US Pardons for Foreign Leaders: A Geopolitical 'Get Out of Jail Free' Card?
Fox News reports Honduras has issued a warrant for former President Juan Orlando Hernández – the same Hernández convicted of drug trafficking in the US Federal Court in New York, then conveniently pardoned by Donald Trump. The media frames this as a simple international legal spat. What they forget to mention is why Hernández was so valuable to the US in the first place. Hernández, known as 'JOH,'
was a staunch US ally, particularly after the US-backed 2009 coup that ousted democratically elected Manuel Zelaya. The US recognized the post-coup government, then provided financial and military aid, effectively solidifying a regime that many human rights groups condemned. JOH's presidency, riddled with corruption and drug ties, nonetheless enjoyed consistent US support, including Vice President
Mike Pence's enthusiastic endorsement in 2017. A pardon for a drug kingpin, if he's 'our' drug kingpin, is simply business as usual when maintaining regional 'stability'—or rather, 'subservience.'