Trump Announces Pardon for Honduran Ex-President Convicted in Drug Case

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/28/world/americas/trump-pardon-honduras-hernandez.html

Trump Announces Pardon for Honduran Ex-President Convicted in Drug Case
President Trump said he would pardon Juan Orlando Hernández, who prosecutors said partnered with cocaine traffickers as Honduras’s president and is serving a 45-year sentence.
By Shawn McCreesh, Annie Correal and Jeff Ernst
Nov. 28, 2025, 6:26 p.m. ET

President Trump announced on Friday afternoon his intention to grant “a Full and Complete Pardon” to a former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, who was found guilty by an American jury last year of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States in a sweeping drug case.

The pardon announcement came in a pair of social media posts by Mr. Trump, who has repeatedly weighed in on that country’s upcoming election on Sunday. He had already endorsed a candidate, a former mayor from the conservative National Party named Nasry “Tito” Asfura.

“Tito and I can work together to fight the Narcocommunists, and bring needed aid to the people of Honduras,” wrote Mr. Trump, who was spending the holiday weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

Mr. Asfura, who belongs to the same party as Mr. Hernández, spent much of a highly contested race courting leaders in Washington, including members of Mr. Trump’s inner circle. The cause of Mr. Hernández, who was also convicted of possessing and conspiring to possess “destructive devices,” including machine guns, has been taken up separately by figures including Roger Stone, the conservative political operative.

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https://apnews.com/article/trump-hernandez-honduras-pardon-96ac8d1d44d438f64beb8b24ca54b651

Trump says he plans to pardon former Honduran President Hernandez for 2024 drug trafficking sentence
By JOSH BOAK
Updated 5:48 PM CST, November 28, 2025

WEST PALM BEACH, FLA. (AP) — 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 U.S.A. He 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 U.S. Penitentiary, Hazelton in West Virginia.

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