He was sentenced to 45 years in prison for drug trafficking in the United States… and was finally pardoned by Donald Trump on Monday December 1st. To everyone’s surprise, ex-President of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernandez has been released from his West Virginia prison as his country goes through tense elections. “After almost four years of pain, waiting and difficult trials, my husband is once again a free man, by virtue of the presidential pardon,” his wife announced Tuesday.
The man was however accused of being responsible for flooding the United States with drugs when he was in power, found guilty of having helped ship hundreds of tons of cocaine to American soil. This release therefore contrasts with the anti-drug rhetoric which constitutes one of Donald Trump’s spearheads. The president justified his choice during an exchange with the press on Tuesday: “It was a horrible witch hunt orchestrated by Biden. A lot of people in Honduras asked me to do it. And I did it.” “If there are drug traffickers in your country […]”, we do not necessarily send the president to prison for 45 years” added Donald Trump, who has made the fight against drug trafficking his leitmotif in his relations with Latin America.
Honduras, of which Juan Orlando Hernandez was head of state from 2014 to 2022, is one of the most violent countries in the region, mainly due to gangs that control drug trafficking and organized crime. The former president’s federal trial in New York shed light on how he allegedly “maintained Honduras as a bastion of the global drug trade,” recalls the New York Timesand “orchestrated a massive trafficking conspiracy that prosecutors say allowed the cartels to reap millions of dollars.” According to U.S. prosecutors, under “JOH,” Honduras had become a “narco-state,” a “super highway” through which much of Colombia’s drug trafficking to the United States passed. During his trial, the ex-president boasted of “stuffing gringos’ noses with drugs.”
A flattering letter that changes everything
Despite this historic conviction and the total absence of evidence to support Donald Trump’s claims that the former president was the victim of a political conspiracy, an element seems to have unlocked the situation of Juan Orlando Hernandez. As the Spanish newspaper writes The Country“a letter full of praise addressed to Donald Trump seems to be the key that opened the door to his prison”. “Like you, President Trump, I have suffered political persecution,” writes Hernandez in this four-page letter, published by the American media Axios. The former head of state asserts that there is insufficient evidence against him and accuses the Biden-Harris administration of having imprisoned him “for political reasons”. He maintains that his conviction is “unjust” and based on “testimonies of violent traffickers and professional liars”.
In his missive, Juan Orlando Hernandez appeals above all to the ego of the American president. “I find strength in you, Sir, in your resilience which allowed you to return to this great office despite the persecution and prosecution you faced — because you wanted to restore the greatness of your country. What you have accomplished is unprecedented and truly historic […] Your resilience in the face of relentless political persecution has deeply inspired me.”
The White House assures that Trump did not read this flattering message before announcing the pardon. In an editorial, the Wall Street Journal warns, however, of the implications of such a decision: “What a strange turn of events. Perhaps Donald Trump thinks he is playing geopolitical chess, but he has a long history of strong sensitivity to flattery, and his unexplained pardon undermines the rule of law and the prosecutors who convicted Mr. Hernandez.”
Donald Trump’s South American ambition
More broadly, Donald Trump’s desire to interfere in the presidential election in Honduras could also have been beneficial to the former South American president. The Republican billionaire, who is increasing the number of acts of interference in the internal affairs of allied or non-allied countries, has thrown all his weight behind in recent weeks to elect the candidate of the National Party (PN) of the former leader, businessman Nasry Asfura, 67 years old. “This cannot be allowed, especially now that, with the electoral victory of ‘Tito’ Asfura, Honduras is heading towards great political and financial success,” added Donald Trump regarding the imprisonment of Juan Orlando Hernandez. This pardon comes as the country holds its breath to find out who won Sunday’s presidential election.
The American president judges that Latin America is part of the American sphere of influence and has adopted an interventionist posture in the region, invoking in particular the fight against drug trafficking against countries led by the left, starting with Venezuela. He does not hesitate to condition American aid on the goodwill of governments, on his affinities with their leaders or even on the results of electoral consultations. But it also exerts strong military pressure. The United States has deployed its largest aircraft carrier as well as a flotilla of warships and fighter planes in the Caribbean, as part of anti-drug operations particularly targeting Venezuela, Washington’s enemy.