Just 3 days after Trump posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) he would give Juan Orlando Hernández a “full and complete pardon”, Hernández was freed from prison on December 1st, 2025. Hernández, who was President of Honduras from 2014 to 2022, was arrested in June 2024 with a 45- year sentence. He was charged with “conspiring to import cocaine into the United States, using and carrying machine guns and destructive devices to advance that trafficking conspiracy, and conspiring to use such weapons” by a U.S. federal jury in Manhattan.
The decision to pardon Hernández was met with concerns from both Republicans and Democrats alike, as many believe the pardon to be unreasonable given what Hernández was charged with. As the United States builds up credibility against the war on drugs, this decision challenges some of those foundations and risks undermining the credibility of the justice system. This establishes a troubling idea that with enough political influence and power, high-level officials may be shielded from the consequences of their crimes.
Hernández’s main crime was the drug trafficking ring he had established while president. U.S. authorities described the scheme as “state-sponsored drug trafficking”. He used public institutions, security forces, and political influence to protect traffickers in exchange for political support and bribes. He received millions in drug money and used it to pay for his political campaign as well as bribe other officials, as stated by the prosecutors.
However outside of drug trafficking, he was also charged for human rights violations that have yet to be acknowledged in full. Reports state that under his leadership, he had dozens of journalists, lawyers, and human rights activists killed or harmed. One notable example being the assassination of human rights activist Berta Cáceres in 2016. Honduras’s submission to the UN Human Rights Committee claims that around 219 journalists, lawyers, and human rights activists were killed.
Many congress members have expressed their concerns and disapproval of the decision to pardon Hernández; there is potential for congress to use their oversight authority in order to scrutinize the decision and discuss its potential to harm the United States’ security interests as well as their relationship with Honduras.
In the meantime, Honduras has decided to move forward with activating domestic charges and placing an international warrant on Hernández’s arrest for other alleged charges that happened during his regime.
