President Donald Trump announced he has pardoned Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras who is serving a 45-year sentence in a U.S. prison for drug trafficking.
Trump wrote in a Friday post to his Truth Social platform he was endorsing Nasry "Tito" Asfura in Sunday's presidential election in Honduras, and that his administration would be "very supportive" of Asfura's government if he won. He then pivoted to his decision that he would be "granting a Full and Complete Pardon" to Hernández, saying he had been "treated very harshly and unfairly."
"VOTE FOR TITO ASFURA FOR PRESIDENT, AND CONGRATULATIONS TO JUAN ORLANDO HERNANDEZ ON YOUR UPCOMING PARDON," Trump wrote in his signature all-caps style.
The DOJ stated last year that it was sentencing Hernández to 45 years in prison for conspiring "to facilitate the importation of an almost unfathomable 400 tons of cocaine to this country." The former Honduran president committed his crime in concert with his brother, Tony Hernández, who is currently serving a life sentence for drug trafficking and firearms crimes. New York Magazine contributor Yashar Ali pointed out that prosecutors found that Hernández accepted millions of dollars in bribes from drug traffickers connected to the notorious Sinaloa Cartel. Freelance journalist Thomas van Linge said Trump's pardon was an "absolutely unacceptable decision as this comes on the eve of crucial elections in Honduras."
"As President of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández abused his power to support one of the largest and most violent drug trafficking conspiracies in the world, and the people of Honduras and the United States bore the consequences," then-Attorney General Merrick Garland stated at the time. "... The Justice Department will hold accountable all those who engage in violent drug trafficking, regardless of how powerful they are or what position they hold."
Trump's announcement caught many off-guard, with various journalists, commentators and experts denouncing the president for freeing a convicted drug trafficker – especially as the Trump administration continues to carry out fatal and potentially illegal strikes on boats it alleges are trafficking drugs to the United States. Western Washington University senior instructor Richard B. Simon likened the pardon to Trump "using the U.S. military to assassinate rival crime lords and using pardon power to reward and elevate crime lord allies."
"Is this for real? We are killing people we just suspect of drug trafficking and pardoning convicted drug kingpins?!" Meteorologist Alan Gerard wrote on Bluesky.
"Trump: I will kill the drug cartels. Also Trump: Pardoning a powerful drug trafficker," attorney Bradley P. Moss quipped.
"I was told by Republicans that they want to punish drug traffickers, not pardon them," tweeted Jeopardy! champion Hermant Mehta. "They’re lying to you. And a bunch of voters fall for it every time."
Trump did not immediately state his reason for pardoning Hernández. However, the former Honduran leader is connected to multiple wealthy Trump supporters, including Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel. The New York Times reported in 2024 that Thiel (who bankrolled Vice President JD Vance's 2022 U.S. Senate campaign), along with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and venture capitalist Marc Andreesen, worked with Hernández when he was president of Honduras' congress to launch a "start-up city" called Próspera.
"Próspera is a private, for-profit city, with its own government that courts foreign investors through low taxes and light regulation," the Times' Rachel Corbett wrote. "Businesses can choose a regulatory framework from a menu of 36 countries or customize their own."