Trump says will pardon former Honduras leader before presidential vote

Just days before the country’s sparsely contested presidential election, US President Donald Trump announced he would pardon former Honduran leader Juan Orlando Hernandez.

Two days before Honduras’ vote, Trump announced that he would support conservative National Party candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura.

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Hernandez served as president from 2014 to 2022, the party’s final successful presidential candidate. He was extradited from Honduras on suspicion of drug trafficking and served a 45-year sentence in the US last year.

Trump claimed that Hernandez has been “treated very harshly and unfairly” in a Truth Social post. He cited “many people that I a great fan of.”

Trump once more pledged his support for Asfura, who faces four opponents in the scandal-hit race. There is still no known clear winner.

He added that Asfura’s loss would cause the nation’s estimated 11 million people to lose, a similar threat he made in support of Javier Milei before Argentina’s election for president in October.

A wrong leader can only cause catastrophic outcomes for a nation, regardless of the country, according to Trump, “because the United States will not be throwing good money after bad money after bad money.”

Former US presidents Salvador Nasralla of the centre-right Liberal Party and Rixi Moncada, the candidate for Xiomara Castro’s left-leaning LIBRE party, have previously been accused of supporting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by the US president and several prominent right-wing figures.

The accusations, which come as Trump continues to exert pressure on Maduro, have been refuted by both candidates. That included launching potential land operations and sending US military assets there with surges.

conviction for drug trafficking

Trump’s statements contrast in stark contrast with his administration’s commitments to stop drug cartels and stop narcotic trafficking into the US, according to Trump’s pardon.

Among those initiatives were the designation of several cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations” and the launching of strikes against alleged drug smugglers in international waters. According to rights organizations, the attacks likely violate both domestic and international law because they equate to extrajudicial killings.

Hernandez was charged with conspiring with powerful cartels to smuggle more than 400 tonnes of cocaine into the US during his trial. That included connections to the Sinaloa cartel, one of the criminal organizations that the Trump administration has labeled “terrorists” in Mexico.

Hernandez allegedly benefited from cartel bribes worth millions of dollars to advance his political ambitions.