President Trump and his top aides have said that drug cartels present one of the most pressing dangers to the United States, and have promised to eradicate them from the Western Hemisphere.
As part of that effort, Mr. Trump signaled on Saturday that he was ratcheting up his campaign against drug cartels, saying in a social media post that airspace above and surrounding Venezuela should be considered “CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY.”
Less than 24 hours earlier, Mr. Trump had announced on social media that he was granting a full pardon to Juan Orlando Hernández, a former president of Honduras who had been convicted in the United States of drug trafficking charges in what was seen as a major victory for authorities in a case against a former head of state. That pardon has not yet been officially granted.
The two posts displayed a remarkable dissonance in the president’s strategy, as he moved to escalate a military campaign against drug trafficking while ordering the release of a man prosecutors said had taken “cocaine-fueled bribes” from cartels and “protected their drugs with the full power and strength of the state — military, police and justice system.”
“We blow up ‘alleged’ drug boats in the Caribbean but pardon actually convicted drug traffickers in the U.S.,” Todd Robinson, who served as the assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, wrote in a post on LinkedIn. “Someone help me make sense of this.”
In a statement, Mr. Trump said he had issued the pardon because “many friends” had asked him to do so, adding, “They gave him 45 years because he was the president of the country — you could do this to any president on any country.” (After Mr. Trump left office, he was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, related to the reimbursement of hush money paid to the porn star Stormy Daniels to cover up a sex scandal around the 2016 presidential election.)
Over the last several weeks, senior officials have made clear that the administration is focused on taking on drug cartels in the Caribbean and South America.
“We are going to make sure that the American people are safe and protected from transnational organized crime,” Stephen Miller, a top adviser to Mr. Trump, told reporters earlier this month. “Venezuela is run by a narcoterrorist ring that traffics drugs, weapons, human traffics, as well, into the United States.”
And just over two hours after Mr. Trump’s announcement of a pardon for Mr. Hernández, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on social media: “We have only just begun to kill narco-terrorists.”
Over the last several months, the United States has been building up its military presence in the Caribbean, part of a campaign that the administration has said is primarily about stopping the flow of drugs in the region. The U.S. military has launched nearly two dozen strikes since early September on boats that it claimed were carrying drugs to the United States, killing more than 80 people. But the administration has yet to detail evidence for those claims.
Mr. Trump has also put intense pressure on Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, accusing him of being the boss of a drug organization called Cartel de los Soles, even though experts in Latin American criminal and narcotics issues say it is not an actual organization. Mr. Trump has also authorized covert C.I.A. action in Venezuela, and many American officials say privately that their goal is to drive Mr. Maduro from power.
The president’s decision to pardon Mr. Hernández shocked officials in Honduras and in the United States. Prosecutors had asked the judge to make sure Mr. Hernández, 57, would die behind bars, citing his abuse of power, connections to violent traffickers and “the unfathomable destruction” caused by cocaine. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison.
Mr. Hernández’s family has attempted to portray his conviction as political persecution, seeking to win over Mr. Trump. But much of the investigation occurred during Mr. Trump’s first term, and one of the lead investigators in the case was Emil Bove III, then a prosecutor for the Southern District of New York and later one of Mr. Trump’s personal lawyers. Mr. Trump installed Mr. Bove as a top official at the Justice Department in his second term before nominating him to serve as an appeals court judge.
Tyler Pager is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.
The post Targeting Venezuela and Pardoning Honduran Ex-President, Trump Contradicts Himself appeared first on New York Times.
