President Donald Trump has pardoned Juan Orlando Hernández, a former president of Honduras who was serving a 45-year sentence for drug trafficking and weapons offences.

It was only last year that Hernández was convicted in a New York courtroom of being part of a huge drug trafficking conspiracy, after being extradited to the US. Prosecutors said the operation flooded America with cocaine and turned Honduras into a “narco-state”. But Trump has claimed the investigation was a Biden administration “set up”, and Hernández is now a free man.

As the Trump administration ramps up its military threats against Latin American drug cartels, including multiple strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean, why has it pardoned Hernández? Will Grant reports.

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(Photo: Juan Orlando Hernandez being escorted by US agents for extradition in 2022. Credit: Fredy Rodriguez/Reuters)