Trump Pardons Honduras' Strongman President Convicted of Running a Cocaine Ring from His Office
Donald Trump has justified the murder of sailors on random boats in the Caribbean as part of a supposed war on drug traffickers. Then he gave the lie to this justification by pardoning a former Honduran president who was convicted of running a massive cocaine smuggling operation out of his office.
CNN reports:
President Donald Trump said Friday he intends to grant a “full and complete pardon” to former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, a move that would erase a major US drug-trafficking conviction for a onetime US ally who is currently serving a 45-year federal prison sentence. …
Prosecutors had accused Hernández of conspiring with drug cartels during his tenure as they moved more than 400 tons of cocaine through Honduras toward the United States. In exchange, prosecutors said, Hernández received millions of dollars in bribes that he used to fuel his rise in Honduran politics.
During his years in office, the Justice Department said, Hernández “protected and enriched the drug traffickers in his inner circle.” Prosecutors cited his use of executive power to support extraditions to the US of certain drug traffickers “who threatened his grip on power,” while “promising drug traffickers who paid him and followed his instructions that they would remain in Honduras.”
See a long description of the crime ring Hernández ran with his brother, which also indicates why Trump is inclined to pardon him: He governed as a right-wing strongman and specifically made a point of cooperating with Trump on anti-immigration policies.
More broadly, this case is consistent with the overall pattern of Trump pardons. He considers impunity from the law to be the natural prerogative of the rich and powerful.
The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.
© The UnPopulist, 2025
Follow us on Bluesky, Threads, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and X.