COMAYAGUA, Honduras — Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández returned to Honduras on Sunday after receiving a pardon from U.S. President Donald Trump last year, ending his imprisonment in the United States for drug trafficking.
Hernández arrived aboard a private plane near Tegucigalpa before traveling to Comayagua, where he addressed hundreds of supporters at a rally.
Speaking at the event, Hernández thanked Trump for granting him a pardon.
“He reviewed it in detail and concluded that a tremendous injustice had been committed,” Hernández said, quoting the U.S. president.
Hernández is scheduled to appear in a Honduran court on Aug. 3 to face fraud and money laundering charges. Prosecutors accuse him of diverting $2 million in public funds to finance his first presidential campaign. He denies the allegations, calling them part of continued political persecution.
A judge suspended an arrest warrant after Hernández agreed to appear voluntarily in court.
Hernández served as Honduras’ president from 2014 to 2022. After leaving office, he was extradited to the United States, where a federal court convicted him in 2024 of helping traffic hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States in coordination with drug cartels, including associates of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
Trump granted Hernández a pardon days before Honduras’ presidential election last year, saying—without presenting evidence—that the former president had been unfairly prosecuted.
The pardon drew criticism in Honduras, with opponents accusing Trump of interfering in the country’s election and questioning the decision amid his administration’s anti-drug trafficking campaign in Latin America.
During Sunday’s rally, Hernández said he had no immediate plans to seek elected office but did not rule out a future political return if he believed Honduras was moving toward what he described as political radicalism.
His 2017 reelection was widely disputed after a court allowed him to seek a second consecutive term despite a constitutional prohibition. Protests following the election resulted in a security crackdown that left about 30 people dead.
Legal analyst Joaquín Mejía criticized Hernández’s return, saying it represented “complete impunity” and was unfair to victims of the post-election violence.