Before deposed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was brought to the United States to face drug-trafficking charges, another Latin American leader had already stood trial in a US court for similar crimes. The outcome, however, was very different.
Before deposed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was brought to the United States to face drug-trafficking charges, another leader had already stood trial in a US court for similar crimes. The outcome, however, could not have been more different.
Former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez was convicted and sentenced to 45 years in prison, only to be pardoned later by US President Donald Trump. Maduro, by contrast, is being treated as an international criminal to be tried in an American court.
Trump granted Hernandez a pardon in December, describing him as a victim of political persecution. At the time, Trump said the former Honduran leader had been “treated very harshly and unfairly”.
Asked later about the contrast between the pardon and the operation against Maduro, Trump said Hernandez's case reminded him of his own legal troubles.“The man that I pardoned was, if you could equate it to us, he was treated like the Biden administration treated a man named Trump. This was a man who was persecuted very unfairly. He was the head of the country,” the US president said.
Trump has repeatedly argued that Hernandez was targeted because of his position as president and claimed the prosecution was politically motivated.
Criticising Trump for dual standards, Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote on X, “If the President grounds his actions on the basis of drug trafficking charges, it is entirely hypocritical in light of his recent pardon of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez who was responsible for bringing more than 400 tons of cocaine in the United States in order to ‘shove the drugs right up the noses of the gringos.'”
“The Administration says Maduro will be tried for drug trafficking in a US court – but Hernandez was convicted of the same crime by an American jury and Trump pardoned him,” she added.
Hernandez And Maduro: Similarities
Both the Hernandez and Maduro cases trace back to Drug Enforcement Administration investigations that began around 2010. The probes were handled by the same DEA unit and overseen by the same investigative team in the Southern District of the United States.
What Were The Charges Against Hernandez?
Hernandez was arrested shortly after leaving office in 2022 and extradited to the US to face drug-trafficking and weapons charges. Federal prosecutors accused him of accepting a $1 million bribe from drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman during his first presidential campaign.
In return, prosecutors said, Hernandez helped protect cocaine routes through Honduras.
Hernandez's trial in 2024 lasted three weeks. Prosecutors said that he played a central role in an 18-year drug-trafficking network that moved more than 400 tonnes of cocaine into the United States.
They said he allowed traffickers armed with machine guns and grenade launchers to operate freely, while receiving millions of dollars to fund his political campaigns. Multiple state institutions, including the Honduran National Police, were accused of protecting drug shipments moving through the country. Prosecutors alleged that Hernandez transformed Honduras into a “narco-state”.
Hernandez denied the charges and said he was the victim of political persecution.
From Convicted Felon To Victim Of 'Biden Setup': How Hernandez Gained Trump's Support
US media outlet Axios later reported that Hernandez wrote a four-page letter to Trump in October, praising him and asking for a review of his case “in the interest of justice”. The outlet also reported that longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone told the president that a pardon could boost Honduras' National Party ahead of elections. Trump later said he believed the prosecution “was a Biden setup”. The pardon was so sudden that some of Trump's aides, including his Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, were also blindsided, The Wall Street Journal reported.
“Well, he was the president, and they had some drugs being sold in their country, and because he was the president, they went after him… that was a Biden horrible witch hunt,” Trump told reporters.
What Are The Charges Against Maduro?
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured in a stunning US commando raid in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, on Saturday. "Operation Absolute Resolve", which took months of meticulous planning, killed at least 40 in Venezuela, The New York Times reported.
The couple was brought to a federal courthouse in Manhattan on Monday ahead of their arraignment. They face charges including narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine, according to an unsealed indictment.
The New York Times reported that, according to the indictment, Maduro coordinated with Honduras and other countries to facilitate large-scale drug trafficking. It describes shipment routes through Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico, relying on what prosecutors called a “culture of corruption”, where traffickers paid politicians for protection.
It is important to note that one of those politicians was Hernandez.
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