In 2024, he was sentenced to 45 years in prison on drug trafficking and weapons charges.

On Monday, former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez was released after receiving a full pardon from U.S. President Donald Trump.

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Hernandez was extradited to the United States in April 2022. In March 2024, he was sentenced to 45 years in prison on three drug trafficking and weapons charges, plus five years of supervised release and an US$8 million fine.

According to data from the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), Hernandez, 57, was released from a high-security federal prison in Hazelton, Pennsylvania. For now, no official details have been confirmed regarding his current whereabouts or the next legal steps.

Earlier, during the electoral process held in Honduras last week, Trump announced that he planned to pardon Hernandez, saying he believed President Joe Biden’s administration had “set him up.” Hernandez governed Honduras from 2014 to 2022.

The decision to release Hernandez has generated widespread criticism from both U.S. and foreign actors who argue that the pardon undermines the fight against drug trafficking.

Hernandez requested the pardon from Trump in a letter in which he praised the Republican leader and highlighted the cooperation between both countries during Trump’s first term, according to the outlet Axios.

In the letter, the Honduran convict addressed Trump as “Your Excellency,” something that may have influenced the presidential pardon, along with what the report describes as a “persistent lobbying campaign” led by Roger Stone, a longtime associate of the U.S. president.

teleSUR/ JF

Source: EFE

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