What was the Honduran president accused of and why did Trump pardon him?

Juan Orlano Hernández, the former president of Honduras, walked free after President Donald Trump was previously described in a place with more than 400 tons of cocaine.

Trump said that Hernández, who was sentenced to 45 years in prison by a US court, was a victim of political persecution and was very unfair.

The pardon surprised some experts, given the severity of the crime and the administration’s promised crackdown on illegal drugs flowing into the US.

Here’s a look at Hernández’s career and crimes, and why Trump might be pardoning him.

Hernández first ran for President of Honduras, a country of 10 million people, in 2013 as the candidate for the conservative national party. He ran again in 2017, in an election marred by allegations of fraud and violent protests.

Throughout his two terms, he maintained a cordial relationship with the US. Former President Barack Obama called him one of the “very good partners” in the migrant crisis, and Trump supported him as the winner of the 2017 vote.

But Herández’s fortunes began to unravel in 2019.

He was accused by US Federal Prosecutors of accepting a $1M bribe from the famous drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” in his first campaign for the presentation of narcotics precautions.

The allegations surfaced in a separate case involving his brother Juan Antonio “Hernández, who was arrested in Miami in 2018 on charges of smuggling cocaine to the US. At the time, the then-President denied any involvement in his brother’s crimes.

Tony Hernández was convicted in 2019 and sentenced to life in prison.

But the end of his brother’s trial only marked the beginning of the ex-president’s legal troubles.

Shortly after leaving office in 2022, he was arrested and deported to the US on drug-trafficking and weapons charges.

The Federal Histeral of Hernández lasted three weeks in 2024.

US prosecutors argued that he was a central figure in a more than 18-year-old drug scheme that destroyed 500 tons of individual doses.

“The people of Honduras and the United States are bearing the consequences,” said then-Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Prosecutors detailed how Hernández was abused by protecting drug dealers armed with machine guns and grenade launchers. In return, he received millions of dollars to fuel his political campaigns.

Several branches of the State were involved, including the Honduran National Police, which protected cocaine shipments as they moved through Honduras to the US for distribution, prosecutors said.

In some cases, drug traffickers related to Hernández have committed violent crimes and murders to shut down rival gangs and grow their business, they said.

During the sentencing, Hernández insisted that he was the victim of “political persecution”.

“Prosecutors and agents did not do due diligence in the investigation to learn the full truth,” he wrote in a letter after his conviction.

Trump announced the pardon on Friday in a social media post, writing that, according to “many people I respect”, Hernández was unfairly treated by prosecutors.

In the same post, he also endorsed Tito Asfura for President of Honduras ahead of Sunday’s election. Asfura is running under the same National Party ticket as Hernández.

As of Tuesday, preliminary results showed the election was too close to call, forcing a one-handed recount of ballots.

Trump’s endorsement of Asfura did not surprise many, given the right-leaning ideological alignment of the National Party Party in the current US administration.

Trump also weighed in on the politics of other countries in the western hemisphere, such as Brazil and Argentina.

“We see the President’s attraction to leaders that he sees as favored by certain interests in his administration,” said Itles-President of the ADLAntic Council Latin America Center.

But the decision to pardon Hernández at the same time surprised some experts.

“It’s hard for me to believe, because there is such an overwhelming case against Hernández,” said Michael Shifter, an adjunces professor at the Center at Georgetown University.

Mr Shifter added that what he found most puzzling was the “contradiction” between the amnesty and the declared policy of clamping down on drug trafficking.

Trump has often promised to curb the flow of drugs into the US, and has touted controversial strikes on boats in Venezuela that his administration says are piloted by drug traffickers.

More than 80 people have been killed in several strikes in the Caribbean Sea since early September.

At the White House Briefing on Monday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt pointed out that the charges against Hernández were tainted by corrupt “over-premandution” under President Biden.

Asked if the pardon undermined the US president’s campaign against “Narco-terrorists” on the American continent, Leavitt said “the Underlets’ Goal” of the Department of Justice under Biden.

“I think President Trump has been very clear in defending the homeland of the United States to stop illegal narcotics from coming across our borders whether by land or by sea,” Leavitt added.

The US Media Axios reported that Hernández wrote a four-page letter in October that praised President Trump, and requested a review of his case “.

In the letter, he reportedly recalled the working relationship that he and Trump had in the first term in the United States, because the Biden-Harris that sought an agenda in the Policen of Honduras in Honduras “.

The outlet also reported that Roger Stone, a lobbyist and longtime teacher of Trump, told the US president that a pardon would be for Hernández to lead the national party ahead of the Honduran elections.

Trump later told reporters on Sunday that he believed the prosecution of the ex-President was a setup by Biden.

Mr. Marczak of the Atlantic Council noted that the prosecution of Hernández was the result of an independent investigation by the US Justice.

But he added that the decision to pardon Hernández is consistent with “the willingness of the Trump administration to question the decisions made during the Biden Prisid”.