Trump's pardon of drug trafficker ex-Honduras President faces accusation of hypocrisy in 'war on drugs'

The US administration has carried out a "double tap" strike on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat. On September 2, two people from the boat were clinging on after the first strike were taken down after the second strike. The US administration has killed more than 80 people since early September, in an attempt to paint Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as a ‘narco-terrorist’, "President (Donald) Trump and Secretary Hegseth have made it clear that presidentially designated narco-terrorist groups are subject to lethal targeting in accordance with the laws of war," said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

However, Juan Orlando Hernández(JOH), the convicted drug trafficker who has established a narco-state, is an ally of the US President Donald Trump. Despite Juan Orlando Hernandez being ordered a 45-year prison sentence for running “a cocaine superhighway to the United States”, Trump has pledged to pardon him. “The people of Honduras really thought he was set up, and it was a terrible thing,” Trump told reporters on Sunday. Trump said that he believes that Hernandez was a set-up.

The "war on drugs" is hypocritical

Many in the DEA called the move “lunacy". Former DEA chief Mike Vigil, “It just shows that the entire counter-drug effort of Donald Trump is a charade – it’s based on lies, it’s based on hypocrisy." Trump is going after those alleged narco boats, which have zero to no consequence on the drug flow to the United States. “He is giving a pardon to Juan Orlando Hernández and then going after Nicolás Maduro … It’s all hypocritical,” said Mike.

Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean P. Murphy said that it's very Orwellian, "he's killing people who are the lowest-level offenders without any evidence that they even know what's on their boat ... But here he's issuing this pardon." This moral diachotomy is nothing but an abuse of power. Murphy added that prosecutors put their years of effort into getting a sentence for the kingpin, while it all goes up in smoke, Trump claimed the conviction of JOH by the New York Jury was “a Biden administration setup”. The decision to pardon Juan comes just a few days ahead of a closely contested Honduran presidential election in which Trump endorsed conservative candidate Nasry Asfura, a member of Hernández's political party. Caracas has consistently refused the "narco-terrorism" allegations as “despicable lies”. Critics view this as an effort to overthrow a leftist Maduro regime, an ideological opposition of the Trump administration.