A former Honduran president convicted of helping smuggle 400 tons of cocaine into the United States has been released from prison. He was pardoned by President Donald Trumphis wife said Tuesday.
Juan Orlando Hernandez He was released from a West Virginia prison on Monday and was “a free man again,” his wife announced on social media. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons website showed the release of a man matching Hernandez’s name and age.
Mr Trump’s controversial apology came as the US president issued the same order bombardment of ships They were allegedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean. It also provides strong support for a candidate from Hernandez’s party in the presidential race in Honduras. election vote counting.
Mr. Trump explained his decision in social networks “According to a lot of people I respect a lot,” Hernández was “treated very harshly and unfairly,” he posted.
Hernandez was tried in US courts in March last year for conspiracy to import cocaine He joined the U.S. He served two terms as leader of the Central American nation of approximately 10 million people. Hernández is appealing his conviction and sentence at the US Penitentiary in Hazelton, West Virginia.
After Mr. Trump’s announcement, Hernandez’s wife and children gathered on the steps of Tegucigalpa and knelt in prayer, thanking God that Hernandez would return to their family after nearly four years apart.
It was the same house that the Honduran authorities took out a few months after leaving office in 2022. He was extradited to the United States for trial.
Elmer Martinez/AP 
Trump’s pardon drew criticism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana criticized the pardon, saying on social media Sunday: “Why would we pardon (Hernandez) and then go after Maduro for bringing drugs into the US? Lock up all the drug dealers! Don’t understand why he’s being pardoned.”
“This is amazing,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, he said apologetically On “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
“He was convicted in a US federal court,” said Kaine, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere. “One of the pieces of evidence was a statement taken by those close to him, saying he wanted to put drugs under the noses of gringos and flood the United States with over 400 tons of cocaine. He was the leader of one of the largest criminal enterprises ever convicted in US courts, and the fact that President Trump pardoned him less than a year ago suggests that drug trafficking is probably being sold by this White House now.
Mr Trump defended the move by reporters on Air Force One on Sunday, saying: “A lot of people in Honduras said it was a Biden setup … He was the president of the country, and basically they said he was a drug dealer because he was the president of the country. And they said it was a setup by the Biden administration, and I looked at the facts and I agreed with them.”
Asked what evidence he had seen to suggest Hernandez’s case was a set-up, Mr Trump said: “You take any country you want, if somebody sells drugs in that country, that doesn’t mean you arrest the president and put him in prison for the rest of his life.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday that it was a “clear over-accusation” of Biden, citing “tremendous” information in Hernandez’s trial.