Ex-Honduras president Juan Orlando Hernández freed after Trump pardon

Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, has been released from a US federal prison after receiving a pardon from President Donald Trump, according to online inmate records.

The records indicate that Hernández was freed on Monday from the high-security USP Hazelton facility in West Virginia. He had been sentenced to 45 years in prison after being found guilty in March 2024 of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States and possessing machine guns.

Announcing the pardon on social media last week, President Trump said Hernández had been “treated very harshly and unfairly”. Hernández’s wife, Ana García de Hernández, later confirmed his release, thanking Trump and saying her husband was now a free man.

Hernández, who led Honduras from 2014 to 2022 under the National Party, was extradited to the US in April 2022 to face charges of running a violent drug trafficking operation and helping to smuggle large quantities of cocaine into the US. Prosecutors described Honduras under his leadership as a “narco-state” and accused him of taking millions of dollars in bribes from traffickers in exchange for protection. He was also ordered to pay an $8 million fine.

Explaining the decision to pardon Hernández, Trump told reporters that the case was a “Biden administration set-up”, arguing that Hernández was targeted because he had been president.

The release comes amid a tightly contested presidential election in Honduras, with just hundreds of votes separating right-wing candidate Nasry Asfura and his closest rival, centrist candidate Salvador Nasralla. Trump has publicly criticised Nasralla while praising Asfura as a defender of democracy, although Nasralla has said he would sever ties with Venezuela if elected.