Former President Juan Orlando Hernandez has returned to Honduras from the United States after President Donald Trump pardoned him after he received a 45-year jail sentence for drug trafficking.
Hernandez returned to the Central American country on Sunday, four years after being extradited to the US. He is now due to go on trial in Honduras on fraud and money-laundering charges, but activists worry that he will not face real justice.
Trump granted Hernandez a presidential pardon in December, asserting that he did not receive a fair trial and was set up by former US President Joe Biden’s administration.
“I cannot deny the profound emotion and joy I feel in my heart to be returning home,” Hernandez wrote on social media earlier this month, saying he was counting down the days to see his family.
“It wasn’t easy. The process has been extremely difficult … and what I experienced in prison, I truly wouldn’t wish on anyone,” he added.
As he arrived at Palmerola International Airport, he was greeted by his family and dozens of supporters of his National Party.
Despite his pardon on the US charges, Hernandez is expected to appear in court on August 3 to face the Honduran charges.
However, he was not detained upon arrival in Honduras because an arrest warrant was suspended in June, and local activists are concerned that the trial will turn out to be a sham.
“Everything points to the suspension being the first step,” said Joaquin Mejia, a lawyer and researcher for the Reflection, Research and Communication Team, a human rights organisation.
“He’ll come, they’ll likely issue him alternative measures to imprisonment to keep up appearances, and then he’ll end up without any problem, without any sanction.”
“There is a social majority that is outraged but doesn’t speak out because of fear,” Mejia added “We’re talking about the boss of all drug bosses.”
Hernandez, once considered an ally by the US in its “war on drugs”, led Honduras from 2014 to 2022. During that time, he said during a meeting with drug dealers that they would “shove the drugs right up the noses of the gringos”, according to a US prosecutor at his trial in New York.
A Pandora Papers corruption investigation accused Hernandez and other high-profile officials of diverting nearly $11m in state funds to political campaigns from 2010 to 2013. Some of this money was allegedly used for Hernandez’s first presidential campaign.
Former President Porfirio Lobo and ex-Finance Minister Wilfredo Cerrato were both implicated in the same investigation, and the charges against them were dismissed.
