The former Honduran president, Juan Orlando Hernández, who was serving a 45-year sentence in the United States on three drug trafficking charges, was released this week after receiving a pardon from U.S. President Donald Trump, who had announced the pardon shortly before Sunday's elections in Honduras.
During his trial, Hernández claimed that the U.S. justice system had allied with drug traffickers who falsely accused him in revenge because his government approved extradition to the United States.
Hernández was sentenced on June 26, 2024, after being extradited to New York on April 21, 2022, three months after leaving the Honduran presidency following two consecutive terms.
On June 26, 2024, he received the 45-year sentence, becoming the first former Honduran president to be sentenced for drug trafficking in the United States. His brother, former Congressman Juan Antonio 'Tony' Hernández, is also serving a life sentence there for drug trafficking.
The wear and tear of twelve years in power of the National Party, the first four with Porfirio Lobo, weighed on the 2021 general elections, which were won by Xiomara Castro of the Liberty and Refoundation Party (Libre, left). This party now denounces the 'interference' by Trump with the pardon for Hernández and the request for support for Asfura.
His wife, Ana García, unsuccessfully attempted to be the National Party's presidential candidate for last Sunday's elections in Honduras.
Nasralla accused Hernández of stealing the elections, which he also alleged in the 2013 elections when he was at the head of the Anti-Corruption Party.
Additionally, in December 2023, a judge in Tegucigalpa issued an arrest warrant against Hernández for not appearing before justice for a case of alleged corruption, known as 'Pandora,' which also implicated former President Porfirio Lobo and other officials for the crimes of fraud and violation of official duties.
Hernández had not even been out of power for three weeks—he left office on January 27, 2022—when he was arrested at his residence in Tegucigalpa in response to a U.S. extradition request, which was finalized in April of that year.
'A long political life'
Before being head of state of Honduras, the 57-year-old Hernández was president of the Congress, in the period 2010-2014.
Trump announced last Friday that he would be granting the pardon to Hernández because he had been treated, 'according to many people whom I enormously respect,' 'very severely and very unfairly.'
Trump justified the pardon by ensuring that the government of now former President Joe Biden had 'set a trap' for Hernández, who in a letter addressed to the U.S. leader, among praises, recalled the bilateral collaboration of both countries during his first term.
In the trial in New York, Hernández was also accused of having received money from Mexican drug trafficker Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán to finance electoral fraud in exchange for participating in a conspiracy that introduced more than 500 tons of cocaine into the country.
For the 2017 elections, Hernández sought re-election, based on an interpretation by Supreme Court magistrates that disregarded the Constitution, which prohibits presidential re-election under any modality.
His second re-election was widely questioned as fraudulent, as the Honduran Constitution does not permit it.
In November 2013, he won the elections under the banner of the National Party among opposition allegations of alleged fraud.
At the same time, he reiterated his support for Sunday's elections for the conservative candidate Nasry 'Tito' Asfura, of the National Party, the same party as Hernández, by promising that 'there will be a lot of support' for the Central American country if that politician wins.
Handcuffed, as he was when arrested at the gate of his house, he was transferred by plane to the United States, where he reiterated his innocence of all the charges against him.
