Trump announced an act of clemency for the former president in a post on the Truth Social platform. The US president also called on Hondurans to vote in the elections presidential elections on November 30 for the National Party candidate, Tito Asfura, a former party colleague of Hernandez.
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Why does Donald Trump want to pardon the former president of Honduras?
What charges were brought against Juan Orlando Hernandez?
When are the presidential elections in Honduras?
What does Trump think about the future of Honduras?
“I will grant a full pardon to former President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who according to many people I respect, he was treated very harshly and unfairly. This cannot be allowed to happen, especially now, after Tito Asfura's election victory, when Honduras will be heading towards Great Political and Financial Success,” Trump wrote.
Trump wants to pardon the former president of Honduras
Hernandez was arrested in 2022 at his home in Tegucigalpa and extradited to the US, where he was arrested two years later sentenced to 45 years in prison for complicity in drug smuggling. According to the court, the politician allegedly accepted millions of dollars in bribes from gangsters from the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel in exchange for protecting smugglers from law enforcement. His brother and former Member of Parliament Tony Hernandez, convicted in 2019, was also allegedly involved in the operation.
Hernandez was the first former foreign head of state to be convicted in a U.S. court since former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega, also convicted of drug smuggling.
The pardon comes at a time when the US military, on President Trump's orders, is taking decisive action against drug smugglers in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific.. The US administration is also threatening a land offensive against President Nicolas Maduro, accused by the American authorities of leading a drug cartel.
Supporting the presidential candidate of Hernandez's former party, Trump announced that if the conservative Asfura wins, Washington will strongly support Honduras. However, he threatened that otherwise, the US will withhold financial aid to this country, because – as he declared – “a bad leader can only bring disastrous results to a country, no matter what country it is.”
In earlier online posts, Donald Trump claimed that if the leftist candidate from the LIBRE party, Rixi Moncada, wins the presidential election, Honduras will become a state controlled by Venezuela — “Maduro and his narco-terrorists.”
