Ex-Honduras president Hernández freed from US prison after Trump pardon

Trump claims former leader set-up by Biden when he was convicted of taking bribes from drug smugglers in 2022; Hernández advanced pro-Israel policies, moved embassy to Jerusalem

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Former Honduras president Juan Orlando Hernández, sentenced last year to 45 years in prison for his role in helping drug traffickers move hundreds of tons of cocaine to the United States, was released from prison following a pardon from President Donald Trump, his wife announced Tuesday.

The US Bureau of Prisons inmate website showed that Hernández was released from US Penitentiary, Hazelton, in West Virginia, on Monday, and a spokesperson for the bureau on Tuesday confirmed his release.

His wife Ana García thanked Trump for pardoning Hernández via the social platform X early Tuesday.

“After almost four years of pain, of waiting and difficult challenges, my husband Juan Orlando Hernández RETURNED to being a free man, thanks to the presidential pardon granted by President Donald Trump,” García’s post said. She included a picture of the US Bureau of Prisons listing for Hernández, indicating his release.

On Sunday, Trump was asked about why he pardoned Hernandez by reporters traveling with him on Air Force One.

“I was asked by Honduras, many of the people of Honduras,” Trump said.

Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, center, is taken in handcuffs to a waiting aircraft as he is extradited to the United States, at an Air Force base in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Thursday, April 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Elmer Martinez)

“The people of Honduras really thought he was set up, and it was a terrible thing,” he said.

“They basically said he was a drug dealer because he was the president of the country. And they said it was a Biden administration set-up. And I looked at the facts, and I agreed with them.”

Hernández was arrested at the request of the United States in February 2022, weeks after handing over power to the current President Xiomara Castro.

Two years later, he was sentenced to 45 years in prison in a New York federal courtroom for taking bribes from drug traffickers so they could safely move some 400 tons of cocaine north through Honduras to the United States.

Hernández maintained throughout that he was innocent and the victim of revenge by drug traffickers he had helped extradite to the United States.

During his sentencing in New York, federal Judge P. Kevin Castel said the punishment should serve as a warning to “well-educated, well-dressed” individuals who gain power and think their status insulates them from justice when they do wrong.

Hernández portrayed himself as a hero of the anti-drug trafficking movement who teamed up with American authorities under three US presidential administrations to reduce drug imports.

But the judge said trial evidence proved the opposite and that Hernández employed “considerable acting skills” to make it seem that he was an anti-drug trafficking crusader while he deployed his nation’s police and military, when necessary, to protect the drug trade.

Then-prime minister Naftali Bennett (L) meets with then-Honduras president Juan Orlando Hernandez in Jerusalem on June 24, 2021. (courtesy)

Hernández is not guaranteed a quick return to Honduras.

Immediately after Trump announced his intention to pardon Hernández, Honduras Attorney General Johel Zelaya said via X that his office was obligated to seek justice and put an end to impunity.

He did not specify what charges Hernández could face in Honduras. There were various corruption-related investigations of his administration across two terms in office that did not lead to charges against him. President Xiomara Castro, who had Hernández arrested and extradited him to the US, will remain in office until January.

The pardon promised by Trump days before Honduras’ presidential election injected a new element into the contest that some said helped the candidate from his National Party, Nasry Asfura, one of the leaders, as the vote count proceeded Tuesday.

During Hernandez’s term, from 2014 to 2022, Honduras adopted fiercely pro-Israel policies and in 2021 moved its embassy to Jerusalem, following the US’s lead.

Hebrew media reports have said that Hernández claimed to have received assurances from Israel that it would act on his behalf in the event that the US would seek his arrest and extradition.

When Hernandez arrived in Israel last June to participate in a ceremony opening his country’s new embassy in Jerusalem, he told officials in Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s government that their predecessors had promised to do everything they could to prevent his extradition in exchange for him moving the diplomatic mission from Tel Aviv, Channel 12 reported in February 2022, after his arrest.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.