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Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was sentenced to 45 years last year for helping move tons of cocaine into the U.S., was released from prison on Monday, the Bureau of Prisons confirmed to Fox News.
Hernández was freed after President Donald Trump announced last week that he was issuing him a "full and complete pardon" following his conviction of conspiring with drug traffickers to import more than 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S.
Trump said Hernández was "treated very harshly and unfairly," implying that his trial was politically motivated or over-prosecuted.
Hernández was convicted in New York on charges of conspiring to import cocaine into the U.S. and two related weapons offenses after a two-week trial.
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Hernández portrayed himself as a hero of the anti-drug trafficking movement who teamed up with American authorities under three U.S. presidential administrations to reduce drug imports, according to The Associated Press. But the judge said trial evidence proved the opposite and that Hernández employed "considerable acting skills" to make it seem that he was an anti-drug trafficking crusader while he deployed his nation's police and military, when necessary, to protect the drug trade.
His release comes as the Central American country, which has a population of around 11 million people, awaits the results of its razor-thin presidential election race.
Trump has publicly favored Nasry Asfura, the candidate from Hernández's conservative National Party of Honduras (PNH).
Overnight, Trump accused Honduras of "trying to change the results."
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"If they do, there will be hell to pay! The people of Honduras voted in overwhelming numbers on November 30th," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The U.S. president's remarks came hours after Ana Paola Hall, president of the National Electoral Council, wrote on X that the preliminary rapid reporting system that began providing results Sunday night had reached its conclusion with 57% of votes tallied.
Their count showed a close race between Asfura and Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party, with Asfura holding a narrow lead of only a few hundred votes. Rixi Moncada, the Democratic socialist LIBRE candidate, trailed roughly 20 percentage points behind.
"It is imperative that the Commission finish counting the Votes," Trump wrote. "Hundreds of thousands of Hondurans must have their Votes counted. Democracy must prevail!"
Officials have stated that the count will continue but did not specify when updated totals would be released and parts of the council's online system appeared to have been taken down.
Just before the freeze, Trump had endorsed Asfura, calling him the only Honduran candidate his administration would work with and saying he would fight "narco-communists" alongside the U.S.
Trump's latest warning injects new pressure into an already hostile post-election environment. The outcome will determine whether the Latin American country shifts away from the ruling LIBRE Party, and it will have a deep impact on its future relationship with Washington.
The winner will govern from 2026 to 2030.
Fox News' Bradford Betz and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
