President Donald Trump has announced his intention to grant a pardon to former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez on Friday. This decision comes despite Hernandez’s 2024 conviction for drug trafficking and weapons charges, which resulted in a 45-year prison sentence.

Explaining his rationale, President Trump took to social media, stating that individuals he holds in high regard believe Hernandez was “treated very harshly and unfairly.” This sentiment appears to have influenced his decision to extend the pardon.

Last March, Hernandez, who governed Honduras from 2014 to 2022, was found guilty in a U.S. court for his role in conspiring to smuggle 400 tons of cocaine into the United States. This conviction followed his extradition to the U.S., which occurred shortly after his departure from office as Xiomara Castro, a leftist leader, assumed the presidency.

During his tenure, Hernandez served as the head of the Central American nation, which has a population of approximately 10 million people, for two terms. His leadership and subsequent legal troubles have been a significant focus in the region.

He was extradited to the United States just weeks after leaving office, when the current president, leftist Xiomara Castro, came to power. 

Hernandez had served served two terms as the leader of the Central American nation of roughly 10 million people.

Hernandez has been appealing his conviction and serving time at the US Penitentiary, Hazelton in West Virginia.

Shortly after Trump’s announcement, Hernández´s wife and children gathered on the steps on their home in Tegucigalpa and kneeled in prayer, thanking God that Hernández would return to their family after almost four years apart.

President Donald Trump said that he will be pardoning former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez on Friday

In 2024 Hernandez was convicted for drug trafficking and weapons charges and sentenced to 45 years in prison

Trump posted about his pardon for former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez on Truth Social on Friday afternoon

It was the same home that Honduran authorities hauled him out of in 2022 just months after leaving office. He was extradited to the United States to stand trial.

García said they had just been able to speak with Hernández and tell him the news.

‘He still didn’t know of this news and believe me, when we shared it his voice broke with emotion,’ she said.

García thanked Trump, saying that Trump had corrected an injustice, maintaining that Hernández´s prosecution was a coordinated plot by drug traffickers and the ‘radical left’ to seek revenge against the former president.

She said they had not been told exactly when Hernández would return, but said ‘we hope that in the coming days.’

A lawyer for Hernandez, Renato C. Stabile, expressed gratitude for Trump’s actions.

‘A great injustice has been righted and we are so hopeful for the future partnership of the United States and Honduras,’ Stabile said. 

‘Thank you President Trump for making sure that justice was served. We look forward to President Hernandez’s triumphant return to Honduras.’

Ana Garcia de Hernandez, center, the wife of former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez, talks to the media during a press conference in Tegucigalpa on Friday

Ana García, center, wife of former Honduras’ President Juan Orlando Hernández and his daughters Daniela, left, and Isabela raise their fists in Honduras, after Donald Trump said he would pardon Hernández, who is serving a 45-year prison sentence 

The post was part of a broader message by Trump backing Nasry ‘Tito’ Asfura for Honduras’ presidency, with Trump saying the US would be supportive of the country if he wins. 

Asfura is the candidate of Hernandez’s right-wing party. Should he lose Sunday’s election this Sunday, Trump posted that ‘the United States will not be throwing good money after bad, because a wrong Leader can only bring catastrophic results to a country, no matter which country it is.’

Trump had endorsed Asfura earlier, but these latest comments went further, apparently conditioning future aid to Honduras on his victory.

Asfura, 67, is making his second run for president for the conservative National Party. 

He was mayor of Tegucigalpa and has pledged to solve Honduras’ infrastructure needs. But he has previously been accused of embezzling public funds, allegations that he denies.

In addition to Asfura, there are two other likely contenders for Honduras’ presidency:

Rixi Moncada , who served as the finance and later defense secretary before leaving to run for president for the incumbent democratic socialist Libre party, and Salvador Nasralla , a former television personality who is making his fourth bid for the presidency, this time as the candidate for the Liberal Party. 

 Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, second from right, is taken in handcuffs to a waiting aircraft as he is extradited to the United States, at an Air Force base in Honduras, in April 2022

Ana García, left, wife of former Honduras’ President Juan Orlando Hernández, listens to her daughter Daniela in Tegucigalpa, Honduras after hearing news of Trumps forthcoming pardon

Trump on Friday accused Nasralla, 72, of running as a spoiler candidate to draw votes away from Asfura.

Noting that Nasralla served as Castro’s vice president before resigning, Trump said he ‘is now pretending to be an anti-Communist only for the purposes of splitting Asfura’s vote.’

Trump also bashed Moncada, the political heir to Castro, as a ‘communist’ and said her victory would be a win for Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro ‘and his Narcoterrorists.’

Trump has framed Honduras’ election as trial for democracy, suggesting in a separate Truth Social post that if Asfura loses, the country could go the way of Venezuela and fall under the influence of that country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Trump has sought to apply pressure on Maduro, ordering a series of strikes against boats suspected of carrying drugs, building up the US military presence in the Caribbean with warships including the Navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford. 

The US president has not ruled out taking military action or covert action by the CIA against Venezuela, though he has also floated that he was open to speaking with Maduro. 

Outgoing Honduran President Xiomara Castro has leaned into a leftist stance, but she has kept a pragmatic and even cooperative attitude in dealing with the US administration and she has received visits from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and US Army Gen. Laura Richardson, when she was the commander of US Southern Command. 

The president has even backed off his threats to end Honduras’ extradition treaty and military cooperation with the US.

Under Castro, Honduras has also received its citizens deported from the US and acted as a bridge for deported Venezuelans who were then picked up by Venezuela in Honduras.

Trump had made a similar threat before Argentina’s election last month. 

Argentine President Javier Milei, a staunch admirer of Trump, also gave his support to Asfura in Honduras on Friday.

‘I fully support Tito Asfura, who is the candidate who best represents the opposition to the leftist tyrants who have destroyed Honduras,’ the libertarian president said on his X account.

Former US president Joe Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, said after Hernandez’s sentencing last year that he had ‘abused his power to support one of the largest and most violent drug trafficking conspiracies in the world.’

Trump said in his social media post on Friday that Hernandez ‘has been, according to many people that I greatly respect, treated very harshly and unfairly,’ without elaborating.