Liberal Forum

Mrkelly » 03 Jan 2026, 9:43 am » wrote: ↑

03 Jan 2026, 9:43 am

In December 2025, President Donald Trump officially granted a full pardon to former Honduran President 
Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been serving a 45-year sentence in a U.S. prison for drug trafficking and weapons offenses. Hernández was released from federal prison in West Virginia shortly after the pardon was issued. 

• During his sentencing, it was noted that over “400 tons” (or “hundreds of tons”) of cocaine were trafficked under this scheme.
• The indictment alleges that JOH used the Honduran National Police and military to protect drug shipments transiting Honduras.
• Weapons, machine guns, and destructive devices were used by the drug traffickers he conspired with to safeguard shipments.
• JOH received millions of dollars in drug-money bribes from trafficking organizations and used those funds to finance his political rise and campaigns. As one key example, prosecutors said that a payment of about US$1 million was made by the Sinaloa Cartel (via its leader at the time, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, aka “El Chapo”) to JOH’s brother and close ally (also  no spam of drug trafficking in the U.S.) in exchange for continued protection of the cartel’s drug-trafficking operations in Honduras.
• Prosecutors argued that money from drug trafficking was used to bribe election officials and influence elections, helping to ensure JOH’s electoral victories in 2013 and 2017.