Spanish
Tegucigalpa.- The Attorney General of the State of Honduras, Johel Zelaya, urged this Monday the national security agencies and the International Police (Interpol) to execute an arrest warrant against former President Juan Orlando Hernández, who last week was pardoned by the President of U.S., Donald Trump.
"I inform the Honduran people that I have instructed the ATIC (Criminal Investigation Technical Agency) and I also urge the State security agencies and our international allies, such as INTERPOL, to execute the international arrest warrant against former President Juan Orlando Hernández, accused of the crimes of money laundering and fraud", Zelaya indicated on the social network X.You may be interested in: Honduras recorded 7,746 violent deaths of women between 2005 and 2024
The crimes against Hernandez are associated with a millionaire case that also implicated former deputies, businessmen, and individuals in a diversion of state resources to finance the political campaign in 2013. "We have been lacerated by the tentacles of corruption and by the criminal networks that have deeply marked the life of our country," he added. Zelaya pointed out that his exhortation has been made "within the framework of International Anti-Corruption Day, which is commemorated tomorrow, December 9th". He also indicated that "the first line of investigation has already been concluded and, after the presentation of the fiscal requirement, the former director of DINAF (formerly Directorate of Childhood, Adolescence and Family) Dulce María Villanueva Sánchez, has been captured for irregularities committed during her performance at the head of that dependency". "Our commitment is to truth and justice, as I promised on my first day at the head of this institution," he emphasized. In the case of Juan Orlando Hernández, he was released on the 1st of the past month after being pardoned by Trump on November 28, on the eve of the general elections that were held on the 30th of the same month. Hernández was serving a 45-year prison sentence in New York for drug trafficking and illegal arms trade. The former ruler was captured in Tegucigalpa in February 2022, less than three weeks after leaving power in Honduras, following an extradition request from the United States, which was fulfilled in April of the same year. In June 2024, he was sentenced to 45 years in prison, which he will not serve due to the pardon granted by Trump, whom the former president publicly thanked last week.Before announcing the pardon for Hernández, Trump expressed his support to the presidential candidate of the conservative National Party of Honduras, Nasry 'Tito' Asfura, for whom he asked the Hondurans to vote.
Asfura leads the slow scrutiny of the general elections with 1,274,997 votes (40.52%), against 1,232,804 (39.18%) of Salvador Nasralla, from the also conservative Liberal Party. The presidential candidate of the ruling Liberty and Refoundation Party (Libre, left), Rixi Moncada, remains relegated in third place with 608,139 votes (19.32%), when 97.46% of the ballots have been counted.
