{"id":419886,"date":"2025-12-02T16:45:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T16:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/419886\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T16:45:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T16:45:16","slug":"juan-orlando-hernandez-released-from-us-prison-after-trump-pardon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/419886\/","title":{"rendered":"Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez released from US prison after Trump pardon"},"content":{"rendered":"

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) \u2014 Former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez, sentenced last year<\/a> to 45 years in prison for his role in helping drug traffickers move hundreds of tons of cocaine to the United States, was released from prison following a pardon from President Donald Trump<\/a>, his wife announced Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons inmate website showed that Hern\u00e1ndez was released from U.S. Penitentiary, Hazelton in West Virginia on Monday and a spokesperson for the bureau on Tuesday confirmed his release.<\/p>\n

His wife Ana Garc\u00eda thanked Trump for pardoning Hern\u00e1ndez<\/a> via the social platform X early Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter almost four years of pain, of waiting and difficult challenges, my husband Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez RETURNED to being a free man, thanks to the presidential pardon granted by President Donald Trump,\u201d Garc\u00eda\u2019s post said. She included a picture of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons listing for Hern\u00e1ndez indicating his release.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Trump was asked about why he pardoned Hernandez by reporters traveling with him on Air Force One.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was asked by Honduras, many of the people of Honduras,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people of Honduras really thought he was set up, and it was a terrible thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel.<\/p>\n


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\u201cThey basically said he was a drug dealer because he was the president of the country. And they said it was a Biden administration set-up. And I looked at the facts and I agreed with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hern\u00e1ndez was arrested at the request of the United States in February 2022, weeks after handing over power to current President Xiomara Castro.<\/p>\n

Two years later, he was sentenced to 45 years in prison in a New York federal courtroom for taking bribes from drug traffickers so they could safely move some 400 tons of cocaine north through Honduras to the United States.<\/p>\n

Hern\u00e1ndez maintained throughout that he was innocent and the victim of revenge by drug traffickers he had helped extradite to the United States.<\/p>\n

During his sentencing in New York, federal Judge P. Kevin Castel said the punishment should serve as a warning to \u201cwell educated, well dressed\u201d individuals who gain power and think their status insulates them from justice when they do wrong.<\/p>\n

Hern\u00e1ndez portrayed himself as a hero of the anti-drug trafficking movement who teamed up with American authorities under three U.S. presidential administrations to reduce drug imports.<\/p>\n

But the judge said trial evidence proved the opposite and that Hern\u00e1ndez employed \u201cconsiderable acting skills\u201d to make it seem that he was an anti-drug trafficking crusader while he deployed his nation\u2019s police and military, when necessary, to protect the drug trade.<\/p>\n

Hern\u00e1ndez is not guaranteed a quick return to Honduras.<\/p>\n

Immediately after Trump announced his intention to pardon Hern\u00e1ndez, Honduras Attorney General Johel Zelaya said via X that his office was obligated to seek justice and put an end to impunity.<\/p>\n

He did not specify what charges Hern\u00e1ndez could face in Honduras. There were various corruption-related investigations of his administration across two terms in office that did not lead to charges against him. President Xiomara Castro, who had Hern\u00e1ndez arrested and extradited him to the U.S., will remain in office until January.<\/p>\n

The pardon promised by Trump days before Honduras\u2019 presidential election injected a new element<\/a> into the contest that some said helped the candidate from his National Party Nasry Asfura, one of the leaders as the vote count proceeded Tuesday.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Catalini reported from Trenton, New Jersey. Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer contributed from Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) \u2014 Former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez, sentenced last year to 45 years in prison…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":419887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[196405,3881,1613,69,20228,57,6500,193527,1612,90048,2936,181121,50,130635,80,2938,61,67,370,132,68,93,13642,107,51483,193528],"class_list":{"0":"post-419886","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-ana-garca","10":"tag-ap-top-news","11":"tag-central-america","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-drug-crimes","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-honduras","16":"tag-juan-orlando-hernandez","17":"tag-latin-america","18":"tag-law-and-order","19":"tag-law-enforcement","20":"tag-local-news-for-apple","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-pardons-and-commutations","23":"tag-politics","24":"tag-prisons","25":"tag-u-s-news","26":"tag-united-states","27":"tag-united-states-government","28":"tag-unitedstates","29":"tag-us","30":"tag-washington-news","31":"tag-west-virginia","32":"tag-world-news","33":"tag-wv-state-wire","34":"tag-xiomara-castro"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115650987698176577","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}