the army, the police and the judiciary.” In fact, prosecutors claimed that, for years, Hernandez allowed cocaine packages from Venezuela to pass through Honduras on their way to the United States.

Democratic Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine called the pardon “unacceptable” and said Trump’s actions were further evidence of the “false narrative” surrounding his drug strategy.

He added: “This completely undermines the government’s claim that it actually cares about drug trafficking, and raises questions about what is really going on in the operation in Venezuela.”

Conflicting justifications

The Trump administration has struggled to provide a clear strategic justification for building such a large military presence in the Caribbean. The president often referred to anti-drug trafficking operations, but the size of US forces in the region indicates greater ambitions. In private conversations, Trump has expressed interest in Venezuela’s oil reserves, while he and his advisers have also said they want to remove President Nicolas Maduro.

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Trump said in a statement that he granted Hernandez the pardon because “many friends” asked him to do so, adding: “They gave him 45 years because he was the president of the country — you can do that to any president, in any country.” (After leaving office, Trump was convicted of 34 counts of forging business documents, related to a refund of a payment made to porn actress Stormy Daniels to cover up a sex scandal during the 2016 presidential election.)

“By strengthening border security and combatting narco-terrorists who traffic drugs to kill Americans, the President has undoubtedly done more than anyone else to address the scourge of wrongful drug deaths,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement.

In recent weeks, senior officials have made clear that the government is focusing on combating drug cartels in the Caribbean and South America.

“We will ensure that the American people are safe and protected from transnational organized crime,” Stephen Miller, a senior Trump adviser, told reporters earlier this month. Venezuela is controlled by a terrorist drug network that smuggles drugs, weapons, and people into the United States.

Just over two hours after Trump’s pardon of Hernandez was announced, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on social media: “We’re just getting started on killing drug terrorists.”

In recent months, the United States has strengthened its military presence in the Caribbean, as part of a campaign aimed primarily, according to the government, at stopping the flow of drugs in the region. The US military has launched nearly two dozen attacks since early September against ships it says were transporting drugs to the United States, killing more than 80 people. But the government has not yet provided detailed evidence for these allegations.

Hernandez was convicted of conspiring to smuggle 400 tons of cocaine into the United States and was pardoned, said Tommy Vietor, former National Security Council spokesman under Barack Obama and current host of the liberal podcast “Pod Save America.” – Meanwhile, these unidentified individuals, who may or may not be poachers or drug dealers, we don’t really know, are being murdered on the high seas. This policy is ridiculous and blatantly illegal.

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Trump has also put intense pressure on Maduro, Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, accusing him of being the head of a drug trafficking organization called the Cartel de los Soles, although experts on criminal law and drug trafficking in Latin America say it is not a real organization. Trump has also authorized covert CIA work in Venezuela, and several U.S. officials privately say their goal is to oust Maduro.

The president’s decision to pardon Hernandez shocked officials in Honduras and the United States. Prosecutors asked a judge to confirm that Hernandez, 57, died in prison, citing his abuse of power, his ties to violent drug dealers and the “unfathomable destruction” caused by cocaine. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison, and his conviction was part of a broader drug trafficking case in which several former drug traffickers testified as witnesses for the prosecution.

Hernandez’s family tried to portray his conviction as political persecution, seeking to gain Trump’s support. But much of the investigation took place during Trump’s first term, and one of the lead investigators in the case was Emil Boff III, then U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and later one of Trump’s personal lawyers. Trump appointed Boff as a senior official in the Department of Justice in his second term, before nominating him to serve as a judge on the Court of Appeals.

Ricardo Zuniga, former principal assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, said it was “pretty clear” Hernandez was involved in criminal activity during several U.S. administrations.