![\"Former](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/rcv.YNA.20260727.PRU20260727136901009_P1.jpg\")
Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez gestures as he is being greeted by family and friends back in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Sunday. (Reuters-Yonhap) <\/p>\n Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez gestures as he is being greeted by family and friends back in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Sunday. (Reuters-Yonhap) <\/p>\n
Honduran ex-president Juan Orlando Hernandez — who was serving a 45-year prison sentence in the US for drug trafficking until President Donald Trump pardoned him last year — returned to his home country on Sunday.<\/p>\n
After touching down in a private plane near the capital, Tegucigalpa, he traveled to a rally in the town of Comayagua.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a farm in front of hundreds of supporters, Hernandez thanked Trump for the pardon.<\/p>\n
“The most well-informed president in the world said, ‘I reviewed it — my team and I reviewed it in detail — and a tremendous injustice has been committed here; it is a witch hunt, it is the use of the justice system as a political weapon,'” Hernandez said.<\/p>\n
He is due to appear in court on Aug. 3 to face fraud and money-laundering charges, which he denies, claiming to be the continued victim of “persecution.” He is accused of diverting $2 million in public funds to finance his first presidential campaign.<\/p>\n
A judge suspended an arrest warrant against him after he agreed to appear voluntarily.<\/p>\n
“The last thing I’m going to do is hang my head when the truth is on my side,” he said.<\/p>\n
Hernandez led the Central American nation from 2014 to 2022, but was extradited shortly after leaving office by his left-leaning successor, Xiomara Castro, to face US drug trafficking charges.<\/p>\n
A US court found him guilty in 2024 of having helped smuggle hundreds of tons of cocaine into the US in alliance with cartel leaders, including Mexico’s notorious Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.<\/p>\n
But in a surprise move just days before Honduras’s presidential election last year, Trump pardoned Hernandez.<\/p>\n
The US president also threatened to withhold aid to the country if Hernandez’s ally and fellow conservative Nasry Asfura did not win.<\/p>\n
Trump’s intervention sparked outcry in Honduras and claims by Castro and her allies of foreign interference in the election, which was ultimately won by Asfura.<\/p>\n
The pardon also sparked accusations of hypocrisy against Trump, as he had recently launched his military campaign against drug traffickers in Latin America, striking boats alleged to be cartel-affiliated.<\/p>\n
Upon granting the pardon last year, Trump claimed — without evidence — that Hernandez was “set up” by the administration of former US president Joe Biden.<\/p>\n
“We are very happy and very excited” to welcome him back, said Eva Amador, 56, a supporter of the former president, as she held a banner Sunday with a message thanking Trump.<\/p>\n
Hernandez previously said he was returning “without any electoral ambitions,” but left the door open to a return to politics in his speech Sunday if he sees “radicalism” returning to Honduras — referring to the previous left-wing government.<\/p>\n
His reelection in 2017 was mired in controversy, first over a Supreme Court decision that paved the way for him to serve a consecutive term despite a constitutional ban, and then widespread claims of irregularities in the vote.<\/p>\n
Following protests over the vote, Hernandez ordered a crackdown that left around thirty people dead.<\/p>\n
“His return with complete impunity and without punishment for those crimes is a tremendous slap in the face to the victims,” legal analyst Joaquin Mejia told AFP. (AFP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez gestures as he is being greeted by family and friends back in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51767,8915,51766,195,51768,34303,1722],"class_list":["post-99972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-korea","tag-hernandez","tag-home","tag-honduran","tag-k-pop","tag-plane","tag-prison","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}