Why has Trump pardoned Honduras’s drug trafficker ex-president?
Juan Orlando Hernández was jailed for helping smuggle cocaine into the US but is now free
The Global Story · BBC World Service
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Show Notes
President Donald Trump has pardoned Juan Orlando Hernández, a former president of Honduras who was serving a 45-year sentence for drug trafficking and weapons offences.
It was only last year that Hernández was convicted in a New York courtroom of being part of a huge drug trafficking conspiracy, after being extradited to the US. Prosecutors said the operation flooded America with cocaine and turned Honduras into a “narco-state”. But Trump has claimed the investigation was a Biden administration “set up”, and Hernández is now a free man.
As the Trump administration ramps up its military threats against Latin American drug cartels, including multiple strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean, why has it pardoned Hernández? Will Grant reports.
Producer: Xandra Ellin, Hannah Moore and Viv Jones
Executive producer: James Shield
Sound engineer: Travis Evans
Senior news editor: China Collins
(Photo: Juan Orlando Hernandez being escorted by US agents for extradition in 2022. Credit: Fredy Rodriguez/Reuters)