Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, convicted in the U.S. on drug trafficking charges, was released this Monday, December 1, 2025, according to updated records from the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). Hernández was extradited to the U.S. in April 2022, where in March 2024 he was sentenced to 45 years in prison on three drug trafficking and weapons charges, plus five years of supervised release and an eight-million-dollar fine. According to the BOP's website, the 57-year-old Hernández was released on December 1 from a U.S. federal high-security prison in Hazelton, Pennsylvania, operated by the BOP. At this time, no official details about his current whereabouts or next legal steps have been confirmed, beyond the status update in the BOP database. 'Yesterday, Monday, December 1, 2025, we lived a day we will never forget,' wrote Hernández's wife, Ana García, on social media. She added that her husband 'is a free man again' thanks to the presidential pardon granted by U.S. President Donald Trump. 'After nearly four years of pain, waiting, and difficult tests, my husband Juan Orlando Hernández HAS BECOME a free man, thanks to the pardon granted by President Donald Trump,' García wrote. 'Today we give thanks to God, for He is just and His time is perfect. Thank you, Mr. President, for giving us hope back and for recognizing a truth that we always knew.' The pardon was announced last week by Trump, who stated that the government of former President Joe Biden had 'set a trap' for the former Honduran leader, who governed the country from 2014 to 2022. The decision to release the former head of state has drawn criticism from several sectors that believe the pardon weakens the fight against drug trafficking, while defenders point to irregularities in the trial and denounce political persecution. Hernández had asked Trump for a pardon in a letter in which he praised him and reminded him of the collaboration between the two countries during his first term, according to Axios, which has had access to the letter. In the letter, according to Axios, Hernández addressed Trump as 'Your Excellency,' something that may have favored the presidential pardon, in which a 'persistent lobbying campaign' by Roger Stone, an old friend of the U.S. president, may also have played a role. 'To all the friends who supported us, to those who never stopped praying, defending the truth, and believing in justice: this miracle is also yours. The truth always prevails.'
