The Japan Times - Honduras' Hernandez: Convicted drug trafficker pardoned by Trump

Last year, he was sentenced to decades in prison, convicted of helping to smuggle hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States starting in 2004, long before he became president.

On Tuesday, he walked free.

Despite US prosecutors saying he had turned Honduras into a "narco-state," the 57-year-old lawyer received a surprise pardon from US President Donald Trump.

Hernandez "has been, according to many people that I greatly respect, treated very harshly and unfairly," said Trump, whose administration has killed dozens of alleged but unproven drug smugglers in boat strikes in Latin America.

Hernandez himself has claimed that drug kingpins he helped extradite to the United States as president had falsely fingered him out of revenge.

A court in New York disagreed, ruling in June last year that "the role of Mr Hernandez was to use his political power as president of Congress and president of Honduras to limit the risks of drug traffickers in exchange of money."

- 'Up the gringos' own noses' -

During his two terms at the helm of Honduras from 2014 to 2022, right-winger Hernandez was thought of as a loyal ally in the US-led war on drugs.

Washington even supported his reelection in 2017 despite a constitutional term limit and accusations of fraud.

About 30 people were killed in clashes during post-election protests.

Prosecutors charged Hernandez with using drug money to enrich himself, finance his political campaigns and commit electoral fraud in the 2013 and 2017 elections.

Hernandez's legal woes started soon into his second term when his brother, Juan Antonio Hernandez, was arrested in Miami in 2018 and sentenced in March 2021 to life imprisonment for drug trafficking.

US support dwindled after prosecutors in New York accused Hernandez in 2022 of being part of a drug gang -- just weeks after his second term ended and he handed over power to leftist Xiomara Castro.

Castro stripped Hernandez of his immunity and approved his extradition to the United States using a law he had himself helped to pass as Congress president under pressure from Washington.

Several other accused drug smugglers implicated Hernandez in the illicit trade -- including a witness who testified hearing him say he would "stick the drug up the gringos' own noses."

In March 2024, he was convicted and in June that year sentenced to 45 years behind bars.

- From poverty to top job -

Born on October 28, 1968 into a poor rural family, Hernandez graduated from military school as an infantry lieutenant.

He earned a law degree from the Autonomous National University and then studied public administration in New York.

He entered politics in 1990 as his brother's assistant in parliament, becoming a lawmaker himself in 1998 and serving as president of Congress from 2010-14.

In that role he helped replace four of the five magistrates sitting on the constitutional court, the body that would later approve his run for a second term as president.

He also created a 5,000-strong military police force the opposition branded his own personal army.

While president, Hernandez was accused of trying to buy votes with food parcels and help for poor families to build their own homes.

He has four children with Ana Garcia de Hernandez, also a lawyer.

In 2021, with his presidential term drawing to a close, Hernandez told AFP he intended to retire and write his memoirs.

M.Sugiyama--JT