For a president who made going after drug cartels one of his political priorities, it is a brazen contradiction for Donald Trump to pardon former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted and sentenced for drug trafficking in 2024.

As a massive U.S. naval force assembled in the Caribbean and Pacific has struck alleged drug boats and killed dozens of suspected traffickers without any due process, Trump just freed a man who was granted a fair trial and found guilty.

Pardons are a president’s prerogative, but why, if targeting drug traffickers is the goal, would this man be set free?

Trump has said that Hernández is a victim of political persecution without providing evidence. Instead, once again, the U.S. government’s best work was undermined by our own president.

Hern

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