Trump frees drug trafficker: US meddles in Honduras' elections, amid fraud accusations

Donald Trump pardoned and freed from prison the drug dealer Juan Orlando Hernández (JOH), the former dictator of Honduras. The US is openly meddling in the country's elections, amid fraud accusations.

Donald Trump has pardoned and freed from prison one of the world’s worst drug dealers, the former dictator of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted of trafficking more than 400 tons of cocaine and machine guns into the United States.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has been openly meddling in Honduras’ 2025 election.

Honduran electoral officials have revealed evidence of massive fraud, aimed at putting a right-wing US-backed candidate in power.

The US government sponsored a military coup against Honduras’ democratically elected left-wing president in 2009.

Washington then helped a corrupt right-wing regime, run by the drug-trafficking dictator Juan Orlando Hernández (JOH), steal Honduras’ elections in 2013 and 2017.

Today, Honduran officials warn that this nightmare is repeating again.

Honduran officials allege fraud in the November 2025 election

Honduras held a disputed election on 30 November 2025. As of the morning of 5 December, there still was no official winner. Multiple candidates have alleged wrongdoing.

An electoral counselor at Honduras’ National Electoral Council (CNE), Marlon Ochoa, held a press conference on the night of 4 December in which he published evidence of what he called a “plan of monumental electoral fraud”.

Ochoa documented extreme irregularities in the result transmission system, known as the TREP.

Workers at the CNE published videos showing how the TREP was taking votes away from candidates and giving them to others.

Of the 15,297 vote tally sheets that had been processed as of 4 December, 13,246 of them (86.6%) had errors and inconsistencies, according to Ochoa.

Several weeks before the 30 November election, Honduran President Xiomara Castro published 26 leaked audio recordings in which right-wing, US-backed opposition politicians could be heard plotting an electoral coup. They discussed plans to hack the TREP system in order to change the votes.

It appears that these plans were fulfilled exactly as planned.

The candidate of Honduras’ left-wing Libre Party, Rixi Moncada, alleged that the election was being stolen.

Moncada pointed to many irregularities, such as the fact that the tally sheets representing roughly 25% of the total votes did not have biometric confirmation. Moreover, many tally sheets had more votes than were in the area they represented.

When the US government sponsored a military coup in 2009, it overthrew Honduras’ democratically elected left-wing President Manuel Zelaya, who is a leader of the Libre Party. His wife is Xiomara Castro, the current Honduran president, whose government has been demonized by Washington and targeted for destabilization.

The US government openly meddles in Honduras’ election

A few days before the 30 November election, Donald Trump openly meddled in Honduras’ internal affairs.

Trump published posts on his website Truth Social in which he endorsed Nasry “Tito” Asfura, a candidate in the 2025 election, from Honduras’ right-wing National Party.

Trump also attacked candidate Rixi Moncada, of the left-wing Libre Party, smearing her as a “narcocommunist”.

“Democracy is on trial in the coming Elections in the beautiful country of Honduras on November 30th”, Trump wrote on 26 November. “Will Maduro and his Narcoterrorists take over another country like they have taken over Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela?”

“The man who is standing up for Democracy, and fighting against Maduro, is Tito Asfura, the Presidential Candidate of the National Party”, Trump claimed.

Honduras’ National Party is very closely connected to drug cartels, and is notoriously corrupt and authoritarian. It is the party of the former dictator Juan Orlando Hernández, who was imprisoned for trafficking more than 400 tons of cocaine into the US.

Trump, however, ignored Asfura’s drug ties and stated, “The only real friend of Freedom in Honduras is Tito Asfura. Tito and I can work together to fight the Narcocommunists, and bring needed aid to the people of Honduras”.

“I cannot work with Moncada and the Communists”, the US president added.

“I hope the people of Honduras vote for Freedom and Democracy, and elect Tito Asfura, President!”, he wrote.

Trump then re-posted the same message on 28 November.

Trump also criticized Salvador Nasralla, another Honduran presidential candidate from the center-right Liberal Party.

Both Asfura and Nasralla are wealthy businessmen, and they are backed by competing factions of Honduran oligarchs.

Asfura and the National Party are closely allied with Trump, Marco Rubio, and the Republican Party.

Nasralla is more aligned with the centrists in the Democratic Party.

Trump repeatedly campaigned for Asfura.

In another post on 28 November, Trump threatened Honduras.

“If Tito Asfura wins for President of Honduras, because the United States has so much confidence in him, his Policies, and what he will do for the Great People of Honduras, we will be very supportive”, Trump pledged.

“If he [Asfura] doesn’t win, the United States will not be throwing good money after bad, because a wrong Leader can only bring catastrophic results to a country”, Trump added.

This was a clear message to the Honduran people: if they didn’t vote for the US-backed candidate, it would “bring catastrophic results to” their country.

“Tito will be a Great President, and the United States will work closely with him in order to ensure the success, with all of its potential, of Honduras!” Trump declared, deciding on behalf of the Honduran people who their leader should be.

“MAKE HONDURAS GREAT AGAIN!” the US president proclaimed.

Then, on 30 November, Trump again meddled in Honduras’ election.

“Looks like Honduras is trying to change the results of their Presidential Election”, he wrote.

“If they do, there will be hell to pay!” he threatened.

US disinformation deceives Hondurans, interfering in elections

Rixi Moncada, the left-wing presidential candidate, also accused the United States of meddling in Honduras’ election in other ways.

In the lead-up to the election, people in Honduras were flooded with millions of messages on their phones warning them that, if they voted for the left-wing Libre Party, the US government would block remittances from being sent to Honduras.

Honduras is a poor country, and remissions, primarily from Hondurans living in the US, make up roughly 25% of the country’s GDP. If the Trump administration cut off remittances, it would cause an economic catastrophe.

This was another example of how the sovereignty of the Central American nation was being violated.

The vice foreign minister of Honduras, Gerardo Torres Zelaya, remarked that the 2025 “elections were an absolute fiasco. A scandalous theft and disrespect for the popular will”.

Trump released drug-trafficking Honduran dictator Juan Orlando Hernández

In the middle of the chaos of the alleged electoral coup in Honduras, Donald Trump further escalated the US government’s meddling in the country’s internal affairs.

On 1 December, Trump officially pardoned and freed from prison the drug-trafficking former dictator of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, known by the acronym JOH.

JOH had been convicted by a US court, in 2024, of trafficking more than 400 tons of cocaine and machine guns into the United States.

This is what the US Department of Justice wrote at the time (emphasis added):

According to court documents, from at least in or about 2004, up to and including in or about 2022, Hernández, the former two-term president of Honduras and former president of the Honduran National Congress, was at the center of one of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking conspiracies in the world. During his political career, Hernández abused his powerful positions and authority in Honduras to facilitate the importation of over 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S. Hernández’s co-conspirators were armed with machine guns and destructive devices, including AK-47s, AR-15s, and grenade launchers, which they used to protect their massive cocaine loads as they transited across Honduras on their way to the United States, protect the money they made from the eventual sale of this cocaine, and guard their drug-trafficking territory from rivals. Hernández received millions of dollars of drug money from some of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking organizations in Honduras, Mexico, and elsewhere, and used those bribes to fuel his rise in Honduran politics. In turn, as Hernández rose to power in Honduras, he provided increased support and protection for his co-conspirators, allowing them to move mountains of cocaine, commit acts of violence and murder, and help turn Honduras into one of the most dangerous countries in the world.

During his time in office, Hernández publicly promoted legislation and the efforts he purported to undertake in support of anti-narcotics measures in Honduras. At the same time, he protected and enriched the drug traffickers in his inner circle and those who provided him with cocaine-fueled bribes that allowed him to obtain and stay in power in Honduras. For example, Hernández selectively upheld extraditions by supporting and taking credit for extraditions to the United States of certain drug traffickers who threatened his grip on power, while at the same time promising drug traffickers who bribed him and followed his instructions that they would remain safe in Honduras.

Trump freed this notorious drug trafficker at the same moment that he is waging a war against Venezuela, which the US government falsely claims is about stopping “drug trafficking”.

In reality, the Trump administration seeks to overthrow Venezuela’s left-wing President Nicolás Maduro. The US war on Venezuela has nothing to do with drugs.

On 2 December, the day after he pardoned one of the worst drug dealers on Earth, Trump threatened to bomb any country that sends illegal drugs to the US.

The hypocrisy is so blatant that even Western media outlets, such as the major British newspaper The Guardian, remarked, “Trump move to pardon Honduras’s ex-president shows counter-drug effort is ‘based on lies and hypocrisy’”.

US-backed coup and electoral fraud in Honduras

The only reason that JOH came to power in the first place is because, in 2009, the Barack Obama administration sponsored a military coup against Honduras’ democratically elected left-wing government, which had been allied with Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.

The US State Department, then led by Hillary Clinton, recognized Honduras’ unelected right-wing coup regime.

Following the US-backed coup, the homicide rate in Honduras skyrocketed, and the Central American nation became one of the most violent countries on Earth. This fueled a migration crisis; many immigrants and refugees fled Honduras and traveled northward to the US.

JOH subsequently stole Honduras’ 2013 election, by using drug money. US prosecutors admitted that JOH was given a $1 million bribe from notorious Mexican cartel leader El Chapo Guzmán, which was used to rig the 2013 election.

Obama with Honduran narco-dictator Juan Orlando Hernández

The Honduran constitution limits presidents to just one term, without eligibility for reelection.

Despite the constitutional restrictions, the dictator JOH stole the 2017 election as well, carrying out blatant fraud.

The US government, during Trump’s first term, happily recognized JOH in the stolen 2017 election. The European Union also legitimized JOH’s fraud.

Why was Washington so insistent on propping up JOH’s narco-regime? It compliantly served US interests.

Under JOH’s dictatorship, Honduras supported Trump’s coup attempt in Venezuela in 2019, recognizing the unelected right-wing opposition figure Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s supposed “interim president”.

JOH’s narco-regime also allowed the US military to operate several strategic bases in Honduras, including the Soto Cano air base, the largest US base in the region.

A map of US military bases in Honduras

Both the Obama administration and the first Trump administration openly supported JOH’s dictatorship. This was despite the fact that US authorities knew that JOH was running one of the largest drug-trafficking operations on Earth.

To justify his pardoning of JOH, Trump falsely claimed that the Joe Biden administration had imprisoned the drug trafficker on fake, politically motivated charges. Trump called it a “witch hunt”.

This is quite ironic, because the US Department of Justice’s investigation into JOH’s drug trafficking actually started during Trump’s first term as president.

A report published by the Associated Press in 2019, when Trump was president, noted, “U.S. federal prosecutors have accused Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández of having used $1.5 million in drug trafficking proceeds to secure the presidency in 2013”.

Donald Trump with Honduras’ narco-dictator Juan Orlando Hernández (JOH)

What is the US government’s plan?

Gerardo Torres Zelaya, the vice foreign minister of Honduras, argued that the US government’s strategy is not just to put in power the right-wing candidate Tito Asfura (who is commonly referred to with the nickname “Papi”), but also to reimpose an obedient narco-regime that will serve US interests.

“It is this criminal [JOH] whom Trump wants to impose on us”, Torres said. “It is not Papi, he is just the cover. It is the narco-state that they want to reinstall”.

Torres published a video imploring fellow Hondurans: “we must unite to prevent the plan to return us to the narco-state from being successful. Today, the United States, which has already disrespectfully interfered in our elections, freed the worst criminal in our history. We must unite and defend our homeland”.

Honduran Foreign Minister Eduardo Enrique Reina, who stood in as the presidential designate for candidate Rixi Moncada, reflected on the blatant foreign interference in his country’s 2025 election (emphasis added):

What is happening today in Honduras is surreal, it reveals a contest of dark, enormous, and unknown interests. If the 2009 coup and the narco-dictatorship set us back decades, this is unthinkable and unprecedented. The corporate media portray it as something normal and even rejoice in it. It is unbelievable that so many remain paralyzed in the face of the largest form of interference and intervention. If with 2009 the coups and lawfare returned, with this use of blackmail and force, the dignity of a people is twisted; it is a new mechanism of terror and fear without precedent.

The reports from the Organization of American States (OAS) and EU electoral observation mission do not even refer in name to the principles of the UN Charter, or the OAS, to the worst disrespect for the sovereignty of the Honduran people, or of any people, to self-determination and to the free and independent choice of our political system.

What is occurring in Honduras, added to the fact that they are freeing the one who destroyed the country and its institutions like JOH, cannot pass without at least raising the voice of dignity, of patriotic responsibility. The planet is succumbing to the breaking of all norms, based on threats and violations of all norms and principles.

Those who remain silent or those who are complicit are part of the emergence of something that puts at risk more than just Honduras. The hell that they threaten if their electoral designs are not fulfilled, extorting a people with the use of world power, is senseless and irrational; the worst part is that it is not something they say will arrive. That hell is already occurring here.

If this happens in Honduras, it will happen anywhere. History is there to remind those in power who were allowed to advance by breaking all norms, and the world ended up paying for it dearly.

Honduras once again is becoming the laboratory for intervention in new forms. We must take dignified and historic positions.

Hondurans vow to resist US imperialism

Despite Washington’s flagrant meddling in their country, Hondurans have vowed to continue fighting against US imperialism, and to defend their country’s sovereignty.

Manuel Zelaya, the democratically elected left-wing president of Honduras who was overthrown in the 2009 US-backed military coup, condemned Washington for meddling in his country yet again.

“With the interference of Donald Trump and his pardoning of JOH, the desperate bipartisanism is imposing an electoral coup against Rixi [Moncada]”, Zelaya wrote. (By “bipartisanism”, he was referencing the fact that both the right-wing National Party of Tito Asfura and center-right Liberal Party of Salvador Nasralla are pro-US groups, funded by Honduran oligarchs, which fought against the left-wing Libre Party.)

“Mr. Donald Trump, you don’t intimidate us. We have resisted coups d’etat, monumental frauds, political assassinations, and persecution”, Zelaya said.

“If we survived a narco-dictatorship, do you think your tweets are going to break us?”, he added.

“You can call us communists, socialists, insurgents, whatever you want. We are free Hondurans, and we fight for the self-determination of the peoples and for a dignified homeland, free and independent”, Zelaya declared.

He stressed, “Neither Washington nor the [Honduran] oligarchy can decide for us”.