The Case for Pardoning Former President of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernandez

I took a particular interest in Hernandez’s case because of how his situation mirrored mine.

Last week, President Donald Trump made an announcement that rocked the foundation of Honduran politics when he said he was issuing a pardon for the country’s former President Juan Orlando Hernandez (JOH). True to his word, Hernandez was released from custody on Tuesday and is now a free man after serving little over one year in prison.

Contrary to some in the mainstream media as well as various internet trolls, I was compensated nothing for my advocacy of a pardon for the former Honduran president and simply forwarded a compelling letter from Hernandez to President Trump because a review of the case led me to the clear conclusion that the charges against Hernandez were both politically motivated and false. Hernandez was charged and prosecuted utilizing the same tactics of lawfare in which President Trump himself was charged by Special Counsel Jack Smith. In short, Juan Orlando Hernandez was framed. President Trump’s clemency for the former Honduran president is an act of both justice and mercy.

In fact, President Hernandez’s letter was sent to me by investigative journalist Shane Trejo, as I disclosed on my syndicated radio show at 77WABC Radio, where I hosted former Honduran First Lady Ana Garcia de Hernandez and their two daughters, Ana Daniela and Isabela Hernandez, after the pardon was announced.

The pardon came days before the national election where the ruling LIBRE Party hoped to remain in control. Immediately after Hernandez was termed out of office in 2022, the LIBRE Party President Xiomara Castro, wife of former President Mel Zelaya, worked with the Biden/Harris DOJ to extradite Hernandez over allegations of drug trafficking. Examining the facts of the case show that it was nothing more than a politically motivated hit by the Biden/Harris administration in their witch hunt against President Trump and his allies, both foreign and domestic.

‘WE’RE STOPPING DRUGS ON A LEVEL THAT’S NEVER HAPPENED’

Throughout Hernandez’s tenure as Honduran President, he worked with the United States on drug interdictions and received President Trump’s praise for his work in doing so. Hernandez even signed the extradition treaty that allowed for criminals to be sent to the U.S. and prosecuted, a landmark agreement in cracking down against the scourge of illegal drugs.

“President Hernandez is working with the United States very closely. You know what’s going on on our southern border. And we’re winning after years and years of losing. We’re stopping drugs at a level that has never happened,” President Trump said in Dec. 2019.

But unbeknownst to Trump, agents of the Deep State were plotting a case against his ally in stopping the drug trade, using testimony from criminals who Hernandez extradited to the U.S., and fabricating a case against Hernandez casting him as a drug trafficker. During Hernandez’s trial, a law enforcement official gave false testimony claiming that cocaine trafficking to the U.S. increased during Hernandez’s administration when in fact cocaine trafficking to the U.S. had decreased – but the judge rejected Hernandez’s request for a retrial.

Hernandez’s case was largely based on conjecture and the testimony of murderous cartel leaders who had an axe to grind against Hernandez, and who were highly incentivized to produce testimony damning the man who sent them to prison because of the deals they were working on with the DEA. Two of these cartel kingpins were Carlos ‘Negro’ Lobo and Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga.

Lobo was extradited to the U.S. in 2014 as part of JOH’s widespread crackdown against narco trafficking in Honduras. US Attorneys and DEA officials called Lobo “one of the biggest cocaine transporters in the international drug trade” at the time of his arrest with evidence showing that Lobo smuggled more than 450 kilograms of cocaine into the US.

The U.S. Attorneys commended the efforts of JOH at the time to put Lobo behind bars, but that all changed when the anti-Trump political agenda of the Biden/Harris administration took hold. Lobo was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but he only served 10 years after he engaged in secret negotiations with the U.S. Attorney’s office at the same time that JOH was under indictment.

An obvious conflict of interest exists with Lobo highly motivated and incentivized to provide any testimony to harm the leader who put him behind bars as well as reduce his sentence. Following his release, Lobo has been pictured living it up in Miami, lounging on the beach, drinking a cold cerveza and carousing with a lady after having essentially gotten away with murder with help from the federal government.

Lobo enjoys beach time in Miami with a señorita following his early release from prison after cutting a deal with the Biden/Harris deep state.

Another cartel leader who testified against Hernandez, Mariadiaga, is a convicted drug lord who pleaded guilty to sanctioning 78 murders while leading a billion dollar drug trafficking syndicate, among the most powerful in Central America, called the “Cachiros” gang. Mariadiaga artfully played overeager DEA agents like a fiddle to ensure preferential treatment following his indictment despite his undeniable kingpin status.

With JOH’s increased enforcement measures against drug cartels, Mariadiaga saw the writing on the wall as his assets were being seized and his Cachiros gang were under public investigation by the U.S. Maradiaga got ahead of the issue, turning himself in and then worked with the feds to throw the leader cracking down on the cartels under the bus to protect himself.

Mariadiaga recorded an interview with a drug trafficker who alleged to have paid off $250,000 in drug money to JOH, but the money ultimately could not be tracked and the allegations were never substantiated with serious evidence during court proceedings. It is recognized that the murder rate dropped and corrupt police officers were removed from the force during JOH’s time in office, not indicators that he was some hidden drug lord, but those factors were not taken into consideration during JOH’s trial.

Of all the Honduran drug criminals involved in engineering the imprisonment of JOH, it is particularly difficult to find any public information about Maradiaga’s sentencing. A sealed indictment filed on Apr. 14, 2016 noted Maradiaga pleaded guilty in multiple felonies that called for life sentences in prison. Still, the plea agreement approved in the infamous Southern District of New York (SDNY) noted that the feds “will take steps...to ensure his safety and that of his family and loved ones” which “may include application to the Witness Security Program...whereby the defendant, his family, and loved ones, if approved, could be relocated under a new identity.”

Mariadiaga, the head of the brutal Cachiros gang, cut a deal with the DEA to produce testimony against Hernandez and is now believed to be under federal witness protection.

Mariadiaga’s plea agreement was approved by Obama-appointed SDNY attorney Preet Bharara, who was fired by President Trump in 2017. Stone Cold Truth attempted to procure additional details on Mariadiaga’s case and his whereabouts by filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Department of Justice that ultimately only resulted in more questions than answers.

“To the extent that non-public responsive records exist, without consent, proof of death, or an overriding public interest, disclosure of law enforcement records concerning an individual could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy,” the DOJ wrote to Stone Cold Truth in their initial denial to provide any records about Maradiaga.

Following an appeal that cited the newsworthiness of the case details regarding this drug lord, the DOJ stonewalled once more, this time under the pretense of not being sure which federal agency would possess the information.

“Based on the information you have provided, I cannot determine the nature of the records you are seeking and therefore cannot recommend a federal entity to which you should submit your request,” the DOJ wrote in its appeal denial.

“It’s Mr. Hernandez who signed into law all those things that put them out of business. Putting murderers and drug dealers on the witness stand who have cut deals and having them point the finger at Mr. Hernandez is not proof beyond a reasonable doubt,” Hernandez’s defense lawyer Renato Stabile said.

CONNECTIONS TO THE BIDEN/HARRIS ADMINISTRATION

During the Biden/Harris administration’s campaign of retribution against President Trump and his allies, they zeroed in on Hernandez and curried favor with his opposition, the far-left LIBRE Party. The LIBRE Party was led by Xiomara Castro, part of the infamous Zelaya family with deep ties to Venezuelan Dictator Nicolas Maduro. These ties did not phase the Biden administration as they saw the opportunity to neutralize a prominent conservative Trump ally in Honduras.

The DOJ filed their indictment on Jan. 27 – just one day after Hernandez left office and as Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Xiomara Castro’s inauguration to give the Biden/Harris administration’s personal stamp of approval of communists seizing power over Honduras. Harris was Xiomara Castro’s first meeting as a world leader shortly after her swearing in ceremony. Harris called Xiomara Castro’s victory “historic…as Honduras’ first female president” and stated she would work with the communist to “increase economic opportunities, combat corruption, and deepen the partnership between the U.S. and Honduras.”

Kamala Harris and Xiomara Castro pose for photo ops in the Honduran capital city of Tegucigalpa shortly after the ceremony swearing her in as President.

When the potential conflict of interest came up as the Biden/Harris administration was embracing the new leftist Honduran president while attempting to imprison her predecessor, Attorney General Merrick Garland defended the decision. “The new administration of Honduras wants our help,” Garland said. “There’s no conflict between our doing this kind of work and having good relationships in Latin America.”

But the immense ineptitude, corruption and belligerence from the Xiomara Castro regime soon had the Biden/Harris administration creating distance from the colossal disaster that was unfolding in Honduras. A leaked hidden camera video showed Lobo and Mariadiaga, the same two drug kingpins who received leniency after producing testimony against Hernandez, negotiating a drug bribe to fund LIBRE Party operations with Carlos Zelaya, the former Secretary of Congress who is the brother of former Honduras President Mel Zalaya, Xiomara Castro.

In one video, Carlos Zelaya was caught speaking about drug money that had been received by his brother, Mel. They referenced an alleged $500,000 that Mel Zelaya received in bribe money from the cartels. The traffickers agreed to put together $650,000 for Carlos Zelaya to ensure his compliance. Carlos Zelaya said “half must go to the commander” meaning his brother, Mel, with the rest of the drug money going into the coffers of the far-left LIBRE Party that would seize control of Honduras. They also discussed drug cartels providing vehicular transport for LIBRE Party functions.

Carlos Zelaya was forced to resign in disgrace as Secretary of Congress as a result of the scandal, and his son José Manuel Zelaya was forced to resign as Minister of Defense as well. At the same time, President Castro announced she would be cancelling the extradition treaty with the United States, claiming “a plan is being forged against my government” when in actuality she was seeking to protect family members and political cronies who have been compromised by the cartel.

Castro’s officials have been seen publicly fraternizing with leaders of the narco trade in Latin America and flouting it in the face of U.S. officials. Last year, former Defense Minister José Manuel Zelaya held a meeting with Maduro and indicted Venezuelan drug dealer Vladimir Padrino, drawing the ire of former U.S. Ambassador to Honduras Laura Dogu who said she was “surprised” the Castro regime met with “drug traffickers.” The Biden administration had been hoodwinked. Honduran Foreign Minister Enrique Reina derided the “interference and interventionism of the United States” in response to Dogu’s comments, reiterating the country’s desire to escape its extradition agreement with the U.S.

PRESIDENT TRUMP’S PARDON MAKES THINGS RIGHT IN HONDURAS

I took a particular interest in Hernandez’s case because of how his situation mirrored mine. Hundreds of DEA thugs working in concert with Xiomara Castro’s police force swarmed Hernandez’s home and ushered him out in a humiliating public display, ripping him away from his family. It was a show for the cameras, demonstrating the new socialist regime’s power by crushing their opposition.

This was similar to how feds showed up at my door wielding guns with CNN cameras alerted to record the entire proceeding, as a demonstration that President Trump was on the way out and the deep state remained in full control. The situations in the U.S. and Honduras were similar, as Juan Orlando Hernandez laid out in his eloquent letter to President Trump. There were shadowy forces working against both men with partisan actors creating cases against them based around manufactured evidence to assure a political outcome.

Like with the U.S. and with the resurrection of Donald Trump and his re-ascension to the Presidency, things did not go according to plan in Honduras. The Xiomara Castro regime failed miserably, and her hand-picked successor Rixi Moncada was decimated in the recent presidential elections. The Trump-backed National Party candidate, Tito Asfura, is now expected to win a nail-biter election against his closest competitor, Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party, to be the next President of Honduras.

This is a nation that has pulled itself back from the brink of communism and has shown that they yearn for freedom and increased cooperation with the United States. The pardon for Hernandez is part of this Honduran national renaissance that is underway, as President Trump has demonstrated emphatically that the unprecedented meddling into Honduran political affairs was unjust. Now, the country can heal, and Hernandez can rejoin his family after their years-long nightmare. The actual Narco regime, the Zelaya family, is being run out of power, and Honduras has a chance to become great again.