Honduras ex-president leaves prison after Trump pardon of drug conviction

Former Honduras president Juan Orlando Hernández, sentenced last year to 45 years in prison for his role in a drug trafficking operation that moved hundreds of tons of cocaine to the United States, was released from prison following a pardon from President Donald Trump, officials confirmed Tuesday.

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons inmate website showed that Hernández was released from U.S. Penitentiary, Hazelton in West Virginia on Monday, and a spokesperson for the bureau on Tuesday confirmed his release.

His wife Ana García thanked Trump for pardoning Hernández via the social platform X early Tuesday.

“After almost four years of pain, of waiting and difficult challenges, my husband Juan Orlando Hernández RETURNED to being a free man, thanks to the presidential pardon granted by President Donald Trump,” García’s post said. She included a picture of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons listing for Hernández indicating his release.

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Trump, who has painted himself as a warrior against illegal drugs, was asked Sunday why he pardoned Hernández by reporters traveling with him on Air Force One.

“I was asked by Honduras, many of the people of Honduras,” Trump said.

“The people of Honduras really thought he was set up, and it was a terrible thing,” he said.

“They basically said he was a drug dealer because he was the president of the country. And they said it was a Biden administration set-up,” Trump said. “And I looked at the facts and I agreed with them.”

The U.S. president has cited the dangers of illegal drug flows from Latin America as justification for a series of U.S. attacks on boats in the Caribbean and a military buildup near Venezuela.

1:35 Trump escalates tensions with Venezuela’s Maduro

Hernández’s attorney Renato Stabile said in an emailed statement he could not share the former president’s current location. He added that Hernández is glad the “ordeal” is over.

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“On behalf of President Hernández and his family I would like to thank President Trump for correcting this injustice,” Stabile said.

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Hernández was arrested at the request of the United States in February 2022, weeks after current President Xiomara Castro took office.

Two years later, Hernández was sentenced to 45 years in prison in a New York federal courtroom for taking bribes from drug traffickers so they could safely move some 400 tons (360 metric tons) of cocaine north through Honduras to the United States.

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Hernández maintained throughout that he was innocent and the victim of revenge by drug traffickers he had helped extradite to the United States.

During his sentencing, federal Judge P. Kevin Castel said the punishment should serve as a warning to “well educated, well dressed” individuals who gain power and think their status insulates them from justice when they do wrong.

Hernández portrayed himself as a hero of the anti-drug trafficking movement who teamed up with American authorities under three U.S. presidential administrations to reduce drug imports.

But the judge said trial evidence proved the opposite and that Hernández employed “considerable acting skills” to make it seem that he strongly opposed drug trafficking while he deployed his nation’s police and military to protect the drug trade.

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Honduras became a global hub for cocaine exports after a 2009 coup created political instability and allowed drug cartels to gain influence. The poverty-stricken country of around 11 million became one of the most violent places on earth as rival groups fought to control trafficking routes.

During Hernández’s presidency from 2014 to 2022, hundreds of thousands of Hondurans fled extortion and gang violence by migrating to the United States.

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Hernández is not guaranteed a quick return to Honduras.

Immediately after Trump announced his intention to pardon Hernández, Honduras Attorney General Johel Zelaya said via X that his office was obligated to seek justice and put an end to impunity.

He did not specify what charges Hernández could face in Honduras. There were various corruption-related investigations of his administration across two terms in office that did not lead to charges against him. Castro, who oversaw Hernández’s arrest and extradition to the U.S., will remain in office until January.

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The pardon promised by Trump days before Honduras’ presidential election injected a new element into the contest that some said helped the candidate from his National Party, Nasry Asfura, as the vote count proceeded Tuesday.

Trump endorsed Asfura in a Truth Social post on Friday and described two of his rivals as controlled by Venezuela’s leader Nicholas Maduro.

“Will Maduro and his Narcoterrorists take over another country like they have taken over Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela?” Trump wrote. “The man who is standing up for Democracy, and fighting against Maduro, is Tito Asfura, the Presidential Candidate of the National Party.”

Catalini reported from Trenton, New Jersey. Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington, D.C., contributed. Additional files from Reuters