Donald Trump has said that he will pardon the former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted of drug trafficking charges in a US court last year.
The US president stated Hernández had been 'treated very harshly and unfairly' in a social media post announcing the move on Friday.
Hernández was found guilty in March 2024 of conspiring to import cocaine into the US, and of possessing machine guns. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison.
Trump also threw his support behind conservative presidential candidate Nasry 'Tito' Asfura in the Central American nation's general election, due to be held on Sunday.
Hernández, a member of the National Party, served as Honduras's president from 2014 to 2022 and was extradited to the US in April 2022 to stand trial for running a violent drug trafficking conspiracy and helping to smuggle hundreds of tons of cocaine to the US.
He was convicted by a New York jury two years later.
Polls indicate the Honduran election remains a toss-up between three candidates including Asfura, the former mayor of Tegucigalpa and leader of the National Party.
Trump criticized Moncada and Nasralla on Friday, calling the latter 'a borderline Communist' who was only running to split the vote between Moncada and Asfura.
He characterized Asfura as 'standing up for democracy' and praised him for campaigning against Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro.
Nasralla has pledged to cut ties with Venezuela if he wins.
The Trump administration has accused the left-wing Maduro of being the leader of a drugs cartel and has used countering drug trafficking as a justification for a military build-up in the Caribbean.
Honduras has been governed since 2022 by President Xiomara Castro, who has forged close ties with Cuba and Venezuela but maintains a cooperative relationship with the US.
More than 80 people have been killed in US strikes against vessels suspected of drug trafficking since operations began in August.
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth stated that 'Operation Southern Spear' aims to eliminate 'narcoterrorists'. However, legal experts have raised concerns over the legality of these military actions.
