US President Donald Trump announced on Friday on his social media network Truth Social the pardon of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández (2014-2022), who was sentenced in March 2024 to 45 years in prison on charges of drug trafficking, weapons possession and receiving money from Mexican drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán.
"I will be granting a full and complete pardon to former President Juan Orlando Hernández, who has been treated, according to many people whom I greatly respect, very severely and very unfairly," Trump wrote, backing a decision that comes on the eve of elections in Honduras, scheduled for this Sunday, November 30.
Hernández was extradited to the U.S. in April 2022 after being accused of receiving millions of dollars from drug traffickers, including El Chapo, to finance election campaigns in exchange for facilitating the entry of more than 500 tons of cocaine into the United States . His sentence included an additional five years of supervised release.
Trump explicitly linked the pardon to his support for conservative candidate Nasry Tito Asfura of the National Party, the same party as Hernández, warning that economic support from Washington would depend on his victory. Along the same lines, he urged people to vote for Asfura and congratulated Hernández on the pardon.
"If Tito Asfura wins the presidency of Honduras, given the United States' great confidence in him, his policies, and what he will do for the great people of Honduras, we will provide significant support. If he doesn't win, the United States will not provide substantial financial assistance ," the White House official stated.
Candidate Rixi Moncada, of the Libre Party, denounced the decision made by the United States on her social media account, stating that they intend to "revive criminals" linked to the 2009 coup. "The financial elites who exploit our people and pull their strings in Washington are hypocrites; they don't care about justice, much less democracy ," the candidate declared, calling for victory at the polls on November 30.
Manuel Zelaya declared on the same social media platform that Donald Trump's support backs the " direct heir of the drug cartels ," heir to those who were defeated at the polls in 2021 when Xiomara Castro was elected "without violence and with the indestructible strength of the people in resistance ." He called for support for the current Democratic candidate, Rixi Moncada, stating that "with her proposed economic reforms, she will transform Honduras . "
More than six million Hondurans will go to the polls to elect the successor to leftist President Xiomara Castro, whose term ends on January 27, 2026. Asfura is competing against Rixi Moncada (left, Libre) and Salvador Nasralla (Liberal Party), who, despite his conservative discourse, does not have the explicit backing of the U.S.
Trump's controversial decision reopens debates about Washington's political influence in Central America and its use of legal tools to influence foreign elections.
