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The President of the United States, Donald Trump, announced this Friday his decision to grant clemency to former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who is serving a 45-year prison sentence for drug trafficking in a federal facility in West Virginia.
The announcement comes just two days before the presidential elections in Honduras, where Trump has expressed his support for the right-wing candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura from the National Party, the political party that Hernández led until his arrest.
"I will grant a total and complete pardon to former president Juan Orlando Hernández, who has been treated with great harshness and injustice," Trump wrote on his Truth Social network, where in the same post he criticized the regimes of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, calling them narco-terrorist states.
Trump did not specify the exact date he would sign the pardon decree nor the conditions under which it would be applied, although he stated that “the decision will be immediate” if Asfura emerges victorious in Sunday’s elections.
Juan Orlando Hernández, 57 years old, was the president of Honduras from 2014 to 2022, and for years was regarded as one of Washington's key allies in Central America in the fight against drug trafficking.
In June 2024, he was sentenced by a court in New York to 45 years in prison and a fine of eight million dollars, after being found guilty of conspiring to traffic cocaine and possessing military-grade weapons.
U.S. prosecutors argued that Hernández led the country as a “narco-state”, receiving millions of dollars in bribes from cartels in exchange for political and police protection.
"I have always worked alongside the United States in the fight against drug trafficking," Hernández stated during his trial, in remarks gathered by the BBC.
The announcement of the pardon has generated mixed reactions in Honduras and the region, especially as Trump boasts about fighting drug trafficking in the Caribbean.
While sectors of the National Party celebrated the decision as “an act of justice and reconciliation,” critics of Trump labeled the announcement as “a direct interference in the Honduran electoral process”.
The American president took the opportunity in his post to publicly endorse Nasry “Tito” Asfura, former mayor of Tegucigalpa and presidential candidate from the center-right.
"If Tito Asfura wins the presidency, the United States will provide significant support. If he does not win, we will not waste our money on the wrong leaders," Trump wrote.
The leader added that Asfura is “the only true friend of freedom” and warned that “the communists are trying to take over Honduras as they did with Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.”
The announcement by Trump, so close to the elections, has been interpreted as a calculated political gesture to strengthen Washington's influence in Central America and reward the loyalty of former allies, despite their legal histories.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro criticized the decision, stating that "pardoning a drug trafficker is demoralizing for those of us who have risked our lives fighting against drug trafficking."
"Trump said he would like to destroy 'cocaine factories'; we destroy an average of 9 labs per day. I invite President Trump to visit my country, and together we can destroy cocaine factories. He will be able to see and feel the fight against drug trafficking in person," he asserted on his X profile.
If it materializes, Hernández —who is serving a sentence until 2060— could be released in the coming days, an event that would signify a drastic shift in relations between both countries.
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