Tuesday, December 9, 2025 - Honduras’s attorney general has announced the issuance of an arrest warrant for former President Juan Orlando Hernández, just days after he was released from a US federal prison following a pardon by President Donald Trump.
Attorney General, Johel Antonio Zelaya Alvarez stated on X
Monday that he had requested government agencies and Interpol to arrest
Hernández on charges of money laundering and fraud.
“We have been lacerated by the tentacles of corruption and
by criminal networks that have profoundly marked the life of our country,”
Zelaya said.
His post included a photo of the Supreme Court’s arrest
order, which was dated November 28th—the same day Trump announced his intention
to pardon Hernández. The pardon drew criticism from both sides of the political
spectrum in the US and Honduras.
Hernández, who served as President of Honduras from 2014
until 2022, was previously convicted and sentenced last year to 45 years in
federal prison and an $8 million fine by a US judge for drug trafficking
offenses.
The new domestic charges against Hernández are connected to
the “Pandora II” anti-corruption investigation in Honduras, a scheme that
implicated top politicians, government officials, and businesspeople.
Prosecutors allege Hernández illegally siphoned
approximately $2.4 million in kickbacks from public contracts to fund his 2013
political campaign.
In a statement, Hernández’s attorney Renato Stabile called
the arrest warrant a political maneuver by Honduras’s ruling Libre party—a
rival of the conservative National Party that Hernández once led.
“This is obviously a strictly political move on behalf of
the defeated radical left Libre party as they are being forced out of power by
the people of Honduras. It is shameful and desperate piece of political theatre
and these charges are completely baseless,” Stabile said.
Luis Santos, the director of Honduras’ Specialized Unit
against Corruption Crimes, confirmed days ago that Hernández had “an open case
in the Supreme Court of Justice for money laundering and fraud,” and noted that
an earlier international arrest warrant had been with the Ministry of Security
and Interpol since September 2023.
Santos added that if Hernández did not return to Honduras, an extradition request would be filed with the United States
Trump formally pardoned Hernández on December 3rd, telling reporters at the White House, “I feel pretty good about it,” and referring to the prosecution as a “Biden horrible witch hunt.”
The move drew criticism from both Republican and Democratic
members of Congress, who questioned the decision to pardon someone with a drug
trafficking conviction given the administration's stated focus on disrupting
drug trafficking in Latin America.
US prosecutors had accused Hernández of conspiring with drug
cartels during his presidency, facilitating the movement of over 400 tons of
cocaine through Honduras toward the United States. In exchange, prosecutors
alleged,
Hernández received millions of dollars in bribes used to
fuel his political advancement.
Hernández has maintained his innocence, claiming his trial was “rigged” and
that it relied on the accusations of criminals seeking revenge against him.
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