Honduras has been thrust into the international spotlight once again after its attorney general issued an international arrest warrant for former President Juan Orlando Hernandez, days after he was released from a United States federal prison following a controversial pardon by President Donald Trump. The move marks a dramatic escalation in the legal and political battles swirling around the ex-leader, whose legacy is now mired in allegations of corruption and drug trafficking.
On December 8, 2025, Attorney General Johel Antonio Zelaya announced via social media that he had directed the country’s main investigative agency and Interpol to execute the arrest order against Hernandez. According to Reuters, Zelaya’s post included a photograph of the Supreme Court’s arrest order, dated November 28—the same day Trump revealed his intention to pardon the ex-president. The timing has not gone unnoticed in Honduras or abroad, fueling speculation about political motives and international pressure.
"We have been lacerated by the tentacles of corruption and by criminal networks that have profoundly marked the life of our country," Zelaya stated in his post, emphasizing that the warrant was issued to coincide with the International Day Against Corruption, commemorated on December 9. The symbolism was clear: Honduras’s top prosecutor wanted to send a message that impunity would not stand, even for the nation’s former leader.
Hernandez, who served as president from 2014 until 2022, was extradited to the United States in 2022 at the request of U.S. authorities. Just a year later, he was convicted in a New York federal court of drug- and weapons-related offenses, including helping to move more than 400 tons of cocaine through Honduras into the United States. U.S. prosecutors argued that Hernandez had transformed his country into a "narco-state," using his office to protect and profit from drug cartels. The case, described by prosecutors as "one of the largest and most violent drug trafficking conspiracies in the world," resulted in a 45-year prison sentence and an $8 million fine for the former president, as reported by CNN.
But the legal troubles did not end there. Back home, Hernandez faces a raft of domestic charges tied to the so-called Pandora II anti-corruption investigation. Honduran prosecutors allege that he, along with other politicians and businesspeople, illegally diverted state funds through a web of nongovernmental organizations, funneling money to political campaigns—including his own in 2013. According to the Associated Press, Hernandez was charged in 2023 with misappropriating more than $12 million in state funds for political purposes, and the Pandora II probe alleges he received about $2.4 million in kickbacks from public contracts.
The arrest warrant, as detailed by NBC News, explicitly states that it must be executed if Hernandez is freed by U.S. authorities—a contingency that suddenly became reality when Trump granted him a full pardon. Trump’s decision, announced just days before the November 30 Honduran presidential election, has drawn sharp criticism from both sides of the political aisle in the U.S. and Honduras. The former president defended his move, writing on social media, "I will be granting a Full and Complete Pardon to Former President Juan Orlando Hernandez who has been, according to many people that I greatly respect, treated very harshly and unfairly." At a press conference, Trump further characterized the prosecution as a "Biden horrible witch hunt," echoing rhetoric familiar from his own legal battles.
Hernandez’s release and the subsequent arrest warrant have sent shockwaves through Honduran politics, coming at a sensitive time as the nation awaited the results of a tightly contested presidential election. Trump’s pardon was accompanied by an endorsement of Nasry "Tito" Asfura, the candidate from Hernandez’s right-wing National Party, who was leading with 40.52% of the vote as of December 8, according to the National Electoral Council. The outcome remained uncertain, with about 16% of tally sheets flagged for irregularities and international observers urging authorities to reassure voters of the election’s integrity, the Associated Press reported.
The political implications of Hernandez’s fate are hard to ignore. Asfura’s main rival, Salvador Nasralla, has centered his campaign on anti-corruption themes and has accused Hernandez of stealing the 2017 election through widespread irregularities. An Asfura victory could potentially pave the way for Hernandez’s eventual return to Honduras, while a Nasralla win would likely mean continued legal pressure on the former president and his allies.
Hernandez’s legal team has dismissed the arrest warrant as a "strictly political move" by the ruling Libre party, which is currently being forced out of power, according to his attorney Renato Stabile. "It is a shameful and desperate piece of political theatre and these charges are completely baseless," Stabile told CNN. Meanwhile, Luis Santos, director of Honduras’ Specialized Unit against Corruption Crimes, confirmed that Hernandez has an open case in the Supreme Court for money laundering and fraud, and that an earlier international arrest warrant has been in place since September 2023. If Hernandez does not return to Honduras voluntarily, authorities have said they will seek his extradition from the United States.
For his part, Hernandez has maintained his innocence throughout, insisting that he was the victim of a "rigged" trial based on the testimony of criminals seeking revenge. In a recent social media post, he thanked Trump "for having the courage to defend justice at a moment when a weaponized system refused to acknowledge the truth." Throughout his presidency and subsequent legal troubles, Hernandez has portrayed himself as a staunch U.S. ally in the war on drugs, a claim that now sits uneasily alongside the damning evidence presented in his U.S. trial.
The controversy has also exposed divisions among U.S. politicians. Trump’s pardon drew criticism from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, who questioned the wisdom of freeing a convicted drug trafficker at a time when the U.S. has been ramping up efforts to disrupt drug flows from Latin America. The Biden administration, for its part, has not commented publicly on the matter, but the episode has fueled debate over the politicization of justice and the use of presidential pardons for foreign leaders.
As of now, Hernandez remains in the United States, with his wife citing safety concerns as the reason for not returning to Honduras immediately. The former president’s future hangs in the balance, caught between the competing forces of international law, domestic politics, and the enduring scourge of corruption that has long plagued Honduras.
While the world watches to see whether the arrest warrant will be executed—and what impact the ongoing turmoil will have on Honduras’s fragile democracy—one thing is clear: the saga of Juan Orlando Hernandez is far from over, and its reverberations will be felt in Tegucigalpa and beyond for years to come.