Former President Juan Orlando Hernández returns to Honduras after arrest warrant suspended

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Four years after being extradited to the United States for his drug trafficking trial, former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández returns to his country Sunday to face corruption charges that lawyers fear will be a sham process.

Hernández, once considered an ally by the U.S. in the drug war, led Honduras from 2014 to 2022, during which he boasted that he would "shove the drugs right up the noses of the gringos,” according to U.S. prosecutors.

His extradition shortly after leaving office marked a rare chance at justice for Hondurans, who feared his hold on the country's justice system would never allow a conviction on Honduran soil.

But the former leader, sentenced to 45 years in prison in the United States, was released in December, to the shock of many in the U.S. and Honduras, after receiving a presidential pardon from U.S. President Donald Trump. He said Hernández did not receive a fair trial and that it was a setup orchestrated by the Biden administration.

Hernández now returns to the country to face corruption charges amid concerns that a weak justice system and his party’s return to the presidency will ensure his impunity.

“There is a social majority that is outraged, but doesn’t speak out because of fear,” said Joaquín Mejía, lawyer and researcher for the human rights organization Reflection, Research and Communication Team. "We’re talking about the boss of all drug bosses.”

Hernández, 57, faces charges related to a case known as Pandora I, which alleges that a network of former high-ranking officials from 2010 to 2013 participated in the expansion and approval of public funds disbursements totaling more than 288 million lempiras ($10.8 million) to various foundations, according to an investigation by the country's Specialized Prosecutor’s Unit Against Corruption Networks, or UFERCO.

According to UFERCO, Hernández benefited from these disbursements, receiving at least 62 million lempiras ($2.3 million) for his political campaign through various schemes, including the creation of shell companies, the use of straw men and fictitious contracts.

Hernández has said he is innocent and that the case “lacks any legal basis.”

In June, a judge suspended his arrest warrant and the international red notice issued to Interpol at the request of Hernández’s lawyer, although the case is still pending. The former president has agreed to appear before the judge on Aug. 3 for his arraignment.

“The moment has arrived. After four years, I can finally tell you that we will see each other again,” Hernández said in a video posted on social media.

Since his release in the U.S., Hernández has expressed his intention to return to Honduras to reunite with his wife, Ana García, and their children, whose U.S. visas are currently suspended.

Other high-level officials implicated in Pandora I whose cases have been dismissed indicate the likely outcome for Hernández, according to legal experts.

“Everything points to the suspension being the first step,” said Mejía. “He’ll come, they’ll likely issue him alternative measures to imprisonment to keep up appearances, and then he’ll end up without any problem, without any sanction.”

For Luis Javier Santos, the former head of UFERCO who investigated the case against Hernández, the former leader’s return represents a failure to prosecute him for his crimes, rather than a chance for justice.

Santos was removed from his role in UFERCO in February in what he believes demonstrates attempts to stifle anti-corruption investigations by the new government of Nasry Asfura, of Hernández's National Party, which took office in January after gaining Trump's backing during elections.

“We have gone backward to an even worse point than when all the work to fight corruption began,” Santos said.

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Brigida reported from Mexico City.