More than 50 organizations in the US reject the pardon offered to Juan Orlando Hernández

Los Angeles (USA),.- Alianza Americas, a network of more than 50 organizations in the U.S. led by migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean, rejected this Monday the pardon granted by the U.S. Executive to former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, convicted of three counts of drug trafficking to decades in prison. In a statement, the alliance showed its outrage at the pardon announced by President Donald Trump last Friday.

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“The president seems to consider the administration of justice not as an institutional process inherent to the United States of America, but as something subject to his personal will,” the organizations warned. Hernández arrived extradited in April 2022 to the United States, where in March 2024 he was sentenced to 45 years in prison for three counts of drug trafficking and weapons, plus five years of supervised release and a fine of eight million dollars. The alliance accuses the US president of rewarding “his friends” and seeking convictions against his opponents. “Pardoning Hernandez weakens efforts against drug trafficking in Latin America and the United States and sends the message that not everyone is equal before the law,” they indicated. Trump justified the pardon yesterday after assuring that the government of former President Joe Biden “set a trap” for Hernández, who governed Honduras between 2014 and 2022. This Monday, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt insisted on the arguments given by the American president. “This was a clear over-prosecution of (Joe) Biden,” she indicated today at a press conference. Leavitt stated that Hernández highlighted during the US trial that “practically no independent evidence was presented, and that much of his conviction was based on the testimony of many confessed criminals who hoped that cooperating would reduce their own sentences.” For its part, the alliance insisted that pardoning Hernández will have “devastating effects” in Latin America.