President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he plans to pardon former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted of conspiring to traffic drugs within the United States alongside a notorious drug cartel. The pro-crime action undermines Trump’s claims that he is fighting drug trafficking through an ongoing bombing campaign in South America.
Trump announced the planned action in a post to his Truth Social account and simultaneously endorsed Nasry “Tito” Asfura in Honduras’ election. Asfura is in the same National Party as Hernández.
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The announcement comes as Trump has ordered the bombing of multiple boats for alleged drug trafficking in the Atlantic and Caribbean. The Washington Post reported that in one strike, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered the military to “kill everybody” on board a boat. The order has raised concerns that the Trump administration has been engaged in war crimes under the guise of purportedly stopping drug trafficking.
Hegseth, who has a history of lying, claims the Post’s reporting—sourced to people with knowledge of the strikes and the overall operation—is false.
Trump effectively threw Hegseth under the bus when he was asked about the incident on Sunday, telling reporters, “I don’t know anything about it. He said he did not say that, and I believe him, 100 percent.”
The pardon further undercuts the administration’s already questionable claim that it is fighting narcotics-related terrorism.
A Drug Enforcement Agency agent who worked on the Hernández case called the decision to pardon a convicted drug trafficker “lunacy” in an interview with The New York Times. Mike Vigil, who served as the DEA’s chief of international operations told the outlet, “This action would be nothing short of catastrophic and would destroy the credibility of the U.S. in the international community.”
In a 2022 release announcing Hernández’s extradition to the United States, the Department of Justice (then under the Biden administration) said the former leader participated in a “corrupt and violent drug-trafficking conspiracy to facilitate the importation of hundreds of thousands of kilograms of cocaine into the United States” and accused him of receiving millions from drug cartels.
Last year an American jury convicted Hernández and sentenced him to 45 years in prison. U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel said the jury saw past the accused’s elite background and delivered justice, noting, “They saw him for what he was: a two-faced politician hungry for power.”
Thanks to Trump’s action the work of law enforcement, the U.S. criminal justice system, and the jury will be nullified.
Trump signaled early in his term that he has a soft spot for the cartels, despite his rhetoric claiming that he is tougher than other presidents on drug trafficking. In May his administration allowed family members associated with the notorious Sinaloa Cartel to travel to the United States. At the same time, Trump has been cracking down on legitimate travel to America by students and other individuals.
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Trump also moved to dismantle the Department of Justice’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces, which has been used to combat drug cartels and human trafficking.
Despite years of claiming strength on crime issues, Trump is the one who gave a pass to hundreds who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, allowing some to commit more crimes. Now it is clear he is soft on the drug cartels as well.
