Trump says will pardon former Honduras leader before presidential vote | Donald Trump News

Juan Orlando Hernandez, a member of Trump-backed candidate Nasri Asfura’s party, is serving a U.S. drug trafficking sentence.

Washington DC – United States President Donald Trump says he will pardon former Honduras leader Juan Orlando Hernandez, just days before the Central American country’s presidential election.

The announcement Friday came two days before Honduras voted in which Trump has endorsed conservative National Party candidate Naciri “Tito” Asfura.

Hernández was the party’s last successful presidential candidate and served as president from 2014 to 2022. Last year, he was sentenced to 45 years in prison in the US after being extradited from Honduras on drug trafficking charges.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said Hernandez “has been treated very harshly and unfairly”. He cited “several people I respect very much”.

Trump also again threw his support behind Asfura, who faces four opponents in the scandal-plagued race. No clear contender has emerged yet.

He said Asfura’s defeat would lead to a reduction in US support for the country of about 11 million, a similar threat he had made in support of Javier Meili before Argentina’s presidential election in October.

“If he doesn’t win, the United States will no longer throw good money after bad money, because a wrong leader can only bring disastrous results to a country, no matter what country it is,” Trump wrote.

The US President and several right-wing figures have previously accused Rixi Moncada, a candidate from outgoing President Xiomara Castro’s left-leaning LIBRE party, as well as Salvador Nasralla of the center-right Liberal Party, of being in the pocket of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Both candidates have rejected the claims, which come as Trump has stepped up pressure against Maduro. This includes increasing US military assets in the region and potentially launching land operations.

drug trafficking conviction

Despite Trump’s statements, the decision to pardon Hernandez sits uncomfortably with his administration’s promise to target drug cartels and drug trafficking in the US.

This includes designating several cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations” and launching attacks on alleged drug traffickers in international waters. Rights groups have said that these attacks amount to extrajudicial killings and likely violate both domestic and international law.

During his trial, prosecutors accused Hernandez of working with powerful cartels to smuggle more than 400 tons of cocaine en route to the United States. This included ties to the Mexico-based Sinaloa Cartel, one of the criminal groups designated as “terrorist” by the Trump administration.

Hernandez reportedly relied on millions of dollars in cartel bribes to finance his political rise.

At his sentencing, former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said that Hernández used his presidency to “run the country as a narco-state, where violent drug traffickers were allowed to operate with virtual impunity, and the people of Honduras and the United States were forced to suffer the consequences.”