Trump Plans to Pardon Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, Convicted of Cocaine Trafficking in 2024

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

US President Donald Trump said Friday that he will be pardoning former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who in 2024 was convicted for drug trafficking and weapons charges and sentenced to 45 years in prison.

The President explained his decision on social media by posting that "according to many people that I greatly respect," Hernandez was "treated very harshly and unfairly."

In March of last year, Hernandez was convicted in U.S. court of conspiring to import cocaine into the US. He had served served two terms as the leader of the Central American nation of roughly 10 million people. He had been arrested and eventually extradited in 2022 following the end of his second presidential term.

Hernandez has been appealing his conviction and serving time at the U.S. Penitentiary, Hazelton in West Virginia. 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." A separate lawyer for Hernandez, Sabrina Shroff, declined comment.

Drug Trafficking Conviction

In January, the U.S. Justice Department filed a motion in the trial of one of Juan Antonio Hernández’s alleged accomplices outlining details which implicated Hernández further. The President allegedlyHe said that he wanted to “shove the drugs right up the noses of the gringos,” and that he intended to deceive U.S. officials about Honduran counternarcotics efforts while simultaneously aiming to “eliminate extradition,” according to the documents. Prosecutors said that the Honduran President even offered to connect traffickers with Honduran military forces and the country’s attorney general to help move cocaine northward.

The allegations emerged at the trial of Geovanny Fuentes Ramírez, a Honduran drug trafficker arrested in Florida in March 2020 on drug and weapons charges, after BGR lobbying efforts on behalf of Honduras had already kicked into full swing. The Justice Department describes Hernández as a co-conspirator of Fuentes Ramírez, who was found guilty on March 22 on all counts.

BGR Lobbying Group

In April 2018, then Florida Senator Marco Rubio tweeted out thanks to Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández for “targeting drug traffickers” below a photo of the two men together.

But one drug trafficker the Honduran President never pursued was his own brother, Juan Antonio Hernández, who was sentenced to life in prison March 30 in New York for trafficking tons of cocaine to the United States over 14 years.

President Hernández has always denied the allegations, arguing that criminal witnesses invented testimony against him in exchange for lighter sentences. When his brother was convicted in October 2019, he tweeted that the verdict was based on the “testimonies of confessed murderers.”

But he has also turned to friends of Republican Rubio for help. Early 2019, he signed a deal with a Washington lobbying firm called BGR Group to buttress his image as a dedicated ally and an implacable foe of organized crime.

While still President of Honduras, Hernández hired the lobby firm BGR Group for $660,000.

 

Although BGR presents itself as a bipartisan firm, it has inextricable ties to the Republican Party. The company was co-founded by former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour. Its current team includes prominent Republicans, such as former Representative Sean Duffy, a Wisconsin Republican, and Trump Administration State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert, who is on the firm’s advisory board.

BGR has also given more than $1 million to candidates for federal office in each of the last three election cycles, with roughly 90% of its contributions going to Republicans.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been one of the top recipients in campaign contributions from BGR Group is among the top beneficiaries of BGR generosity, and he has benefited from the company’s largesse throughout his career, including BGR-hosted fundraisers during both his 2010 and 2016 Senate campaigns and his short-lived presidential bid.

Counter Narcotics PR Image

According to a 2021 VICE article, immediately after taking on Honduras as a client according to mandated disclosures, BGR Group reached out to 11 Congressional staffers. Three of them worked or had worked for Rubio. Later in the year, BGR lobbied the Development Finance Corporation, an arm of the U.S. government that connects developing countries with private investors. And throughout the year, the company attempted to improve the President’s image by circulating press releases to journalists from dozens of different news outlets, including VICE, detailing the head of state’s activities. BGR sent out three different press releases in October about Hernández: two about a trip he took to the United States, and one about joint U.S.-Honduras counternarcotics operations.

“I arrived in the presidency with a clear commitment to go on a frontal fight to regain peace and tranquility in Honduras,” Hernández said in the press release heralding the drug bust. “One of the great issues was to confront organized crime, maras and gangs and other groups of actors.”

The BGR press release quoted Admiral Craig S. Faller, the head of U.S. Southern Command, who offered praise for Hernández and his government’s response to “narco-terrorism.” I want to congratulate you for an excellent operation,” he was quoted as saying during a visit to Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, adding that the mission was “so successful because of the trust of both of us working together.”

But as BGR was making the rounds on Capitol Hill and pushing positive news about Hernández, U.S. prosecutors appeared to be building a case against the president, whose term ended in January 2022.

 

Trump's Support for Candidate Asfura

The social media post was part of a broader message by Trump backing Nasry "Tito" Asfura for Honduras' presidency, with Trump saying the U.S. would be supportive of the country if he wins. But if Asfura loses the 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."

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.

Then outgoing President Hernández endorsed Asfura during his previous run in 2021. 

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.

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 U.S. administration and she has received visits from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and U.S. Army Gen. Laura Richardson, when she was the commander of U.S. Southern Command. The president has even backed off his threats to end Honduras' extradition treaty and military cooperation with the U.S.

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

Sources NPR, Vice, Francisco Rodriguez, Truth Social