Honduras seeks arrest of ex-President Hernández after Trump pardon

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Honduras Attorney General Johel Zelaya said Monday that he had ordered Honduran authorities and asked Interpol to execute a 2023 arrest order for ex-President Juan Orlando Hernández, pardoned by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Hernández was released from federal prison in the United States last week after Trump pardoned him. Hernández had been sentenced in U.S. federal court last year to 45 years in prison for helping move tons of cocaine to the United States.

Hernández went from supposed U.S. ally in the war on drugs to the subject of a U.S. extradition request shortly after he left office in 2022. He was detained and sent to the U.S. by current President Xiomara Castro of the social democrat LIBRE party.

Zelaya included a photo of the two-year-old order signed by a Supreme Court magistrate for alleged fraud and money laundering charges. The order says that it must be executed “in the case that the accused is freed by United States authorities.”

Dozens of Honduran officials and politicians were implicated in the so-called Pandora case in which Honduran prosecutors alleged government funds were diverted through a network on nongovernmental organizations to political parties, including Hernández’s 2013 presidential campaign.

A lawyer for Hernández, Renato Stabile, said in an email that, “This is obviously a strictly political move on behalf of the defeated Libre party to try to intimidate President Hernandez as they are being kicked out of power in Honduras. It is shameful and a desperate piece of political theatre and these charges are completely baseless.”

Zelaya had said after Trump announced his intention to pardon Hernández that his office would have to take action to end impunity.

Hernández’s wife said after his release that the former president was in an undisclosed location for his safety.

The drama comes while Honduras is still waiting to find out who its next president will be.

Trump endorsed Nasry Asfura, a former Tegucigalpa mayor from Hernández’s conservative National Party. Asfura was leading Salvador Nasralla, also a conservative from the Liberal Party, by barely a percentage point as the vote count slowly advanced.

An Asfura victory could potentially smooth the way for Hernández’s eventual return to Honduras. Nasralla has made fighting corruption the centerpiece of his campaign and has said Hernández stole the 2017 election from him in a vote that was full of irregularities.

Hernández always denied any wrongdoing while in office and insisted he was among the strongest antidrug allies of the United States.

Trump had announced his intention to pardon Hernández just days before Honduras’ national elections, throwing a new element into a close contest. While some Hondurans remain nostalgic for Hernández’s two terms in office, many were shocked that a man convicted of drug trafficking in a closely watched trial could suddenly be released early in his sentence.

Trump said Hondurans had requested the pardon for Hernández and that after looking at his case he decided Hernández had been unfairly treated by prosecutors.