Former Honduran President, Pardoned by Trump, to Return Home to Face Corruption Charges

(Central News Agency, Tegucigalpa, June 30, combined foreign reports) Judicial sources said today that former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was convicted of drug trafficking and pardoned by U.S. President Trump last year, will return to Honduras in July to face corruption charges.

According to Agence France-Presse, former Honduran President Hernandez was pardoned in November last year, before the Honduran presidential election. At that time, Trump had threatened to cut off U.S. aid to Honduras if the conservative candidate Nasry Asfura did not win the election. Asfura eventually won the general election.

Hernandez led the Central American country from 2014 to 2022 and was sentenced to 45 years in prison in 2024 after being convicted of aiding the smuggling of hundreds of tons of drugs into the United States.

A spokesperson for the Honduran judicial system told Agence France-Presse that after the international arrest warrant against Hernandez was withdrawn, he will appear in court in Honduras on August 3.

Prosecutors accuse Hernandez of fraud and money laundering, stating that he allegedly misappropriated $2 million in public funds to raise money for his 2014 presidential campaign.

Hernandez wrote on social media platform X last week, "This case lacks any legal basis, I am innocent, and the truth will eventually come out." Hernandez, currently in the United States, also attached a photo of a plane ticket dated July 31.

He emphasized that he has "no electoral ambitions" for his return this time.

Prosecutors, who are closely associated with the left-wing President Xiomara Castro, who governed from 2021 to 2025, filed these charges against Hernandez in 2023.

The Castro government extradited the right-wing leader in 2022, accusing him of governing the country as a "drug trafficking state" and using security forces to help transport large quantities of cocaine to the United States.

When Trump pardoned Hernandez, he claimed the former leader was a victim of a conspiracy orchestrated by former U.S. President Biden, but Trump provided no evidence. (Compiled by Chen Yuting) 1150630

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