President Donald Trump announced on social media that he will pardon former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, saying Hernández was “treated very harshly and unfairly,” according to people Trump respects. Hernández was convicted in March 2024 in a U.S. court of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States and on weapons charges; he was sentenced to 45 years and is appealing while serving his sentence at the U.S. Penitentiary Hazelton in West Virginia. Hernández was extradited to the United States in April 2022.
Renato C. Stabile, one of Hernández’s lawyers, thanked Trump, calling the pardon a correction of “a great injustice” and expressing hope for renewed U.S.–Honduras partnership and Hernández’s return to Honduras. Another lawyer, Sabrina Shroff, declined to comment.
Trump’s public statement was tied to his broader backing of Nasry “Tito” Asfura in Honduras’s presidential race. Trump said the United States would support Honduras if Asfura wins, but warned that if Asfura loses the U.S. “will not be throwing good money after bad,” implying that a different leader could produce disastrous results. Asfura, 67, is the conservative National Party candidate and a former mayor of Tegucigalpa who has campaigned on infrastructure projects; he has faced embezzlement accusations, which he denies.
Other leading contenders include Rixi Moncada of the incumbent Libre party, a former finance and defense secretary, and Salvador Nasralla, a former television personality running for the Liberal Party in his fourth presidential bid. Trump framed the election as a test for democracy in the region and warned that an Asfura loss could pull Honduras toward Venezuela-style influence under Nicolás Maduro.
Trump has recently increased pressure on Venezuela, ordering strikes against vessels suspected of carrying drugs and boosting U.S. naval activity in the Caribbean, including deploying the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford. He has not ruled out military or covert CIA options against Venezuela, though he has said he might be open to speaking with Maduro.
Outgoing Honduran President Xiomara Castro has positioned herself on the left but kept pragmatic relations with Washington, receiving visits from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and, earlier, U.S. Army Gen. Laura Richardson during her tenure at U.S. Southern Command. Castro softened earlier threats to end Honduras’s extradition treaty and military cooperation with the U.S. Under her administration, Honduras has accepted deported Hondurans from the U.S. and served as a transit point for deported Venezuelans who were later repatriated by Venezuela.
Argentine President Javier Milei, an admirer of Trump, publicly endorsed Asfura on X, describing him as the opposition to “leftist tyrants” that Milei says have harmed Honduras.