PALM BEACH: US President Donald Trump on Friday made a major intervention into Honduran politics days before the country’s presidential election, pardoning a convicted ex-leader and threatening to cut US support if his preferred candidate loses.

Trump said he will pardon ex-president Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was convicted last year in a US court of drug trafficking charges and sentenced to 45 years in prison. Hernandez, who led the Central American nation from 2014 to 2022, was accused by US prosecutors of facilitating the import of some 400 tons of cocaine into the United States.

He was extradited to the United States just weeks after leaving office, when the current president, leftist Xiomara Castro, came to power.

Trump’s stunning announcement came in a social media post proclaiming support for Nasry Asfura, the candidate of Hernandez’s right-wing party in Honduras’s presidential election on Sunday.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2025