The former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, landed this Sunday (26) in Tegucigalpa, eight months after receiving a pardon granted by US President Donald
#TRUMP . The measure ended the 45-year prison sentence imposed by US Justice for drug trafficking and conspiracy to traffic arms, allowing Hernández to leave prison and return to his country.
Hernández governed
#Honduras between 2014 and 2022 and was convicted in the United States after a trial in which prosecutors said he turned the country into a "narco-state," facilitating the shipment of hundreds of tons of cocaine to the US market in exchange for millions of dollars in bribes paid by cartels, including that of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán. Trump justified the pardon by claiming that the case would have been a political persecution carried out during the Joe Biden administration. The decision sparked strong international backlash and criticism in Honduras, which described the pardon as an interference by the United States in the country's politics.
Despite regaining his freedom in the United States, Hernández will still have to answer to Honduran Justice. The former president is accused of fraud and money laundering in the so-called Pandora II case, which investigates the alleged diversion of about US$ 11 million in public funds to finance political campaigns between 2010 and 2013. He is expected to appear for a court hearing on August 3.