President Donald Trump on Friday said he will pardon former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted in a U.S. court of trafficking drugs to the United States, and threw his support behind a conservative Honduran presidential candidate just days before the Central American country’s elections.
Trump said he will give a “Full and Complete Pardon” to Hernández, saying he has been “treated very harshly and unfairly.” For the second time in recent days, he endorsed the Honduran presidential candidate Tito Asfura, from the same conservative National Party once led by Hernández, and said the United States would be “very supportive” of him if he wins the presidential election on Sunday.
“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 wrote in a post on Truth Social on Friday afternoon. “Tito will be a Great President, and the United States will work closely with him in order to ensure the success, with all of its potential, of Honduras!”
Hernández, who was president from 2014 to 2022, was sentenced by a U.S. judge last year to 45 years in prison for running a “narco-state” that helped send South American cocaine to the United States. U.S. prosecutors accused him of building his political career on millions of dollars in bribes from traffickers in Honduras and Mexico, and helping move at least 400 tons of cocaine to the United States while protecting traffickers from extradition and prosecution.
On Wednesday, Trump endorsed Asfura and compared the political left in Honduras to Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, using the term “Narcoterrorists.”
“Tito and I can work together to fight the Narcocommunists, and bring needed aid to the people of Honduras,” Trump said.
His endorsement — and plans to pardon the former president — is the latest move by Trump to intervene in a Latin American election by supporting a politician who is friendly with his government. Last month, Trump offered a $40 billion bailout package to Argentina in an effort to boost President Javier Milei, his ideological ally. Milei’s party won big in legislative elections.
Candidates and international observers alike have raised fears about potential electoral fraud and questioned the credibility of the electoral system in Honduras ahead of Sunday’s vote. Polls show three candidates in a close race: Asfura, the former mayor of Tegucigalpa, is running against Rixi Moncada, a former defense minister aligned with the current leftist government of President Xiomara Castro; and Salvador Nasralla, a television host with the centrist Liberal Party.
The post Trump plans to pardon former Honduran president convicted of drug trafficking appeared first on Washington Post.
