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Trump miscasts the case as he pardons a former Honduran president convicted of trafficking cocaine into the US

Poynter · Maria Briceño · last updated

As the U.S. continued its military campaign against what the Trump administration calls “narco-terrorists” in the Caribbean, President Donald Trump announced he would pardon a former Honduran president notorious for his involvement in the U.S. drug trade.

Juan Orlando Hernández was sentenced in 2024 to 45 years in prison after being convicted for conspiring to distribute over 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S.

During a Nov. 30 exchange with reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said Hernández had been “set up” by former U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration. “If somebody sells drugs in that country, that doesn’t mean you arrest the president and put him in jail for the rest of his life,” Trump said, without providing evidence of a “set-up.”

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