Security & Strategic Review - October 2026

After being pardoned at the end of last year by President Donald Trump in relation to a drug and weapons related conviction for which he was serving a 45-year prison sentence in the US [SSR-26-01], Honduras’ former president Juan Orlando Hernández (Partido Nacional, PN, 2014-2022) has now returned to Honduras where he has been cleared in a domestic corruption case, and is effectively now a free man. The judicial proceedings and decision to drop the charges against him unsurprisingly have been criticised by local anti-corruption groups who warn that it augurs badly for the direction of Honduran justice.