Published: 9:32pm, 2 Dec 2025Updated: 5:16am, 3 Dec 2025
US President Donald Trump, who has cast himself as a relentless foe of illegal drugs, pardoned former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez, freeing him from a 45-year sentence for conspiring to import tonnes of cocaine into the United States.
Trump’s extraordinary move undermines decades of US efforts to combat transnational drug networks, potentially damages Washington’s credibility in Latin America, and signals to corrupt actors that political connections can outweigh criminal accountability.
Trump signed the pardon for Hernandez on Monday night, a White House official said. The Federal Bureau of Prisons released him from prison in Hazelton, West Virginia, on Monday.
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While some conservatives in the US, including Trump ally Roger Stone, had pushed for Hernandez’s release, it was not clear what, or who, prompted Trump to issue the surprise pardon.
The US president has cited the dangers of illicit drug flows from Latin America as justification for a series of deadly US attacks on boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, and a military build-up near Venezuela.
Democrats and legal scholars have criticised the attacks and questioned their legal justification, noting that they have killed at least 80 people.