Trump's favorite drug trafficker returns triumphantly to Honduras

Trump's favorite drug trafficker returns triumphantly to Honduras Former President Juan Orlando Hernández, the convicted drug trafficker pardoned by President Donald Trump last December, flew triumphantly home (apnews.com) to Honduras on Sunday in full, ambitious glory. He stepped off a private plane wearing a crisp white shirt, looking clean as the driven snow, a far cry from the handcuffs he wore (apnews.com › noticias 81c4d861462237ea4ade841b846f5aaf)the last time he stood on Honduran soil. Hernández's return, both astonishing and chilling, underscores Trump's ability to use his pardon power to undermine the rule of law both at home and abroad — intervening in a sovereign nation to push it further to the right and land yet another blow in the long arc of destructive U.S. intervention in Honduras. Trump's use of a presidential pardon to empower the forces of greed and repression in Honduras is entirely unprecedented. But it's just a new tool in the imperial toolbox. U.S. domination of Honduras goes way back, from the long decades of support (haymarketbooks.org › 1226 the long honduran night)for the banana companies through its use as a military base during the Contra War of the 1980s, when the country was known as the "USS Honduras." In 2009, Washington supported (haymarketbooks.org › 1226 the long honduran night) a military coup that deposed democratically-elected President Manuel Zelaya. The post-coup regime, with U.S. backing, then wreaked havoc (haymarketbooks.org › 1226 the long honduran night)on the Honduran economy and its judicial system, ushering in unbridled corruption by the country's two traditional ruling parties, drug traffickers, organized crime, and ever-more powerful gangs, all interwoven with the police and military. Juan Orlando Hernández (JOH, as he is known) is not just a documented drug trafficker. His criminal history is far broader. He supported (oas.org › hondurasinformecvr tomo1)the 2009 coup while a member of Congress; while President of Congress, he led the 2012 "Technical Coup" (elheraldo.hn)that ousted the majority of the Supreme Court. He and his party stole (criterio.hn) as much as $300 million from the national health service, bankrupting it, in order to pay for his first election as president in 2013. Four years later, he ran for reelection in violation of the constitution (constituteproject.org › Honduras 2013), stole (theguardian.com) the election when he lost, then turned the police and military on peaceful protesters and bystanders, killing (ohchr.org › 2017ReportElectionsHRViolations Honduras SP)at least 20 of them. Through all these years Presidents Obama, Biden, and Trump supported (haymarketbooks.org › 1226 the long honduran night)the post-coup regime and Hernández, despite powerful congressional and grassroots pressure to suspend security aid in the face of human rights atrocities. Meanwhile, however, behind the scenes, independent federal prosecutors with the Southern District of New York built a powerful case against the Honduran president. (justice.gov) In January 2022, Xiomara Castro, Zelaya’s wife, took office as president, in a landslide triumph for the center-left opposition party, LIBRE, that emerged out of the opposition to the 2009 coup. A little over two weeks later, the U.S