Honduran ex-president returns home to Honduras after Trump pardon ends his 45-year US drug sentence.
COMAYAGUA: Honduran ex-president Juan Orlando Hernandez returned to his home country on Sunday after President Donald Trump pardoned him last year from a 45-year US prison sentence for drug trafficking.
After touching down in a private plane near the capital Tegucigalpa, he travelled to a rally in Comayagua. Speaking at a farm in front of hundreds of supporters, Hernandez thanked Trump for the pardon.
“The most well-informed president in the world said: ‘I reviewed it, my team and I reviewed it in detail, and a tremendous injustice has been committed here; it is a witch hunt, it is the use of the justice system as a political weapon,'” Hernandez said.
He is due to appear in court on August 3 to face fraud and money-laundering charges, which he denies, claiming to be the continued victim of “persecution”. He is accused of diverting $2 million in public funds to finance his first presidential campaign. A judge suspended an arrest warrant against him after he agreed to appear voluntarily.
“The last thing I’m going to do is hang my head when the truth is on my side,” he said.
Hernandez led the Central American nation from 2014 to 2022, but was extradited shortly after leaving office by his left-leaning successor, Xiomara Castro, to face US drug trafficking charges. A US court found him guilty in 2024 of helping to smuggle hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States in alliance with cartel leaders, including Mexico’s Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
In a surprise move days before Honduras’s presidential election last year, Trump pardoned Hernandez and threatened to withhold aid if his ally Nasry Asfura did not win. Trump’s intervention sparked outcry and claims of foreign interference. The pardon also drew accusations of hypocrisy as Trump had recently launched a military campaign against drug traffickers in Latin America.
Upon granting the pardon, Trump claimed without evidence that Hernandez was “set up” by the administration of former US president Joe Biden.
“We are very happy and very excited” to welcome him back, said Eva Amador, 56, a supporter, as she held a banner thanking Trump.
Hernandez previously said he was returning “without any electoral ambitions” but left the door open if he sees “radicalism” returning to Honduras. His re-election in 2017 was marred by controversy over a Supreme Court decision allowing a consecutive term despite a constitutional ban, and widespread claims of irregularities. A crackdown on protests left around thirty people dead.
“His return with complete impunity and without punishment for those crimes is a tremendous slap in the face to the victims,” legal analyst Joaquin Mejia told AFP.
