Trump wants to pardon ex-Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez, otherwise known as "JOH" from a 45-year sentence for drug trafficking (he was imprisoned only last year). JOH once said he wanted to shove cocaine "up the noses of gringos" in the U.S. and ran a virtual narco state for more than a decade as his National Party was in power since 2009 until 2021 when he left office. Meanwhile Trump is building up for a war against Maduro who he says (and not very convincingly) is the leader of an ill-defined cartel which makes him a "narco terrorist."
We assume the difference here is politics. And ideology. Maduro is a socialist and doesn't want to do business with Washington. Hernandez was tolerated if not preferred by previous U.S. administrations from Obama through the first Trump White House, because he and his National Party were business friendly, anti-communist, and supported by the neoconservatives now gunning against Maduro.
It doesn't hurt that Hernandez and friends have been paying K Street lobbyists hundreds of dollars since 2019 to make their case in town, including for Hernandez's pardon. AND his National Party is in a hot presidential race that Trump wants to influence TODAY.
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Kelley Beaucar Vlahos
Editor-in-Chief, Responsible Statecraft
Senior Advisor, Quincy Institute
Washington, D.C