Honduras’ attorney general is demanding the arrest of former President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was recently pardoned by President .
Johel Antonio Zelaya Alvarez stated on Monday that he directed Honduran authorities and requested Interpol to carry out a 2023 arrest warrant against Hernández on suspicion of fraud and money laundering. Hernández, who received a 45-year sentence in 2024 for purportedly helping smuggle tons of cocaine into the U.S., was released from a U.S. federal prison one week ago.
“We have been torn apart by the and by the criminal networks that have deeply marked our nation’s life,” Zelaya said, according to a translation of his post on X.
Zelaya shared a photo of the two-year-old order—signed by a Honduran Supreme Court magistrate—which specifies it must be enforced “in the case that the accused is freed by United States authorities.”
Dozens of Honduran officials and politicians were implicated in the so-called Pandora case, where Honduran prosecutors alleged government funds were rerouted through a network of nongovernmental organizations to political parties, including Hernández’s 2013 presidential campaign, per The Associated Press.
Shortly after leaving office in 2022, Hernández went from being a supposed U.S. ally in the war on drugs to the target of a U.S. extradition request, the AP added. He was detained and sent to the U.S. by current President Xiomara Castro of the social democratic LIBRE party.
Renato Stabile, a lawyer for Hernández, told the AP via email: “This is clearly a purely political maneuver by the defeated Libre party to intimidate President Hernández as they are being ousted from power in Honduras. It’s disgraceful, a desperate act of political theater, and these charges are totally baseless.”
Hernández was released after Trump announced he was granting him a “” following his conviction for conspiring with drug traffickers to import more than 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S.
Trump said Hernández was “treated very harshly and unfairly,” implying he was or over-prosecuted.
Following a two-week trial, Hernández was found guilty in New York of conspiring to import cocaine into the U.S. and two related weapons offenses.
Per the AP, Hernández presented himself as a hero of the anti-drug trafficking movement, partnering with U.S. authorities across three presidential administrations to reduce drug imports. But the judge noted trial evidence proved the opposite: Hernández used “considerable acting skills” to appear as an anti-drug crusader while deploying his nation’s police and military, when necessary, to protect the drug trade.
Hernández later thanked Trump for pardoning him, writing on social media that he was “wrongfully convicted.”
“My deepest gratitude goes to President @realDonaldTrump for having the courage to defend justice at a moment when a weaponized system refused to acknowledge the truth. You reviewed the facts, recognized the injustice, and acted with conviction. You changed my life, sir, and I will never forget it,” Hernández posted on X.
Digital’s Ashley Carnahan, Michael Dorgan, Bradford Betz and