Juan Orlando Hernández, a member of the Nasry Asfuras party, a candidate supported by Trump, is serving a sentence for drug trafficking in the United States.
Washington, DC United States President Donald Trump announced that he would pardon former Honduran leader Juan Orlando Hernández, just days before the hotly contested presidential election in the Central American country.
Friday's announcement came two days before Honduras' vote, in which Trump endorsed conservative National Party candidate Nasry Tito Asfura.
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Hernández was the party's last elected presidential candidate and served as president from 2014 to 2022. Last year, he was sentenced to 45 years in prison in the United States after being extradited from Honduras on drug trafficking charges.
In an article on Truth Social, Trump said Hernandez was treated very harshly and unfairly. He cited many people that I respect greatly.
Trump also once again threw his support behind Asfura, who faces four opponents in a scandal-plagued race. No favorite has yet clearly emerged.
He added that a loss for Asfura would result in a breakdown in U.S. support for the country, which stands at around 11 million people, echoing a similar threat he made to Javier Milei before Argentina's presidential election in October.
If he doesn't win, the United States won't spend much money, because a bad leader can only bring catastrophic results to any country, Trump wrote.
The American president and several right-wing figures have already accused Rixi Moncada, the candidate of the left-wing FREE party of outgoing President Xiomara Castros, as well as Salvador Nasralla, of the center-right Liberal Party, of being in the pocket of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Both candidates have rejected the claims, which come as Trump has increased pressure against Maduro. This has included increasing US military assets in the region and launching possible ground operations.
Conviction for drug trafficking
Despite Trump's statements, the decision to pardon Hernandez sits uneasily with his administration's commitments to targeting drug cartels and narcotics smuggling into the United States.
This has included designating several cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and launching strikes against suspected drug traffickers in international waters. Rights groups said the attacks amounted to extrajudicial killings and likely violated domestic and international law.
During his trial, prosecutors accused Hernández of working with powerful cartels to smuggle more than 400 tons of cocaine en route to the United States. This included ties to the Mexico-based Sinaloa Cartel, one of the criminal groups designated by the Trump administration as terrorists.
Hernandez allegedly relied on millions of dollars in bribes from cartels to fuel his political rise.
At the time of his sentencing, former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Hernández used his presidency to run the country like a narco-state where violent drug traffickers were allowed to operate with impunity, and the people of Honduras and the United States were forced to suffer the consequences.
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