EX-HONDURAS PRESIDENT HERNÁNDEZ EXPRESSES GRATITUDE TO TRUMP IN FIRST MESSAGE SINCE RELEASE. (PHOTO).

 Ex-Honduras president Hernández expresses gratitude to Trump in first message since release

 Honduras’ former President Juan Orlando Hernández expressed gratitude to U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday, marking his first public statement since being released from a U.S. prison. Hernández thanked Trump for granting him a pardon, which came as a surprise just days before Honduras’ national elections.

Hernández was serving a 45-year sentence, having been convicted of helping drug traffickers move hundreds of tons of cocaine to the United States in exchange for bribes that bolstered his political career. In his message on X, Hernández declared his innocence, writing, “I said it as I left my home, I said it as I was wrongfully convicted, and I will say it again now that I have my liberty. I am innocent. You changed my life, sir, and I will never forget it.”

Trump had defended the pardon, telling reporters that U.S. prosecutors had claimed Hernández was targeted because he was president and that the case was politically motivated. Hernández was released on Monday from the U.S. Penitentiary in Hazelton West Virginia. His wife, Ana García, confirmed his release and said he was staying at an undisclosed location for his safety.

According to García, Hernández had been seeking a pardon for several months, beginning with a petition to the U.S. Office of Pardons and later sending a personal letter to Trump on his birthday, October 28. In the days leading up to Honduras’ election, Trump also publicly endorsed a candidate from Hernández’s conservative National Party.

As vote counting continued Wednesday, National Party candidate Nasry Asfura trailed Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party by less than 1% of counted votes. Hernández has portrayed himself as a key ally in anti-drug trafficking efforts, claiming to have worked with U.S. authorities under three presidential administrations to curb cocaine shipments.

Hernández was arrested in February 2022 at the request of the United States, weeks after the current President Xiomara Castro took office. Two years later, he was sentenced to 45 years in a New York federal court for accepting bribes from drug traffickers who moved roughly 400 tons of cocaine through Honduras to the U.S.