Overview
- Attorney General Johel Antonio Zelaya directed Honduras’s ATIC and urged Interpol to execute an international arrest warrant for Juan Orlando Hernández on money laundering and fraud tied to the Pandora II case.
- The arrest order, signed by a Supreme Court magistrate, specifies execution if U.S. authorities release Hernández, who was pardoned last week from a 45-year U.S. sentence for drug trafficking.
- Prosecutors allege Hernández’s 2013 campaign benefited by about $2.5 million siphoned from public funds, while U.S. courts had convicted him of helping move hundreds of tons of cocaine toward the United States.
- Hernández’s whereabouts are undisclosed in the U.S., and Honduras’s anti-corruption unit says it will request extradition if he does not return.
- Separately, Trump pardoned Rep. Henry Cuellar and then publicly rebuked him for staying a Democrat as Cuellar seeks reelection, fueling criticism of the president’s politically tinged use of clemency.