Honduras' President Juan Orlando Hernandez speaks during the opening ceremony of the UN Climate Change Conference COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, Monday Nov. 1, 2021. Andy Buchanan/Pool via AP, File)2025-12-02T14:00:31Z TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) Former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernndez, sentenced last year to 45 years in prison for his role in helping drug traffickers move hundreds of tons of cocaine to the United States, was released from prison following a pardon from President Donald Trump, his wife announced Tuesday.The U.S. Bureau of Prisons inmate website showed that Hernndez was released from U.S. Penitentiary, Hazelton in West Virginia on Monday and a spokesperson for the bureau on Tuesday confirmed his release.His wife Ana Garca thanked Trump for pardoning Hernndez via the social platform X early Tuesday.After almost four years of pain, of waiting and difficult challenges, my husband Juan Orlando Hernndez RETURNED to being a free man, thanks to the presidential pardon granted by President Donald Trump, Garcas post said. She included a picture of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons listing for Hernndez indicating his release. Hernndez was arrested at the request of the United States in February 2022, weeks after handing over power to current President Xiomara Castro.Two years later, he was sentenced to 45 years in prison in a New York federal courtroom for taking bribes from drug traffickers so they could safely move some 400 tons of cocaine north through Honduras to the United States. Hernndez maintained throughout that he was innocent and the victim of revenge by drug traffickers he had helped extradite to the United States. Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel. Follow on On Sunday, Trump was asked about why he pardoned Hernandez by reporters traveling with him on Air Force One. I was asked by Honduras, many of the people of Honduras, Trump said.The people of Honduras really thought he was set up, and it was a terrible thing, he said.They basically said he was a drug dealer because he was the president of the country. And they said it was a Biden administration set-up. And I looked at the facts and I agreed with them.The pardon promised by Trump days before Honduras presidential election injected a new element into the contest that some said helped the candidate from his National Party Nasry Asfura, one of the leaders as the vote count proceeded Tuesday.