Trump Pardons Honduran Leader as Part of Larger Latin America Strategy
On November 28, 2025, President Trump announced he will grant a full and complete pardon to former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted in U.S. federal court on drug-trafficking and firearms charges.
He was sentenced to forty-five years in prison and has been portrayed by U.S. law-enforcement agencies as the central figure in what they described as a narco-state during his presidency.
Hernández was extradited to the United States in 2022 and has been serving his sentence at the U.S. Penitentiary in Hazelton, West Virginia, while appealing his conviction.
Trump’s intervention revived questions about Washington’s history with Honduras’s National Party, which has long cooperated with U.S. migration and security initiatives.
Hernández’s lawyer publicly thanked Trump, calling the pardon a correction of an injustice and expressing hope for renewed partnership between the United States and Honduras.
The pardon announcement was paired with Trump’s endorsement of Nasry Tito Asfura, the conservative National Party candidate in Honduras’s upcoming election.
Trump said the United States would strongly support Honduras if Asfura wins, warning that Washington would not “throw good money after bad” if a different candidate prevails.
Asfura is a long-time conservative politician and former mayor of Tegucigalpa making his second presidential bid, and he has denied past allegations of embezzling public funds.
His candidacy aligns with the National Party’s traditional cooperation with the United States on migration enforcement, extradition, and security coordination.
Trump portrays Asfura as the candidate most willing to work with the United States on drug enforcement and border security.
Asfura’s main competitors are Rixi Moncada and Salvador Nasralla. Moncada is a senior figure in the ruling Libre party, founded by Manuel Zelaya, and has served as both finance and defense secretary.
Libre identifies itself as democratic socialist and aligns with the Latin American left, modeling itself on the Cuba–Venezuela–Nicaragua bloc and maintaining close ties with those governments.
Moncada has long been part of the Honduran socialist left, serving in Zelaya’s government and later in Xiomara Castro’s administration. Trump argues that a Libre victory would deepen Honduras’s ties with Cuba, Venezuela, and China.
These concerns intensified after Castro’s government severed relations with Taiwan in 2023 and recognized Beijing, altering Honduras’s regional position and influencing U.S. policy toward Tegucigalpa.
The other candidate is Salvador Nasralla, a former television personality running for the Liberal Party.
Trump has framed the election as a test for Honduran democracy, warning that a loss for Asfura could push the country toward the influence of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.
He has dismissed Nasralla as a spoiler who could divide the vote and enable a Libre victory.
Nasralla is a long-time political figure known for anti-corruption campaigns and multiple presidential bids and has at times formed tactical alliances with both major parties.
Trump’s statements present his candidacy as a threat to conservative consolidation rather than criticizing specific policy proposals.
Outgoing Honduran President Xiomara Castro has maintained a pragmatic relationship with the United States despite ideological differences.
Her government extended cooperation on extradition, accepted deported Honduran nationals, and acted as a transit point for Venezuelans returned from the United States.
Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, also endorsed Asfura, calling him the strongest opponent of leftist forces in Honduras.
These political interventions are unfolding amid major shifts in U.S.–Honduras relations. In mid-2025, DHS terminated Temporary Protected Status for approximately seventy thousand Hondurans in the United States, with protections scheduled to end in September 2025.
At the same time, the United States and Honduras revived and updated an asylum-transfer arrangement allowing the United States to send some non-Honduran asylum seekers to Honduras for processing.
Honduran nationals and unaccompanied minors are excluded. Beginning in April 2025, Honduran exports to the United States became subject to a ten percent tariff under Trump’s wider tariff policy.
A Congressional Research Service brief described the tariff as part of U.S. leverage on trade, migration, and security cooperation.
The administration also imposed visa restrictions on Central American individuals linked to Chinese influence, a measure intended to counter Beijing’s expanded presence in Honduras after Castro recognized China in 2023.
Trump’s Honduras policy reflects his broader Latin America strategy, centered on migration control, anti-drug enforcement, and opposition to leftist governments aligned with Cuba, Venezuela, and China.
He has increased pressure on Nicolás Maduro, the authoritarian socialist leader of Venezuela, whose government is aligned with Cuba and China and has been linked by U.S. officials to narcotrafficking networks.
Maduro continued the socialist economic program that drove Venezuela from one of Latin America’s wealthiest countries to one of its poorest, producing one of the largest migration crises in the world.
Trump has responded through military operations targeting drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean and has not ruled out additional military or covert action.
Honduras fits into this wider regional posture, as Trump uses political pressure, visa restrictions, and economic tools to encourage alignment with U.S. priorities and to counter the growing influence of leftist governments and China in the hemisphere.
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