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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Fritz Pinnow in Tegucigalpa

‘Justice is optional’: why Trump’s pardon of Honduran ex-president scares nature defenders

A sad-looking Indigenous woman in a crowd holds a placard with the picture and name of Berta Cáceres
Honduran protesters at the trial of the men who murdered Berta Cáceres, an Indigenous activist, in 2018. Those who instigated her assassination evaded justice. Photograph: Jorge Cabrera/Reuters

When Donald Trump announced that he would pardon the former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, only the second world leader to be convicted of drug trafficking, Anna*, an environmental defender, was shocked.

In 2022, Hernández, also known as JOH, was extradited to the US and later convicted, along with his brother, on drug trafficking and weapons charges. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison for conspiring to smuggle more than 400 tonnes of cocaine into the US, becoming the first Honduran head of state to be tried and sentenced abroad for running a narco state. He was also accused of grave human rights violations.

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