Just two days before Honduras’s closely watched presidential election, United States President Donald Trump stunned the international community with a sweeping announcement: he intends to grant a full and complete pardon to former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who is serving a 45-year sentence in the U.S. for drug trafficking and weapons charges. The move, delivered via a series of posts on Trump’s Truth Social platform on November 28, 2025, has sent shockwaves through Honduran politics and reignited debate over U.S. policy in Central America.
Hernandez, who led Honduras from 2014 to 2022, was extradited to the U.S. in April 2022. There, he faced a high-profile trial in New York, culminating in his March 2024 conviction for conspiring to import cocaine into the United States and possessing machine guns. Prosecutors accused Hernandez of accepting millions in bribes from powerful cartels—including the notorious Sinaloa cartel—to protect and facilitate US-bound cocaine shipments. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacob Gutwillig, in his closing arguments, painted a damning picture: Hernandez, he said, had “paved a cocaine superhighway to the United States.”
Despite these grave charges, Trump insisted Hernandez had been “treated very harshly and unfairly,” echoing the sentiments of “many people that I greatly respect.” In a social media post, Trump congratulated Hernandez on his “upcoming pardon” and declared, “MAKE HONDURAS GREAT AGAIN!” According to BBC, Trump’s message was both a personal endorsement of Hernandez and a broader political statement about the future of U.S.-Honduran relations.
Trump’s announcement comes at a critical juncture. Honduras is set to hold its presidential election on November 30, with the race widely considered a toss-up. Trump has thrown his support behind Nasry “Tito” Asfura, the conservative National Party candidate and former mayor of Tegucigalpa. Asfura’s party had previously forged close ties with the U.S. under Hernandez’s leadership. Trump warned that if Asfura loses, “the United States will not be throwing good money after bad, because a wrong Leader can only bring catastrophic results to a country, no matter which country it is.”
The election pits Asfura against Rixi Moncada, the former defense minister representing the ruling leftist LIBRE Party, and Salvador Nasralla, a centrist television host with the Liberal Party. Polls show a tight race, with no clear frontrunner, and political analysts warn that a contested result could plunge Honduras into further instability. The Organization of American States and Washington have both expressed concerns about the electoral process and pledged to monitor the vote closely, according to The Guardian.
Asfura, for his part, was quick to distance himself from the scandal-plagued former president. “I have no ties (with Hernandez),” he told AFP in a phone call, emphasizing, “He was president of the Republic, the party is not responsible for his personal actions.” Yet, the shadow of Hernandez’s conviction—and now Trump’s pardon—continues to loom large over the National Party’s campaign.
Trump’s intervention has not been limited to endorsements and pardons. He and other conservative figures have accused Moncada and Nasralla of being influenced by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Trump described Nasralla as “a borderline Communist” running to split the vote, and praised Asfura as “standing up for democracy” and fighting against Maduro’s influence. The Trump administration has previously accused Maduro, whose 2024 re-election was widely dismissed as rigged, of leading a drug cartel and exporting chaos across the region. Both Moncada and Nasralla have firmly denied any connections to Maduro or his government.
Since 2022, Honduras has been governed by President Xiomara Castro of the LIBRE Party. Castro, who leans left and has forged close ties with Cuba and Venezuela, has nevertheless maintained pragmatic cooperation with the U.S.—preserving the long-standing extradition treaty and hosting a U.S. military base tasked with targeting transnational organized crime. Under her administration, Honduras has acted as a bridge for deported Venezuelans and continued to receive its own citizens deported from the U.S.
The Trump administration’s approach to Central America has been marked by a mix of tough rhetoric and controversial actions. While casting himself as a hardliner on drugs—designating multiple cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations” and launching deadly airstrikes on suspected drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific—Trump’s decision to pardon Hernandez appears at odds with his anti-drug messaging. The military campaign, dubbed “Operation Southern Spear,” has resulted in over 80 deaths since early September 2025, according to BBC. U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has argued the strikes are necessary to remove “narcoterrorists” from the Western Hemisphere, but legal experts and humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, have condemned the operations as extrajudicial executions, raising serious questions about their legality and effectiveness.
At the time of Hernandez’s sentencing, former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland minced no words: Hernandez had “used his presidency to operate the country as a narco-state where violent drug traffickers were allowed to operate with virtual impunity, and the people of Honduras and the United States were forced to suffer the consequences.” The conviction was widely seen as a milestone in the fight against corruption and drug trafficking in Central America.
Yet, Trump’s pardon announcement has complicated the narrative. Some see it as a blatant political move aimed at influencing the Honduran election, while others argue it undermines U.S. efforts to combat drug trafficking and corruption. Roger Stone and other conservative figures have vocally supported Hernandez, framing him as a victim of political persecution. Meanwhile, rights groups and critics warn that the pardon sends a dangerous message to regional leaders tempted to collude with criminal organizations.
As Hondurans prepare to cast their votes, the country faces a crossroads. The next leader will inherit a nation grappling with deep-seated corruption, ongoing violence, and fraught relations with its most powerful neighbor. The outcome of Sunday’s election—and the fallout from Trump’s unprecedented intervention—will likely shape not only the future of Honduras, but also the trajectory of U.S. influence in the region for years to come.
For now, the eyes of the world are fixed on Tegucigalpa, where the stakes could hardly be higher.
