Honduran attorney general issues international arrest warrant for ex-president Hernandez

WASHINGTON

Honduras Attorney General Johel Antonio Zelaya announced Monday that he has issued an international arrest warrant for former President Juan Orlando Hernandez.

Zelaya said on the US social media company X’s platform that Honduras has been “lacerated by the tentacles of corruption and by the criminal networks that have deeply marked the life of our country.”

He linked the announcement to the upcoming International Day Against Corruption on Dec. 9.

Zelaya said he has directed the Agencia Tecnica de Investigacion Criminal (Technical Agency for Criminal Investigation —ATIC) and urged other state security bodies as well as international partners including INTERPOL to move forward with the arrest order against Hernandez.

US President Donald Trump recently pardoned Hernandez, overturning his 45-year prison sentence for drug trafficking and related firearms offenses.

Hernandez, who served as president from 2014–2022, had been convicted in March 2024 by a federal jury in New York of conspiring to import over 400 tons of cocaine into the US, using his power as president to facilitate the drug trade.