Honduras Attorney General, Johel Zelaya has said that he had ordered Honduran authorities and asked Interpol to execute a 2023 arrest order for ex-President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was freed from US federal prison last week after being pardoned by President Donald Trump.

Hernández had been sentenced in US federal court last year to 45 years in prison for helping move tons of cocaine to the United States. Trump said that Hondurans had requested the pardon for Hernández and that after looking at his case he decided Hernández had been unfairly treated by prosecutors.

Hernández went from supposed US ally in the war on drugs to the subject of a US extradition request shortly after he left office in 2022. He was detained and sent to the US by current President Xiomara Castro of the social democrat LIBRE party.

Zelaya asked for the arrest of Hernández, who is accused 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.”

Johel Zelaya

Zelaya included a photo of the two-year-old order signed by a Supreme Court magistrate for alleged fraud and money laundering charges. The order says that it must be executed “in the case that the accused is freed by United States authorities.”

Hernández’s domestic charges are in connection with a massive anti-corruption investigation in Honduras known as Pandora II, a scheme that implicated top politicians, government officials and businesspeople in the country. Prosecutors allege Hernández illegally siphoned about $2.4 million in a kickback from public contracts for his 2013 campaign.

Dozens of Honduran officials and politicians were implicated in the so-called Pandora case in which Honduran prosecutors alleged government funds were diverted through a network on nongovernmental organizations to political parties, including Hernández’s 2013 presidential campaign.

Luis Santos, the Director of Honduras’ Specialized Unit against Corruption Crimes, told a news agency a few days ago that Hernández had “an open case in the Supreme Court of Justice for money laundering and fraud,” and that an earlier international arrest warrant had been in the possession of the Ministry of Security and Interpol since September 2023. Santos added that if Hernández did not return to Honduras, they would request his extradition from the United States.

Hernandez’ Lawyer Slams Arrest Warrant

In an email, a lawyer for Hernández, Renato Stabile, reacted to the arrest warrant, saying, “This is obviously a strictly political move on behalf of the defeated Libre party to try to intimidate President Hernandez as they are being kicked out of power in Honduras.”

Honduras’ ruling Libre party is a rival of the conservative National Party Hernandez once led.

The lawyer added that it is “shameful and a desperate piece of political theatre and these charges are completely baseless.”

Zelaya had said after Trump announced his intention to pardon Hernández that his office would have to take action to end impunity.

Hernández had insisted he was innocent, claiming his trial was “rigged” and that it relied on the accusations of criminals who sought revenge against him. The former Honduran leader thanked Trump for “having the courage to defend justice at a moment when a weaponized system refused to acknowledge the truth.”

Trump’s move was criticized by both Republican and Democratic members of Congress, who questioned Trump’s decision to pardon someone with a drug trafficking conviction when his administration has been so focused on disrupting drug trafficking in Latin America, ramping up military activity and launching controversial strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean.

Hernández’s wife said after his release that the former President was in an undisclosed location for his safety.