On the eve of elections in Honduras, a country with a history of political violence, Trump<\/a> said that Hern\u00e1ndez had been treated \u201cvery harshly and unfairly\u201d.<\/p>\n Interrupting his Thanksgiving golfing holiday in Mar-a-Lago, Trump said he would issue a \u201cfull and complete pardon\u201d for Hern\u00e1ndez after listening to \u201cmany people that I greatly respect\u201d.<\/p>\n At the same time, Trump endorsed Nasry \u201cTito\u201d Asfura in Sunday\u2019s elections, the presidential candidate from the same conservative party as Hern\u00e1ndez, and threatened to cut off hundreds of millions of dollars of US aid to Honduras if voters rejected him.<\/p>\n Campaign banners for Nasry \u201cTito\u201d Asfura<\/p>\n ORLANDO SIERRA\/AFP\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n People line up to vote at a polling station in Tegucigalpa<\/p>\n GUSTAVO AMADOR\/EPA<\/p>\n \u201cIf he doesn\u2019t win, the United States will not be throwing good money after bad,\u201d he wrote on Truth Social.<\/p>\n The original \u201cbanana republic\u201d, Honduras suffered repeated invasions from its northern neighbour during the early 20th century when US marines were dispatched to protect the interests of the United Fruit Company.<\/p>\n Now, it is once again being closely watched by Washington.<\/p>\n The country\u2019s recent tumult began when Manuel Zelaya, the country\u2019s left-wing president, was ousted in a coup in 2009.<\/p>\n Seizing on the political instability, the cartels began shipping cocaine through Honduras.<\/p>\n Amid the chaos, Hern\u00e1ndez, a conservative from the National Party better known by his initials \u201cJOH\u201d, was elected in 2013 with a promise to end the drug violence.<\/p>\n In fact, US prosecutors allege Hern\u00e1ndez had already developed a close relationship with some of the most feared gang leaders in the region.<\/p>\n He was photographed posing with a thumbs-up beside a notorious drug dealer at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa<\/a>. Before the election in 2013, his brother, Tony Hern\u00e1ndez, accepted a hand-delivered $1 million bribe from the Mexican drug lord Joaqu\u00edn \u201cEl Chapo\u201d Guzm\u00e1n, in exchange for which Honduras was expected to become a major hub for Colombian cocaine being shipped to the US. <\/p>\n During his eight years in power, Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez upheld his side of the bargain, it is alleged.<\/p>\n While presenting himself as a model ally of the US, offering to stop the migrant \u201ccaravans\u201d heading to the US-Mexican border during Trump\u2019s first term, he was in fact enriching himself through his dealings with the Sinaloa Cartel run by El Chapo and the MS-13 gang declared a terrorist organisation by the Trump administration earlier this year.<\/p>\n \u2022 Seventeen of El Chapo\u2019s family enter US in \u2018secret cartel deal\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n His brother, implicated in a number of brutal killings, wielded an Uzi engraved with \u201cPresidente de la Rep\u00fablica\u201d on his behalf, prosecutors later alleged. The initials \u201cJOH\u201d were found on ledgers for drug payments.<\/p>\n Police near a polling station in Tegucigalpa on Sunday<\/p>\n GUSTAVO AMADOR\/EPA<\/p>\n Despite the Honduran constitution banning candidates from serving multiple terms, Hern\u00e1ndez won re-election in 2017, a result that triggered protests in which 23 people died.<\/p>\n However, his luck ran out when President Biden replaced Trump in 2020. Under Biden, the US decided the man claiming to be a friend of Washington was no such thing.<\/p>\n When Hern\u00e1ndez left office in 2022, Kamala Harris<\/a>, the vice-president, was briefed on the corruption and drug-trafficking allegations facing the former Honduran president. \u201cLet\u2019s go get him now,\u201d she supposedly said.<\/p>\n Hern\u00e1ndez was arrested by US authorities in Honduras with the co-operation of the country\u2019s new president, Xiomara Castro, who is the wife of Zelaya, the leftwinger ousted in the 2009 coup.<\/p>\n He was brought to the US in handcuffs in 2022 and, at the end of a humiliating trial, Hern\u00e1ndez was sentenced to 45 years on cocaine trafficking and weapons charges in June last year.<\/p>\n Hern\u00e1ndez is escorted to Toncontin International Airport in 2022 after a US extradition request<\/p>\n TOMAS AYUSO\/BLOOMBERG\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n Now, his sudden release has raised tensions in Honduras just as voters go to the polls.<\/p>\n In Sunday\u2019s election, Rixi Moncada, the left-wing heir to Castro, is facing a challenge from Asfura, the National Party candidate endorsed by Trump, and Salvador Nasralla, a right-wing sports broadcaster.<\/p>\n Rixi Moncada<\/p>\n JOSE CABEZAS\/REUTERS<\/p>\n Posters for presidential candidates in Tegucigalpa<\/p>\n EMMANUEL ANDRES\/AP<\/p>\n Trump has said that Nasralla is a stalking horse candidate put up by \u201ccommunists\u201d to divide the right-wing vote.<\/p>\n The president\u2019s clemency towards Hern\u00e1ndez contrasts with his wider approach in central and south America, where he has vowed to clamp down on \u201cnarco-terrorism\u201d, most recently declaring the airspace above Venezuela closed as he edges towards approving airstrikes on the regime of President Maduro.<\/p>\n \u2022 Will Trump invade Venezuela \u2014 and what comes next?<\/a><\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/\/ca16e066-2366-40d5-ae21-65716166e71b.jpg\")
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