A former Honduran president convicted of helping to smuggle 400 tons of cocaine into the United States has left prison after being pardoned by President Donald Trump. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons confirmed his release in a statement to the Associated Press.
Juan Orlando Hernandez was released from a federal prison in West Virginia on Monday and was “once again a free man,” his wife, Ana GarcĂa, announced on social media. GarcĂa thanked Mr. Trump for pardoning Hernández via the social platform X early Tuesday.
“After almost four years of pain, of waiting and difficult challenges, my husband Juan Orlando Hernández RETURNED to being a free man, thanks to the presidential pardon granted by President Donald Trump,” GarcĂa’s post said. She included a picture of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons listing for Hernández indicating his release.
Mr. Trump’s controversial pardon came as the U.S. president is simultaneously ordering the bombing of boats in the Caribbean allegedly carrying drugs. He is also heavily backing a candidate from Hernandez’s party in Honduras’s tense, ongoing presidential election vote count.
Mr. Trump explained his decision on social media by posting that “according to many people that I greatly respect,” Hernández was “treated very harshly and unfairly.”
In March of last year, Hernandez was convicted in U.S. court of conspiring to import cocaine into the U.S. He had served two terms as the leader of the Central American nation of roughly 10 million people. Hernández has been appealing his conviction and serving time at the U.S. Penitentiary, Hazelton in West Virginia.
Shortly after Mr. Trump’s announcement, Hernandez’s wife and children gathered on the steps on their home in Tegucigalpa and kneeled in prayer, thanking God that Hernandez would return to their family after almost four years apart.
It was the same home that Honduran authorities hauled him out of in 2022 just months after leaving office. He was extradited to the United States to stand trial.
Trump’s pardon drew criticism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, of Louisiana, was critical of the pardon, saying Sunday on social media, “Why would we pardon [Hernandez] and then go after Maduro for running drugs into the United States? Lock up every drug runner! Don’t understand why he is being pardoned.”
“This is shocking,” Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat of Virginia, said of the pardon on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
“He was convicted in a federal court in the United States,” said Kaine, the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere. “One of the bits of evidence was his statement that was picked up by those near to him that he wanted to ‘shove drugs up the nose of gringos’ and flood the United States with cocaine, more than 400 tons. He was the leader of one of the largest criminal enterprises that has ever been subject to a conviction in U.S. courts, and less than one year into his sentence, President Trump is pardoning him, suggesting that President Trump cares nothing about narcotrafficking. Suggesting possibly that pardons are now for sale by this White House.”
In remarks on the House floor Tuesday, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, said, “What message does pardoning this criminal send to parents who have lost children to narcotics, to law enforcement officers risking everything to stop the flow of deadly drugs?”
“This disgraceful pardon should be met with bipartisan condemnation,” she added.
Mr. Trump defended the move to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, claiming, “Many of the people of Honduras said it was a Biden setup. … He was the president of the country, and they basically said he was a drug dealer because he was the president of the country. And they said it was a Biden administration setup, and I looked at the facts and I agreed with them.”
When asked what evidence he had seen to indicate Hernandez’s case was a setup, Mr. Trump said, “You take any country you want, if somebody sells drugs in that country, that doesn’t mean you arrest the president and put him in jail for the rest of his life.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday claimed it was a “clear Biden overprosecution,” alleging that there was some “egregious” information that came out during Hernandez’s trial.