If Trump Cares About Drug Trafficking, Why Is He Pardoning a Convicted Drug Trafficker?
By pardoning former Honduran leader Juan Orlando Hernandez, Trump will be directly helping out one of the most powerful, corrupt, and prolific convicted drug traffickers.
Donald Trump is engaging in extrajudicial assassinations of alleged drug smugglers and threatening one Latin American leader with strikes over drug trafficking, while pardoning another former corrupt president who was literally convicted of drug trafficking charges.
President Donald Trump announced on Friday evening that he would pardon former Honduran President and convicted drug trafficker Juan Orlando Hernandez, who he claims has been “treated very harshly and unfairly.”
Hernandez, referred to as JOH, and his brother Juan Antonio ‘Tony’ ran a major drug trafficking operation, sending tons of cocaine to the US, with JOH at one point saying they would “stuff the drugs right up the noses of the gringos.” He was sentenced last year in a US court to 45 years in prison for conspiring to traffic more than 400 tons of cocaine, and weapons crimes.
As Trump considers Hernandez’s pardon, he is hypocritically escalating pressure on Venezuela accusing the Nicolas Maduro government of engaging in mass drug trafficking, and striking boats that his administration says, without evidence, are carrying drugs, killing at least 80 people in the process.
Trump’s moves – combined with his administration’s direct intervention in this weekend’s Honduran elections – demonstrate this new drug war is made up of mostly politically-motivated maneuvers, attempting to advance a pro-US and right-wing political and economic agenda in the Western Hemisphere.
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