A court in Honduras has dropped charges against former President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who returned to the country in July after being pardoned in the United States for a drug-trafficking conviction.
Hernandez had been accused of fraud and money laundering as part of a corruption scheme from ۲۰۱۰ to ۲۰۱۳, before his presidency.
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But on Tuesday, judiciary spokesperson Carlos Silva told reporters that Hernandez was not responsible for budgetary decisions at the time of the crimes. Hernandez, a prominent politician in the right-wing National Party, celebrated the decision as a vindication.
“This chapter of political persecution has now ended,” Hernandez said after the decision.
He argued that the case against him “had no basis” and was pursued for political purposes.
“Those who orchestrated this operation not only wanted to see me banished from Honduras forever, never to return, but they were determined to leave my family on the street,” he said.
But Hernandez, known by his initials JOH, has faced repeated scrutiny during his time as a rising political figure in Honduras. He served as president of the country from ۲۰۱۴ to ۲۰۲۲.
Even during his term in office, reports indicated that he had come under the investigation of the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
Though he was considered an ally of the US-backed “war on drugs”, prosecutors would later accuse him of abusing his power, using his position to help drug traffickers smuggle narcotics while collecting bribes to accelerate his political ascent.
The US Department of Justice said he was the “center of one of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking conspiracies in the world”.
Within months of his presidency’s end, in April ۲۰۲۲, Honduran officials extradited Hernandez to the US. In court filings, US prosecutors quoted Hernandez as saying he would “shove the drugs right up the noses of the gringos”.
He was convicted in ۲۰۲۴ and sentenced to ۴۵ years in prison.
Many Hondurans had celebrated his March ۲۰۲۴ conviction in the US as a rare case of a powerful official being held accountable. There were demonstrations outside the New York City court where his sentencing took place, with protesters waving Honduran flags.
But when US President Donald Trump returned to office in ۲۰۲۵, he sought to advance the interests of his fellow right-wing leaders across Latin America, including by offering political and economic support during elections.
Honduras held general elections to select a new president and members of Congress in November ۲۰۲۵.
Days before the vote, however, Trump pledged to pardon Hernandez and threatened to withhold aid from Honduras.
The vote count stretched on for weeks as the race for president came down to two right-wing candidates: the centrist Salvador Nasralla and Nasry Asfura, from Hernandez’s National Party.
On December ۲, in the midst of the vote count, Trump followed through with his pardon for Hernandez. He claimed that Hernandez had been “treated very harshly and unfairly” under his predecessor, former US President Joe Biden.
Asfura ultimately won the presidential race.
But even with a pardon in the US, Hernandez faced legal jeopardy at home in Honduras.
He faced charges as part of the Pandora case, a corruption scandal in the Central American country.
The case centred around accusations that top officials, including Hernandez, funnelled public funds to their political campaigns through government disbursements.
Prosecutors said the officials involved in the scandal diverted roughly $۱۰.۸m in state funds between ۲۰۱۰ and ۲۰۱۳. Hernandez allegedly received about $۲.۳m. Some of those funds were allegedly used to finance his presidential campaign.
The domestic arrest warrant Hernandez faced, however, was suspended, allowing him to return to Honduras in July.
Analysts expressed concern that Trump’s backing and the National Party’s control of the government could turn the trial into a sham process.
Honduras’s judiciary on Tuesday maintained that the evidence “did not establish the defendant’s participation in the investigated events”.
Other politicians involved in the Pandora scandal, including former President Porfirio Lobo and ex-Finance Minister Wilfredo Cerrato, have also seen their charges dropped.
