Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez is scheduled to return to Honduras this Sunday, nearly eight months after U.S. President Donald Trump granted him a pardon while he was behind bars serving a 45-year sentence for drug and arms trafficking.
Hernandez, who led Honduras for two consecutive terms between 2014 and 2022, is expected to arrive at Palmerola International Airport — located roughly 60 kilometers, or about 37 miles, northwest of the capital city of Tegucigalpa — aboard a private aircraft.
Once back on home soil, the 57-year-old former leader is due in a Honduran courtroom on August 3 to answer charges of fraud and money laundering. An arrest warrant that had been issued against him was suspended in June, meaning he will walk free upon landing rather than being taken into custody.
Speaking with Reuters in a Wednesday interview, Hernandez said he plans to ask that the charges be thrown out.
Earlier this month, he expressed his feelings about the homecoming in a post on X, writing: “I cannot deny the profound emotion and joy I feel in my heart to be returning home.”
He continued: “I am counting down the days until I can hug my mother, my wife Ana (Garcia), my children, my granddaughters, and other family members, as well as every friend who supported us with their prayers.”
He also reflected on the hardship of his time in custody: “It wasn’t easy. The process has been extremely difficult … and what I experienced in prison, I truly wouldn’t wish on anyone.”
Hernandez’s legal troubles began when he was captured in Tegucigalpa in February 2022 and extradited to the United States two months later. In 2024, a U.S. judge handed down the 45-year prison term on drug and weapons trafficking charges — allegations Hernandez has consistently denied.
Trump’s pardon, issued in late 2025 during a tightly contested Honduran presidential election, drew criticism from a presidential candidate and others who accused the United States of meddling in Honduras’s political affairs. Notably, the pardon had no effect on the domestic charges Hernandez still faces in Honduras.
A corruption probe called “Pandora II” has implicated Hernandez and other prominent officials in the alleged diversion of nearly $11 million in government funds to political campaigns between 2010 and 2013. Prosecutors allege some of that money helped finance Hernandez’s first run for the presidency. Charges against former President Porfirio Lobo and former finance minister Wilfredo Cerrato, also named in the investigation, have since been dismissed.
When asked by Reuters whether he might seek political office again, Hernandez did not rule it out, though he said it was not something he was planning in the near term. He did indicate a desire to support his party’s current leadership, saying: “We have a new leadership in our party; we want to support them.”
