{"id":73135,"date":"2025-12-05T23:57:35","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T23:57:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/73135\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T23:57:35","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T23:57:35","slug":"hondurass-juan-orlando-hernandez-freed-from-prison-after-donald-trump-pardon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/73135\/","title":{"rendered":"Honduras’s Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez freed from prison after Donald Trump pardon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez was released from prison Monday<\/a> after President Trump pardoned him of charges related to assisting drug traffickers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter nearly four years of pain, waiting, and difficult trials, my husband Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez RETURNED to being a free man, thanks to the presidential pardon granted by President Donald Trump,\u201d former Honduras first lady Ana Garc\u00eda Car\u00edas wrote early Tuesday on the social platform X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday we give thanks to God, because He is just and His timing is perfect,\u201d she continued. \u201cThank you, Mr. President, for restoring our hope and for recognizing a truth that we always knew. To all the friends who supported us, to those who never stopped praying, defending the truth, and believing in justice: this miracle is also yours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hern\u00e1ndez\u00a0was sentenced\u00a0to 45 years in prison<\/a> in July 2024 after being convicted of more than 10 years of collaboration with drug traffickers seeking to move cocaine into the U.S., according to The Associated Press. Trump pardoned him<\/a> Friday, saying the former leader was \u201ctreated very harshly and unfairly.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked aboard Air Force One why he granted clemency to the former leader, Trump told reporters he was asked by \u201cmany of the people of Honduras.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey basically said he was a drug dealer because he was the president of the country,\u201d Trump said. \u201cAnd they said it was a Biden administration setup. And I looked at the facts and I agreed with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pardon came just days before Hondurans went to the polls<\/a> to vote for a new president. Trump threw his support behind<\/a> conservative candidate Nasry \u201cTito\u201d Asfura, \u201cbecause the United States has so much confidence in him, his Policies, and what he will do for the Great People of Honduras, we will be very supportive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he doesn\u2019t win, 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,\u201d Trump added.<\/p>\n

One of Trump\u2019s Republican allies disagreed with the pardon: Florida GOP Rep.\u00a0Maria Elvira Salazar said that she \u201cwould have not\u201d pardoned Hern\u00e1ndez<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But, she acknowledged, \u201cI\u2018m not in the Oval Office,\u201d pivoting to Trump\u2019s Venezuela strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do know that right now what the president is doing with Venezuela is exactly correct for many reasons,\u201d Salazar told CNN anchor Dana Bash on Monday, referring to rising tensions between the U.S and Venezuela<\/a> over alleged drug trafficking<\/a>. \u201cAnd that\u2018s why I stick to what I\u2018m telling you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Florida Republican added, \u201cWell, we are in an imperfect world, but I would have not taken that action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez was released from prison Monday after President Trump pardoned him of charges…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[41856,11742,14690,41857,139,141,140,4945,41858],"class_list":{"0":"post-73135","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-caribbean-boat-strikes","9":"tag-drug-trafficking","10":"tag-honduras","11":"tag-honduras-election","12":"tag-orlando","13":"tag-orlando-headlines","14":"tag-orlando-news","15":"tag-trump-administration","16":"tag-trump-pardon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}