Trump pardons Honduras’ ex-president days before the vote

Palm Beach, United States.

Days before Honduras’ presidential election, US President Donald Trump pardoned a convicted ex-leader and threatened to withdraw US support if his preferred candidate lost.

Trump has announced that he will pardon former President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was convicted of drug trafficking in a US court last year and sentenced to 45 years in jail.

Hernandez, who led the Central American country from 2014 to 2022, was accused by US authorities of aiding the importation of almost 400 tonnes of cocaine into the United States.

He was extradited to the United States only weeks after leaving office, when the new president, Marxist Xiomara Castro, took control.

Trump’s startling statement came in the form of a social media post expressing his support for Nasry Asfura, Hernandez’s right-wing party nominee in Honduras’ presidential election on Sunday.

The US president had already favoured Asfura, but his most recent comments appear to condition future aid to Honduras on his success.

“If he doesn’t win, 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 stated on his platform, “Truth Social”.

Trump had issued a similar threat ahead of Argentina’s election last month.

When contacted by AFP over the phone, Asfura denied any ties to Hernandez while celebrating Trump’s renewed endorsement.

Since Hernandez “was president of the Republic, the party is not responsible for his personal actions.” According to Asfura!

• Three-way race –

Asfura, a 67-year-old construction magnate and former mayor of the Honduran capital, is running in a tight three-way race against leftist lawyer Rixi Moncada and fellow right-wing TV host Salvador Nasralla.

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

Noting that Nasralla was Castro’s vice president before quitting, Trump claimed he “is now pretending to be an anti-Communist only for the purposes of splitting Asfura’s vote.”

Trump also called Moncada, Castro’s political heir, a “communist” and said that her triumph would benefit Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro “and his Narcoterrorists.”

Hernandez’s pardon comes despite a large US operation in Latin America, which Washington claims is aimed at halting drug trafficking and has killed over 80 people in strikes in international waters.

A New York jury convicted Hernandez in March 2024 of facilitating the smuggling of hundreds of tonnes of cocaine, primarily from Colombia and Venezuela, into the United States via Honduras since 2004, long before he became president.

Merrick Garland, the attorney general for former US President Joe Biden, stated following Hernandez’s imprisonment last year that he had “abused his power to support one of the largest and most violent drug trafficking conspiracies in the world.”

Trump stated in a social media post on Friday that Hernandez “has been, according to many people that I greatly respect, treated very harshly and unfairly,” but did not elaborate.