A Honduran court has dropped charges against former President Juan Orlando Hernández, who returned in July after being pardoned in the United States for a drug trafficking conviction.
Hernandez was accused of fraud and money laundering as part of a corruption scheme between 2010 and 2013, before he took office.
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But on Tuesday, Justice Department spokesman Carlos Silva told reporters that Hernandez was not responsible for the budget decisions made at the time of the crimes. Hernandez, a prominent politician from the right-wing National Party, hailed the decision as the right one.
“This chapter of political persecution is over,” Hernandez said after the decision.
He claimed the charges against him were “baseless” and pursued for political purposes.
“The people who orchestrated this operation not only wanted me to be permanently expelled from Honduras and never return, but they were determined to leave my family on the streets,” he said.
But Mr. Hernandez, known by his initials JOH, has faced repeated scrutiny during his time as an upstart politician in Honduras. He served as the country’s president from 2014 to 2022.
Even during his term, there were reports that he was under investigation by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
He was seen as an ally in the U.S.-backed “war on drugs,” but prosecutors later accused him of abusing his power by allegedly using his position to help drug traffickers smuggle drugs and collect bribes to accelerate his political advancement.
The U.S. Department of Justice said he was “the central figure in one of the world’s largest and most violent drug-trafficking conspiracies.”
Honduran authorities extradited Hernandez to the United States in April 2022, within months of the end of his presidential term. In court filings, U.S. prosecutors quoted Hernandez as saying he would “put drugs up the gringo’s nose.”
He was convicted in 2024 and sentenced to 45 years in prison.
Many Hondurans celebrated his conviction in the United States in March 2024 as a rare case of a powerful official being held accountable. There were demonstrations outside the New York City courthouse where he was sentenced, with participants waving Honduran flags.
However, once US President Donald Trump returned to office in 2025, he sought to advance the interests of right-wing leaders across Latin America, including providing political and financial support during elections.
Honduras held a general election in November 2025 to elect a new president and members of parliament.
But days before the vote, President Trump promised to pardon Hernandez and threatened to withhold aid from Honduras.
The presidential election was decided between two right-wing candidates, Salvador Nasrallah and Nasri Asufura, both centrist members of Hernandez’s National Party, and the vote counting process lasted several weeks.
On December 2nd, during the vote counting process, President Trump pardoned Hernandez. He claimed that Hernandez had been treated “extremely harshly and unfairly” under his predecessor, former US President Joe Biden.
In the end, Asufura won the presidential election.
But even with a pardon in the United States, Hernandez faced legal jeopardy in his home country of Honduras.
He was charged as part of the Pandora scandal, a corruption scandal in the Central American country.
The case centered on accusations that government officials, including Mr. Hernandez, funneled public funds to political activities through government spending.
Prosecutors said officials involved in the scandal misappropriated about $10.8 million in state funds from 2010 to 2013, with Hernandez allegedly receiving about $2.3 million. Some of those funds are said to have been used to finance his presidential campaign.
However, the domestic arrest warrant Hernandez was facing was suspended, allowing him to return to Honduras in July.
Analysts expressed concern that Trump’s support and National Party control of the government could turn the trial into a sham.
Honduran judicial authorities argued on Tuesday that the evidence “does not prove the defendant’s participation in the investigated case.”
Charges were also dropped against other politicians involved in the Pandora scandal, including former President Porfirio Lobo and former Finance Minister Wilfredo Cerrato.
