Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was released Monday from a high-security federal prison in Hazelton, Pennsylvania, operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), after receiving a full pardon from U.S. President Donald Trump, according to updated BOP records. The release occurred on December 1, though no official details have been confirmed regarding the former president's current whereabouts or subsequent legal steps, beyond the update published in the BOP database.
Hernández, 57, was extradited to the United States in April 2022, where in March 2024 he was sentenced to 45 years in prison on three counts related to drug trafficking and weapons, plus five years of supervised release and an $8 million fine. The former president governed Honduras between 2014 and 2022.
Following his release, Ana Garcia, Hernandez's wife, expressed her gratitude to Trump on Tuesday, stating that he"became a free man again" after nearly four years of detention, in a message posted on the social network X.
Last week, Trump had foreshadowed his decision to pardon Hernández, arguing that the administration of former President Joe Biden had"set a trap" for the former Honduran president. He expressed this view repeatedly and reiterated it last Friday in a message on his Truth Social account, where he reaffirmed his political support for the conservative candidate Nasry"Tito" Asfura of the National Party, who is running in the Honduran presidential elections alongside Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party. The elections are currently showing a virtual tie, according to the preliminary count of more than 50% of the ballots.
The decision to release Hernández has provoked mixed reactions. Several sectors have criticized the pardon, arguing that it weakens the fight against drug trafficking, while the former president's defenders have pointed to irregularities in the trial and denounced political persecution. According to information published by Axios, Hernández requested the pardon by delivering a letter to Trump in which he praised him and recalled the collaboration between the two countries during Trump's first term. Axios indicates that in the letter, Hernández addressed Trump as"Your Excellency" and that the granting of the pardon may also have been influenced by "a persistent lobbying campaign" led by Roger Stone, a former close advisor to the US president.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt reaffirmed on Monday Trump's version of events regarding an alleged setup by the Biden administration. Leavitt asserted at a press conference that Hernández's court-appointed lawyer had only three weeks to prepare the case and argued during the proceedings that the accusation against the former president was a legal maneuver linked to the party of outgoing President Xiomara Castro, in coordination with the Biden administration and then-Vice President Kamala Harris. The press secretary added that, during the trial, Hernández denounced the lack of independent evidence and the prevalence of testimony from"confessed criminals" seeking reduced sentences in exchange for cooperation.
