“There Is A Hit On Me” - Ex-Honduran President Pardoned By Trump TELLS ALL | PBD Podcast | Ep. 702

Summary

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Podcast Summary

PBD Podcast Ep. 702: “There Is A Hit On Me” - Ex-Honduran President Pardoned By Trump TELLS ALL

Date: December 18, 2025
Host: Patrick Bet-David (PBD)
Guest: Juan Orlando Hernández (Former President of Honduras, recently pardoned by Trump)

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Main Theme / Purpose of the Episode

This episode features a wide-ranging, explosive interview with Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, who was recently pardoned by former President Trump after being convicted and extradited to the U.S. on narco-trafficking charges. Hernández recounts his side of the story, disputes the evidence against him, describes the political and legal maneuverings that led to his downfall, and frames his prosecution as part of a broader leftist strategy against conservative leaders across Latin America. The conversation delves deep into corruption, U.S.–Honduras relations, cartel violence, lawfare, internal Honduran politics, and Hernández’s time in prison with high-profile inmates.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Allegations and Hernández’s Motivation to Speak Out

• Accusations: Alleged to have facilitated cocaine trafficking into the US, accepted bribes from El Chapo, and used cartel money for his political campaigns ([00:00], [01:51]).
• Hernández’s Motivation: Asserts innocence, claims he was targeted and that his case is one of political persecution. Keen on “telling the world the truth.”
  • Quote: “Tell the world that I am an innocent man. Sooner or later you will find out.” – Juan Orlando Hernández ([04:20])

2. Historical Context – The Cartel Wars & Institutional Reform

• Context: Honduras as a key drug corridor from Colombia to the U.S.; 80% of national violence tied to trafficking ([04:40]).
• Institutional Reforms: Hernández led Congressional changes for extradition, anti-money laundering, seized criminal assets. Claims these actions put his life and his family’s safety at risk ([06:30], [08:00]).
  • Quote: “What I did was what nobody wanted to do. So we amended our constitution to allow the extradition.” – Hernández ([06:55])
• U.S. Pressure: Account of U.S. (Democratic administration) objecting to shoot-down policy for drug flights ([09:39]); details strategic conversations with US General John Kelly ([10:29]).

3. The Power Struggle – U.S. Politics and Shifting Alliances

• U.S. Relationship: Hernández claims he cultivated close working relationships with Obama, Biden, and Trump administrations—until the Biden administration turned against him ([15:01], [40:45]).
• Political Fallout: Asserts that his militarized anti-cartel tactics and tough approach conflicted with U.S. Democrats’ ideological preferences ([16:24]).
  • Quote: “My policies didn't always match the desires of the Democratic administration...using military to fight violence.” – Hernández ([16:24])
• Extradition Irony: Points out he was the architect of the Honduran extradition law—then ultimately extradited himself ([14:57]).

4. Exposing the Honduran Left – Allegations of Political Collusion with Narcos

• Hernández accuses his political rivals, especially the Libre party and President Xiomara Castro, of drug cartel links, citing media and leaked videos involving Castro’s brother-in-law ([25:40], [27:38]).
• Claims the U.S. worked with the radical Honduran left to get rid of him, promising support if they indicted Hernández ([21:39], [23:14]).
  • Quote: “We were called from the U.S. embassy. ...they were going to get rid of Juan Orlando. And we agreed not to go to China... That’s the reason Kamala Harris went to the inauguration of the lady president.” – Hernández ([21:39])

5. The Trial, Family Suffering, and “Lawfare”

• Trial Details: Maintains trial evidence was insufficient, claims witnesses were offered deals for implicating him ([27:46], [73:28]).
• Family: Laments that the Biden administration stripped his family’s visas, barring them from attending the trial ([53:07]).
  • Quote: “My family couldn’t come. When I see other trials from the really bad narcos, their family is right there. ...That’s cruel and inhumane.” – Hernández ([54:07])
• On Political Weaponization: Describes prosecution as “lawfare” and connects to patterns of political persecution globally against conservative leaders ([69:59]).

6. The U.S. Double Standard, Cartel Testimonies, and Corruption

• Outrage over Cartel Deals: Details how main trial witnesses confessed to dozens of murders (e.g., Alexander Ardon) but received minimal sentences in exchange for implicating Hernández ([73:14]).
  • Quote: “One of the guys who testified against me, he told the judge that he was responsible for 57 deaths and he wasn't even six years in jail.” – Hernández ([73:03])

7. Imprisonment – High-profile Cellmates and Threats

• Prison Experience: Held at Hazelton alongside notorious inmates; alleges placement was a setup for his assassination ([76:17]).
  • Quote: “The only explanation I have is because they wanted to get rid of me.” – Hernández ([76:16])
• Notable Encounters: Describes befriending Sam Bankman-Fried, interactions with Diddy, and Tekashi 6ix9ine ([78:14], [79:02]).
  • Quote: “With Sam, we developed a close relationship... we were talking about my case... He said, ‘This is clearly a setup.’” – Hernández ([80:39])

8. Policy Legacy, Reform, and the “Bukele Playbook”

• Institutional Impact: Argues that his “playbook” of extradition, police/military reform, and tough policies provided a model for El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele ([66:23], [69:15]).
  • Policing: Fired 60% of Honduras’ police force to break cartel corruption ([46:52]).
• Cultural Stances: Notes pushback from U.S. Democrats over Honduras’ constitutional ban on gay adoption and progressive policies ([65:09]).

9. On Going Home and Future Aspirations

• Personal Safety: Says there are active threats to his life, claims current leftist government creates fake crises using his name ([49:04], [90:41]).
  • Quote: “Now, if I go back to my country, there is a hit on me.” – Hernández ([46:58])
• No Political Ambition: Wishes to rebuild his family life, clear his name, but is not interested in political office again ([87:16]).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On why he risked all for reforms:

  “If there is a mess, then we became the country with the highest murder rate in the planet. ...I cannot look the other way.” ([04:40])

• On the U.S. attitude shift:

  “How is that hypocrisy? ...We extradited 30 kingpins from Honduras. But later on, they used that extradition treaty to extradite me.” ([14:57])

• On cartel informants testifying for lighter sentences:

  “He told the judge he was responsible for 57 deaths... and wasn’t even six years in jail.” ([73:03])

• On prison with Sam Bankman-Fried:

  “He was a very quiet guy, but he had new ideas ...he said, ‘This is clearly a setup.’” ([80:39])

• On U.S. “lawfare” and the conservative playbook:

  “This is part of the playbook of the radical left in the planet... They were trying to go after President Bukele too. It’s clear as this water.” ([69:59], [70:52])

• On family suffering and official cruelty:

  “That’s not... That’s cruel and inhumane.” ([54:07])

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Major Segment Timestamps

• Allegations, Political Backstory: [00:00] – [07:30]
• Institutional reforms, extradition law: [07:30] – [14:30]
• US-Honduras deep state, shifting US policy: [15:01] – [23:15]
• Honduras leftist politics, Libre party cartel links: [23:13] – [30:41]
• Trial, evidence, family visa revocation: [27:25], [53:07]
• On Bukele, ‘authoritarian’ reforms, regional playbook: [65:09] – [70:52]
• Cartel plea deals, U.S. hypocrisy: [73:03]
• Prison threats, notable inmates, life inside: [76:00] – [81:54]
• Personal reflections, public defense, next steps: [87:16] – [112:15]
• Final words to audience, thanks to supporters: [112:15] – [118:19]

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Tone & Atmosphere

• The episode’s tone is candid, tense, and at times emotional—with Hernández expressing concern for his safety, injustice for his family, and righteous indignation at both Honduran and U.S. political machinations.
• PBD’s interviewing style is sharp, forensic, and direct, pressing on both the controversies around Hernández and the failings of U.S. drug policy/political hypocrisy.

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Conclusion

This lengthy and revealing interview provides an unprecedented window into the world of Central American power politics, cartel wars, and the complexities of U.S. foreign relations. Hernández presents as a man both defending his legacy and warning of an international playbook that threatens conservative governments. The episode is as much about regional geopolitics as it is a personal story of rise, fall, and the fight to clear one’s name.

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Supporting Materials

• PowerPoint Presentation: Referenced by Hernández as containing much of the data and evidence supporting his claims—available via PBD’s channels ([118:23]).

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For listeners interested in the intersection of drug policy, U.S.-Latin America relations, and elite-level political intrigue, this episode is a must.

Transcript

[Interviewer]

There are people that think you helped funnel 400 tons of cocaine into America. They think you took the $1 million bribe from El Chapo. It took millions of dollars to help with your campaign for 2013.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Today, Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former president of Honduras, was extradited to the United States to face federal charges.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

The only explanation that I have is because they wanted to get rid of me.

[Interviewer]

I got you. So they put you there so somebody would kill you to get rid of you. That logic makes sense to me. You were in prison with Diddy and Sam Emankman. Free.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Did you speak with them?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

There was another guy, rapper. He's very famous. They call it 69, I think.

[Interviewer]

Tekashi 69.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

So the same day that this meeting happens, this picture right here, which is Kamala Harris.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yes.

[Interviewer]

And Siomara Castro.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yes.

[Interviewer]

Are meeting on that same day you get indicted. Yes.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

When you talk about the deep state in America, some people said that's a conspiracy theory. I have lived. Did you ever think you would make it? Adam, what's your point?

[Interviewer]

The future looks bright.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

My handshake is better than anything I ever saw.

[Interviewer]

It's right here. One of one.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

My son's right. I think I said this before.

[Interviewer]

Today we have with us the previous president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez. You've seen him all over television in the last two weeks because he was just pardoned by President Trump. It's great to have you on the podcast.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Thank you for having me.

[Interviewer]

Yes. So question for you. When I call a lot of different people. I have friends in high places. I have friends in low places, and I have friends who were formerly associated with Mexican cartel. I have friends who have done a lot of different things. Here's what I hear. There are people that think you, you know, helped funnel 400 tons of cocaine into America. They don't think you're a good guy. They think you were part of it. They think you took the $1 million bribe from El Chapo. They think you were took millions of dollars to help with your campaign for 2013. They have a lot of bad things to say about you, which we'll talk about a lot of that stuff. And you have a PowerPoint here with us, so we'll. We'll learn about that as well. Then there's a complete opposite side. The other side is a group of people who say you lowered smuggling when you became president. You got rid of a lot of these cartels. The cartel didn't like you because you were hurting their business. Because to sell cocaine 84% of cocaine is made in Colombia and the world. And it goes from Colombia to Venezuela to Honduras. They have to go Honduras to Guatemala to Mexico, then here. So they produce it here for $1750, then goes to Honduras, $13,500, then it goes 17, then US 40,000. If it goes to New York City, this is 2016 numbers I'm giving to you. And they say you stopped it. So because you stopped it and you were hurting business, they started saying, oh, you're behind at all this other stuff to throw you under the bus. So then you got served 45 years. And we've all seen a video with you walking up rob, if you want.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

To put it up.

[Interviewer]

And they said, no, this guy's going away for jail. He's a bad guy. But the real bad guys were the ones that wanted to hurt you. So some say that's what happened. And then some people who are more pro Trump folks had more of a technical question for you. They wanted to know how is it in a country like Honduras where presidents can only serve one term for four years, you were able to get Supreme Court to change things to run a second term. And they want to know how some people in America can do that for President Trump to run for a third term. So they're asking a technical question from you. But having said that, who are you? Can you share with the people your story, why you're here, why you're even willing to go talk to camera after being pardoned? The audience wants to know.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Well, again, thank you for having me. Yes, thank you all. The team, the reason because I'm here is because I want the world to know the truth.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

When I was sentenced, I told the judge and look to the press and said, tell the world that I am an innocent man. Sooner or later you will find out. Now that you are giving me the opportunity, we are going to talk about, about things that I haven't said it before. And I encourage you that you can go deep into this and you are going to see things that are really scary. I couldn't believe that after being called the champion against narco trafficking in Central America, then the Deep State and some agents, some public officials in the United States, they were indicting me when they were giving me recognition prices. How this started, Honduras became the main bridge between south and North America for drugs to come through Honduras and then to Mexico, as you said before. But the thing is this, with that comes a heavy price to the Honduran people. 80% of all the violence was related with Drug trafficking. So when you wake up and somebody tell you I was the speaker of Congress, somebody said to me, Mr. Speaker, this morning we have the report 76 people were killed last night. And I said, and the day before, 75. And we are just 8 million people. When you have that kind of problem, you cannot in myself, I cannot look the other way. If you look the other way, it's because you already made a decision not to do that. But I am not that kind of guy. And when I was trying to do something, some other people in Congress, they were telling me, look, Mr. Speaker, they are going to kill us. Remember a couple of months ago, two years ago, they called the two anti drug sars that we have in Honduras. But remember what happened in Colombia when they passed the extradition law? A lot of terrorist attacks, a lot of killings. Judges, policemen, so many other people. So people were scared. But I said we have to do it. And what I did was what nobody wanted to do. So we amended our constitution to allow the extradition. For almost a century it wasn't allowed extradition of Honduran nationals to any other country to do that. I know that I was putting my life in risk, but most scary for me was putting my family's life at risk. But at one point you have to make the decision, what are the country that we are going to inherit? Our children. If there is a mess, then we became the country with the highest murder rate in the planet. Wow.

[Interviewer]

What year was this? What year is this?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Was from 2009, 8, 9, 10 and 11. And I became speaker of the House in 2010. So I started to create those instruments in order to go after the narco traffickers. I did also lead and approve in Congress the anti laundry money law, the ceasing law. We create a very controversial law that some people from the United States didn't like it. The Democrats from the very far left, they call it the shooting down law. Illegal planes were coming from Venezuela with cargo and all of them were landing in Honduras. What I'm going to say, I haven't said it before. Before I became president, there were three deadly incidents in Honduras. They shoot down three planes. But you know what happened with the chief of the Air Force? Because of the pressure of the US Government, the Democratic administration, the President of Honduras at that time, he fired the chief of the air force. And when I realized that, I said, how can you do that if this guy, what he's doing is doing his duty in any country if there's an illegal plane carrying drugs that are deadly and is in the Honduran airspace. What are you going to do? You have to do something. And they fire him. So I said, we are going to create a law with all the protocols based in the international treaties and we create that law. But before I started as a president, I received the the visit of the US Ambassador.

[Interviewer]

By the way, who fired him? Was it Roberto?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

No.

[Interviewer]

Michelita?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

No. Who fired him? The guy who fired was Pepe Lobo.

[Interviewer]

Pepe Lobo. He's from the same party as you.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yes.

[Interviewer]

So he's also Republican. He would be a conservative.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

He's kind of a conservative.

[Interviewer]

Okay, so just to bring context, so the one prior to him, Roberto Micheletti, if I'm saying it correctly, he was a Democrat. He's a liberal. Then Lobo is previous to you, comes in, he fires the chief of Air Force who shot down three planes that were flying drugs into Honduras and then going to the next state.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yes.

[Interviewer]

How did he explain that to the people when he fired a chief of Air Force? What did he say on tv?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

They didn't say anything. When I asked them, they told me we have a pressure from the United States saying that we cannot do that. And I said, why? And they said that some time ago in Peru there was an accident. They shot down a civilian plane. There were some passengers from missionary people, nuns. And I said, now we have to create a law to be sure of that, or Air Force, although it is small, but it is the most professional in the region. But when we create that, I'm going to say something else too, that I haven't said it before. And if you dig into the classified cables from the State Department and also from the Defense Department, you are going to find out. I met with the former South Commander before I became President. It was in January of 2014, was a private meeting. But then he made it public because he went to have a meeting in the Senate. And we talked about with him was General Kelly. And I told him, listen, General Kelly, you know what's going on in Honduras. We're going to extradite people. It's going to be dangerous. We need the backup of the United States because we are not as big as Colombia to support the terrorist attack that we are expecting. We are going to transform the police. I need to use the military force because as in the United States, the military in Honduras is very well regarded by the people. So we have to create so many other instruments, but we want to work side by side with you. I have to reform the tax collection system and so many other things. And he said, but if you use that law, the shutting down law, we are going to be with our hands tied because the State Department doesn't like that. And I said, listen, the. The new law is based on the International Treaty of Chicago, and there is a lot of protocols, and we are professionals regarding our Air Force. And so later on, I found out, when I saw the cables during my trial, the declassified cables that he told the State Department, the President Hernandez told me that he was going to do this because it was a very important deterrent. After a year, he said it in Congress. Before that law, let's say every year was about 300 flights, illegal flights. After that law, we have just two. That's the reason, because in the International Narcotics Strategic Report that the United States issues every year, we are improving. The whole time that I was in office and my government was certified also as a trusted partner in the fight against narco traffickers. Who made those reports? The dea, the Coast Guard, but also Customs in Key West. They have a task force of 19 agencies monitoring that. I was invited there with my whole Security Council team and was invited to the White House, to the CIA, to the FBI, to the DA at the very high level. And we were discussing how this fight was going on, and everybody was saying, juan Orlando is doing unprecedented things, and the results are historic. But also, they said, Juan Orlando, he's a man of his word. He managed to approve the extradition when he was a Speaker of Congress, and then when he became president, he was the first to use that. We extradited during my term, about 30 kingpins from Honduras. But later on, they used that extradition treaty to extradite me. How is that hypocrisy?

[Interviewer]

Who did us?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

The Biden administration.

[Interviewer]

The Biden. Now we know General Kelly and Trump. You know how General Kelly feels about Trump.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

A couple of years ago, he called him a true fascist and made some comments. But while you're saying this, I want to show something with stats. Rob, can you pull up what happened under the President's watch? Zoom in a little bit when he was talking about crime. So this is Honduras intentional homicide rate per 100,000 population from 2000 to 20, 25. You notice 48.3 per hundred thousand. Goes up, goes up, goes up. Keep going. 2008-5520-0964-2010, 74 per 100. Then it's 83, 82. Back to back. Then you get elected. 2013. Then it's 72, 65, 55, 54, 40, 38, 41, 35, 38, 34, and obviously the lowest levels we've seen from 2000. So what you were doing was working. You said you extradited 30 kingpins out. But when you say Biden's administration, Obama, it seems like you were at one point an ally of Obama, Biden and Trump. You've gotten along with the left and you've gotten along with the right. What happened for the Democrats to all of a sudden switch on you, flip on you and come in and arrest you, and you're getting 45 years in prison? The numbers that we've seen.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

What happened is very simple. My policies didn't always match the desires of the Democratic administration. Such as, for example, please, using the military to fight violence. I create a military police for public order. In our constitution, the military has the duty to do public order too. But we didn't have that unit. So I create that special unit. You know what I was told by the State Department? You shouldn't be doing that, Mr. President, because you are militarizing the security of your country. And I said, are you aware that we have the highest murder rate in the planet? Are you aware of the corruption in the civilian police? Are you aware of that?

[Interviewer]

Who are you saying this to?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

To the State Department guys.

[Interviewer]

What specific name? Who are you? How high a ranking of leaders in American politics are you speaking to?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

People who were representing the Honduran desk in the State Department. But also I told them, listen, if you are pressuring me to go back in this, you are asking me to undo what I told the Honduran people that I was going to do during my campaign.

[Interviewer]

Got it?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

I am not that kind of guy. And I said, if you don't want to help us, although this problem of passing drugs to Honduras and this moderate, you are responsible because in your country you consume the drugs. And we are responsible also as a country because it goes through Honduras. And the guys in South America are responsible too, because they produce it. We have to work together and everybody do his part. But if you don't want to do it, I have to do it because it is my country, it is my people who are dying. It is my state who's becoming more corrupt because of this. At one point there was a judge, he was going to have a hearing about Anarcho and you know, 15 days before his son disappeared. And the same day that was going to be the hearing, the little boy came in, into the building of the judge. What do you think that he was going to do? They killed in public, in the street the anti drug sar, Aristide Gonzalez and then the one who was going to follow after him, they killed him also. Because in a problem like this, of course not a famous like you yours, but he was saying in Honduras everybody knows each other. We know who the narco traffickers are. We know who are the public officials who are doing business or meetings with them. The police is a highly corrupt police force. And we have to do something about that.

[Interviewer]

In Honduras.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

In Honduras.

[Interviewer]

And that judge was in Honduras?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

No, this is anti drug. He was an anti drug sard. His name was Alfredo Landa Verde, but he also worked in Congress because he was from the Christian Democratic Party. He was like an advisor for that whip.

[Interviewer]

But this judge who they took his son for 15 days and he reappeared in court in a building the day of that judge was in Honduras.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Was in Honduras.

[Interviewer]

He was. And who took his son away for 15 days?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Who was it one cartel.

[Interviewer]

From Mexico or from.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

No, from Honduras.

[Interviewer]

From Honduras, yes. Okay, got it. So I'm assuming he sided with narcos on the. With narco on that day.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

He resigned it. He went lost. And so we have to create. We have to use the advantage, as I saw at that time, I have to use the advantage of getting together with the United States to get rid of those guys. Other people in Honduras said, you cannot allow that somebody else other state is going to judge Honduras. And I said, listen, we're in a point that we are going to lose our country. We have to do something about that. The former president Mel Zelaya, who is the husband of the actual lady president Xiomal Castro, once told me, you made a mistake approving the extradition. And I said, why? You know that we need help to get rid of this. What's the biggest problem in Honduras? And he said, well, the Americans are not fearful of anybody. You will learn that. But then time pass. And he opposed the extradition law.

[Interviewer]

But then Manuel Zelaya.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Manuel Zelaya. But then he was asked for a guy from the United States. Are you going to get rid of the extradition? When they won in 2021, he said, we will, but first we are going to use it to extradite Juan Orlando.

[Interviewer]

You're the last person they extradited.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

No, but I was the first in his when they started. But the funny thing is this, he said that. And then a very high profile leader from his party, Liberal Party, but the very radical left, he was bragging in public. And he said in public television, he said, of course, six months before the election, we were called from the U.S. embassy. And we sit with the lady candidate and we make a deal that they were going to get rid of Juan Orlando. And we agreed not to go to China because during my government, we have relationship with Taiwan we didn't have with China. But then that's the reason, because the former Vice president, Kamala Harris went to the inauguration of the lady president, Xiomara Castro. And this same day, at the same time that they were having a meeting, the Vice President Harris and. And the president Joma Castro, was the time in which they were putting my indictment over here. You see how synchronized it was?

[Interviewer]

Okay, so the same day that this meeting happens, this picture right here, which is Kamala Harris.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yes.

[Interviewer]

And Xiomara Castro.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yes.

[Interviewer]

Are meeting on that same day you get indicted.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yes.

[Interviewer]

Same exact day.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

The same exact day.

[Interviewer]

Okay, so now. So what the average person would speculate is the fact that they came in, supported her to indict you to say, you do that, we'll back you up. Is that what you're speculating on, what happened?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

It's not just speculation. It is what has happened. But also, in addition to that, you see this. The left in Honduras is really close with the left in. In Venezuela. They are so close that you see the connection with the Attorney general. Pam Bundy said it about three, four months ago that the Honduran government was receiving money to allow drugs coming from Venezuela passing through Mexico. She said it because she knew something about that. And have you heard about the Cartel de los Olles? That's the cartel in Venezuela. The thing is this. When I was in office, I called the Venezuelan ambassador during my first term, And I told Mr. Ambassador, we have a problem. Two things. A lot of Venezuelans are here in Honduras. They are claiming that your government is having a repression. You don't allow them to go to the street, and you don't respect the result of the elections. And the other thing is, look at these maps. Look at these prices. Flights coming from Venezuela to Honduras. I said, I already spoke to the president in Colombia and they are helping us to stop that. Because in my government, we create like a maritime chill in the Atlantic and an aerial chill in the air and land chills to stop drugs coming through our territory. And so I am going to ask you ask the president of your country to help us to stop this. And I asked him three times. And at the end, I said, if you don't have an answer in the next 15 days, you are going to have to leave my country because you don't want to help us with the main problem that we have. And at the end he said, I haven't had any answer from my government.

[Interviewer]

And this is Venezuela.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

This is Venezuela, the same guys. So the left in Honduras and the left in Venezuela, they started a campaign saying that they were calling me a dictator because I was using the military to stop violence. Then they said narco dictatorship. But the reason, because they launched that campaign was because they were trying to hide the links that the Libre party, the very left party in Honduras had with the narcos. Now it is public. A video that I couldn't see it properly during my trial because I didn't have the time. I see it more with more time after my trial. And the video is so clear. The brother of the former president, who is the brother in law of the lady president was seated with the main narcos in Honduras making deals, saying the narcos was saying, the only chance that we have is for these guys to win. And if they win, they're going to get rid of the extradition. And the other laws that I had created when I was speaker at that time were about three weeks before the election that I want to show Maracastro. But also they said if we don't do this, we are. I don't want to say the word but was a curse word. Like they were going to be very complicated. And so that video is exculpatory, but they didn't allow me to use it in my trial.

[Interviewer]

Is that video public?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

It is public.

[Interviewer]

And is it in Spanish or is it in English?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

It is in Spanish and translated to English.

[Interviewer]

Do we have that video?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

I'm gonna find it right now. I think you do.

[Interviewer]

Was it in the email that was sent to him?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

I think so.

[Interviewer]

Okay, can you look? And what would be the video if he wanted to look for it? What word should he type to find a video? Xiomara.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

No. Was Carlos Celaya Type in control F Carlos. Carlos Celaya and Narcos could be Libre Narcos meeting and at the end they were in an agreement saying that they were going to support with I think was $650,000 and some other help to win the election. So they wanted them, the radical left to win the election in order for me to lose. Because I was. They know what's going to happen if I win. And when I win. When I won, we seized almost a billion dollars. And this guy was the same guy who was all my trial. And when he was asked if you are accusing Juan Orlando of this, do you have any evidence? And he said, No, I don't have anything. Do you have any record of calls? Do you have a video? You have an audio? Do you have a document? I don't have. But you do have a lot of videos from other people. And he said, yes, I did. And this is also that I haven't said it before. When I was reviewing my. They call it discovery. I saw the interviews that this guy have with the dea. They met in Belize and this meeting was published by the New York Times a week before I won the election. They started to have a meeting to work together. So he was asked, he and his brother tell us the names of the Honduran politicians, public officials that you work with and you paid them in order to do your business of narcotrafficking. So they give a lot of names, but they didn't mention my name. And at that time I was the most recognized politician because I just a couple of weeks have won the election. Why they didn't mention me at all for three years that they were talking with the D.A. they mentioned me after because they knew that was the jail free card that they need. When he was asked on trial, so tell us, why did you leave Honduras and came to the United States? And he said, well, because we were afraid of the extradition. We were afraid of being incarcerated in Honduras. And so how he was saying that he was protected. And this is the kind of witnesses that they presented in my trial.

[Interviewer]

So that's interesting. So Kamala comes in. Xiomara's brother was involved. Rob, do you have that clip?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

I do.

[Interviewer]

So let's look at this here. Can you go back and verify what he just said? He just had something pulled up right there. September 2024. Investigate organization Inside Crime released a video recorded in 2013 that purposely purportedly showed Carlos Zelaya, which is the brother prominent congressman and brother of current first gentleman Manuel Zelaya at a meeting with the leaders of Las Los Cachiros drug trafficking organization. The discussion of the video the drug traffickers discussed offering more than $525,000 in bribes, some of which claimed would go to the commander. And apparent reference to Manuel Zelaya, Ziomato Castro's husband. After Matt Carlos a lot acknowledged that the meeting did take place and he resigned from his leadership position in Congress, but stated he was unaware that individuals illicit businesses. President Castro described her brother in law's actions as a deplorable error. So now somebody can say the following to you. Respectfully, somebody could say, okay, that's obviously makes sense and I want to go back to Kamala Harrison, I got some questions for you there. But your brother, Tony Hernandez, right? Your brother Tony Hernandez, who is facing life right now, he was in Congress previously himself, I believe, and he had ties to drugs, to traffickers, even. At one point, there was even a. The brick. As you know, they would put the logo of the bricks on the bricks of cocaine that they would sell. Your brother's letters are on a brick of cocaine that says th. Similar to the Tommy Hilfiger logo. Th. Which is Tony Hernandez. That's the brick right there, Rob. Yeah, that's what the brick looks like. Th. That says Tony Hernandez. I'm sure you've seen this before and you know his link with a guy he used to do business with, because he had locations both in Colombia and in Honduras making cocaine, dealing with a guy named Rodolfo. I have his name. Rodolfo. Let me give the full name, because I want to make sure I get this correctly. I don't want to get this wrong.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

There was a witness, El Cinco, I believe his name was no El Rojo.

[Interviewer]

If El Rojo is somebody else, that according to my investigation. Rob, if you want to pull up this guy. Is that it? Rodolfo Alfredo Vergara Bonifante, also known as El Cinco, in coverage tied to your brother Tony Hernandez's case, as described as a cocaine. Colombian cocaine supplier, partner. He's a hitman. He's part of, you know, Sinalo. So what the outside would say, respectfully, Mr. President, is you can't make the claim of the current president's ties that the brother accepted bribes because your brother did the same thing. And he's facing life today. This guy stepped down. Yours is facing life, right? So to somebody that may say, I don't know if you have, you can really make that argument. What would you say? Somebody knowing your brother had ties to getting money, and he's facing life today.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

First of all, now that I have review my discovery, and in that discovery was all the information about my brother's child, I am convinced nothing of that was true. But I am going to tell you something else, please. When I saw the style of life of my brother, he didn't have even a new car, he didn't have even money in his account. Everybody knew him in Honduras. He was an average guy, a very young guy. When you saw the whole thing that they create about him, everybody was saying in Honduras, it doesn't make any sense at all. But look at this other fact. There is a guy from the DA who led the team, who Captured El Chapo and he wrote a book. His name is, his last name is, I think it's Cogan, Andrew Cogan. So he said we follow El chapo for almost nine months in a clockwise basis, 24 hours. He wasn't leaving the city, he was just moving to another, to another like mountain in Mexico. But they even say this, all those tales that during that time El Chapo was going to South America, to Central America, that's not true. And he was the one who led the capture of El Chapo at that time. And during that time is the allegation of the witnesses saying that about my brother. So the question is, if the prosecutors, the DA knew about that, why they didn't ask that same agent to go and testify against my brother. And the other thing is this three, no, four, actually four guys who allegedly were in that meeting, they had dealings with the government, they agree, they have a plea deals, but they didn't go and testify because they know that it didn't happen at all. But now I don't want to go into more further details because I haven't spoken with my brother for almost seven years and his lawyer is doing some work at this time.

[Interviewer]

You guys haven't spoken for seven years?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

No, I haven't.

[Interviewer]

Is that because he can't talk to anybody or you've chosen not to communicate with them?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

At the beginning I said if they are following him, if they are attacking him because they want to affect me, I don't want to affect him. But then he was in jail and I was in office. And even though this other part, there was a cable, a classified cable, and I told once to the public official from the U.S. listen, if you have something related with my brother and you give it to me, am I going to be the one giving it to you so that you can prosecute him? But after that I also asked the US ambassador in Honduras. Mr. Ambassador, I don't like this. My family is in a very honorable, honorable family. What we have is our name. We don't have money, we don't have anything. We are a middle class family. We are coming from the world.

[Interviewer]

There's great stories about your parents, your family. You come from a rural area of, but you come from a good family. You went to a school in Albany, you went here and then over there in your state, I think you went and became a lawyer. You went to a law school if I'm not mistaken. So yeah, the stories about your family is very good, the stories about your brother.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

But listen, this is the point I told the ambassador, can you ask the DOJ for a meeting? So can my brother go and be interviewed and be interrogated by the da, by the prosecutors? And he said, but we don't have any guarantees, Mr. President. I said, I am not asking for guarantees. What I am asking is if something is wrong and you have to proceed, you can do it, but if you don't have any problem, but also you have to do it. So he went, he came to the United States, he met with the DA and he came back. Do you think that if we were. If the people who the prosecutors portrayed us like that I was going to do that?

[Interviewer]

I don't know. I'm looking at the connection with your brother because you said. I said el Cinco, which is the Rodolfo guy we spoke about earlier. But there's also El Rojo, and that's Victor Hugo Diaz Morales, if I'm not mistaken. And he's the guy that has said that he's killed 18 people. I think one time he shot his girlfriend and even killed. Killed a little kid one time, little girl.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

A terrible guy.

[Interviewer]

Terrible guy. And there was some ties with him and your brother as well.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

The problem is that this guy was from Guatemala. Guatemala is close to our hometown. So my brother was doing some cooking business. I mean, food for small parties in the place in which we were born. Those guys used to come. The problem with my brother, I told him, sometimes you have to avoid people or even tell them directly, I don't want to be. You shouldn't be here. But of course, somebody else said, if you do that, they are going to kill you. But anyway, that's the thing. Now that I've seen the whole information, there is nothing. But my daughter from now on is, as I'm doing it right now, is to explain to the world what really happened. Because truth has to come out.

[Interviewer]

And I appreciate. And that's why we're doing this. And I applaud you for doing this. But my point for saying this is because you went after the current president's brother, Carlos, his ties. And then I was like, well, the other side's going to tell you about Tony Hernandez and his ties with El Rojo and El Cinco. So it's not like your brother. They didn't have some tyser. But you're saying your brother's innocent. This is what I want to get to. Let's go back with the new president. Kamala Harris comes in with her beautiful mask that she's wearing. And, you know, to claim that they're extremely safe. And so they're celebrating the new president, you know, winning. And then on that day, you're getting indicted. Great. Have you ever personally had any conversations with Obama, Biden or Kamala Harris with.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Obama and with Biden?

[Interviewer]

And what was the context of your conversation with Obama and with Biden?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Well, with Obama, we started to work, remember in 2014, the huge wave of unaccompanied children coming from Central and South America. So we started to work in that and we launched an international event in Honduras trying to manage that thing. And they asked me to come even to speak to both houses of Congress to tell them that we were going to work together. And I said, listen, I don't need to do that. We are working really close in that because I feel so sad that the coyotes, the smugglers, are using that natural love and empathy of families trying to bring their children. But the children I lost in the way. But at the end, we were very successful in that. But we create what we call it like a program from the Northern Triangle of Central America. And Biden was the one in charge of that. And we were working so close that at some point, I guess that you already have that video there. He said it publicly in Guatemala. He said, Mr. President, referring to me, you are risking your life. You are risking your family life.

[Interviewer]

This is Obama, Biden.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

This is Biden and doing a fight against organized crime. And that is also our fight. He said it right there. But then we continue meeting. When President Trump won the election, Biden called me and he said, Mr. President, Vice President Pence is in charge of the transition. I wanted to ask you to receive a call from him because we want to continue what we have been doing in the Northern Triangle. And I received a call from Vice President Pence. So he was given the new administration that I was the one who was doing that work in Central America to stop drugs, to stop illegal immigration. And how is that then during his administration, when he became president, those things changed. I mean, it is a hypocrisy of he didn't know what was going on in his government. Sorry to say that this is Biden, Biden.

[Interviewer]

Well, that's obvious that the current admin. The previous administration under Biden did Kamala Biden, Garland, did any of those guys speak with you? Because Garland gave a 21 minute speech where this is it Bible ex Honduras when you were being extradited. Is this the speech rap?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yes, sir.

[Interviewer]

Just play it a few seconds of it. Go for it.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Lando Hernandez, the former president of Honduras, was Extradited to the United States to face federal charges. Hernandez is charged with participating in a corrupt and violent drug trafficking conspiracy to facilitate the importation of tons of cocaine into the United States from 2004 to 2022. As is charged in the indictment, Hernandez abused his position as president of Honduras from 2014 through 2022 to operate the country as a narco state. Hernandez is alleged to have received millions of dollars from multiple drug trafficking organizations, including from the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel known as El Chapo. In return, drug traffickers in Honduras were allowed to operate with virtual impunity. We allege that Hernandez corrupted legitimate public institutions in the country, including parts of the national police, military, and national Congress. And we allege that Hernandez worked closely with other public officials to protect cocaine shipments bound for the United States.

[Interviewer]

Okay, so during this administration, while they're playing offense like this with you, okay, indictment, you know, smuggling cocaine, the average person watches this. You're a criminal, you're a horrible human being. Right. That's what the average person is going to see. During Biden, did Biden, Kamala Garland, anybody, any of the higher ups of his organization talk to you, reach out to you with Biden?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

We work very close with.

[Interviewer]

With Biden, yeah. So Biden was good with you.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Himself, directly, yeah. So when you see something like this, how surprised were you? When were you expecting this or you.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Surprised by and not. I wasn't. I couldn't believe it.

[Interviewer]

So, so let me get this straight. So when this speech is being made, you're fully surprised. You don't even know. You can't even believe that this is taking place.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yeah, because this guy, this former Attorney General Garland, he was saying that we were using the police. But the other branch of the State Department, they call it inl, we work with them in how to transform the Honduran police. I was given awards, I was given recognitions because we worked that with the Inter American Development bank and we work with several other polices from Chile and from other countries. We became like the example of how to purge, how to transform a police force who used to be at the order of the narcos. We fire almost 60% of the police force in Honduras. And that's the reason, because I have to use.

[Interviewer]

You make a lot of enemies if you do that. So these are people. It's because I know the model. You can bribe them and you can.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Win them over, but thanks to God, I am alive. As you said it, this guy, every group of this, they tried to kill me. And right now, if I go back to my country, there is a hit on me. I'm telling you this right now. I haven't said it before. During my trial, I received a report, my lawyer from the FBI. Unfortunately, my lawyer was so ill that he couldn't come regularly to visit me. But in one case, I was reviewing that and there was an informant who was talking to the FBI. And this guy was saying, I was in a meeting. The top leaders of the radical left, the Liberal Party, were doing agreements with one of the main criminal organizations in Honduras to kill President Hernandez. And then they helped that party to win. And then the other argument was that they were going to kill my daughters, my family. And they killed a son of a former president. And it was right there. And I was so mad. And I even asked the judge for a special hearing. I said, how can. Why you didn't tell me this at the time? I can do anything to protect my family from here, but at least I can hold them. And at this point, the Attorney General office in Honduras, they didn't say anything about that. And now how is that? Garland was saying that when all other branches of government in the United States, they were applauding, they were saying that model that Honduras has to transform the police is the model that we need in the region.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, that's. And so is your family now out of Honduras. Do you have any family there still or no?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yeah. And this morning, from very early in the morning, I have to call them because the president, the late president, said about three in the morning, posted in her social account that I was going to get into the country and she was fearing a coup d' etat and I was going to empower a new president. I mean, I cannot back to my country right now because I know what is going on over there. The political persecution, but also all the enemies, some people who were extradited during my administration, they are already back in Honduras, but also the Honduran people last Sunday already spoke. 80% of the Honduran people rejected the radical left government. So they are trying to create a crisis to steal the election, as the style of the Venezuelan government does it every time. And they have been using me for almost 12 years to create crisis. And now I have to put before I came here with you, a post saying, that's another trick, that's another lie. What Honduras need is finally to count the last vote. And the institutions have to be preserved. And all the civil society, the other groups and the international observers who already said that the election is okay, we Just want to finish counting the last votes. And we already know who won the election, but that's the way that these.

[Interviewer]

People operate and rob. Who is this Yomara Castro de Zelaya? She's the current president. She said this eight hours ago. Yeah. To the Honduran people, I report with historical responsibility that based on verified intelligence information, Juan Orlando Hernandez pardon in the US Plans his entry into the country to proclaim the winner of the elections at the same time that an aggression is underway aimed at breaking the constitutional democratic order through coup against my government. In the face of this serious situation, I urgently request the conscious and peaceful support of the Honduran people. I call upon the people's social movements, collectives, grassroots organizations, militants and citizens to urgently and peacefully gather in Tegucigalpa to defend the popular mandate, reject any KUK attempt, and make visible to the world that a new coup is being hatched there. Do you have any plans of going back?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

I cannot go back right now, if you allow me. Although President Trump already pardoned me and he has the courage to do it because he already passed. I mean, for what I have been go through, the lawfare against him is. I mean, I haven't seen a case in history where he faced. So he understood and he knows what really happened with my case, so he pardoned me. But, you know, I haven't seen my family for almost four years, and now they are facing those threats. I want to reunite with my family for a while. Meanwhile, the new government in Honduras is established. I want to go back to my country. My dream is to take care of my family, my mother, my children, my grandchildren. And that's what it is. But, you know, being there right now, they are in danger, so. And the Biden administration, they took away their visas and they couldn't even come to my trial.

[Interviewer]

Your family's visas were taken away by the Biden administration?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

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[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

You know that they didn't even come to my trial. When I see other trials from the really bad narcos, the real ones. And their family is right there. And my family couldn't Come. Wow.

[Interviewer]

That'S unbelievable.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

You know how makes me feel.

[Interviewer]

Oh my God.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

That's not. That's cruel and inhumane. Anyway.

[Interviewer]

That'S terrible to hear that. And by the way, do you know who did. Who took the visas away? Anybody specific? Because I don't know if Biden did it. Somebody on his team probably did it. Because it doesn't sound like you have a bad relationship with Biden.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

No, I think that he even.

[Interviewer]

Know.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

I think was things. I mean there was a group of the very radical left in the Biden administration that did this whole thing. I guess there were people from the State Department and the White House.

[Interviewer]

But you don't know any names of who that would have been?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

I have an idea, but I don't want to say it. What I know is that there was a guy during the Biden administration. He was applauding me every time even taking pictures with me. When President Trump won the election, he asked my former chief of staff if I can go to meet Biden. And I said, listen, but the United States has already a new president. My relationship is with President Trump. But anyway, I went and Biden was there and this guy was there. He was sending up the meeting. And I said so this is going to be your campaign headquarters. Something like that. Because I want to be put distance between that political thing. And he said no, no, no, like that. And when I was signing the third country agreement to stop illegal immigration with President Trump we cited in New York and before I did that, I went to several countries in Central America to talk to the president so that we can do it together. As Charles Wolff said in a video and I think it is in the presentation charge Wolf was saying President Hernandez help us to convince the other leaders of the of the region to do that. And when I signed that the same day that guy started to attack me recklessly.

[Interviewer]

The same guy?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

The same guy.

[Interviewer]

And do we know this guy?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

I don't want to say right now, but I'm going to give you the information with.

[Interviewer]

Well, I'm going to give so because you're going to have. One name is going to be Blinken. I'm sorry, One name would be Blinken. Anthony Blinken. Okay. I don't think it's Lloyd Austin Mayorkas.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

I don't remember clearly if his name was last name was Gonzalez Menendez or Gonzalez Gonzalez. The same one who was making deals with the Venezuelan regime.

[Interviewer]

Got it.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Is the very radical left. But you know some there is. This is the other part of the. Of the Democratic Party.

[Interviewer]

Sebastian Gonzalez, I don't know if I.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Don'T remember.

[Interviewer]

Senior Director of National Security Council for the Western Hemisphere of the US it would be that leader he reported to, Jake Sullivan.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yeah, but you know, several congressmen and senators used to come to Honduras and to see how things were going on. And the funny part is this. They came to the Senate or the House and they report to their committee and there was a consistency between the International Narcotic Strategy reports saying that Honduras was improved every year. It is right there. And that information is produced by the DA Coast Guard and the customs. But also when they went to Honduras and they meet with the US Embassy team, the security team, they came to report and one senator said something really good is happening in Honduras and it has to do with the new leadership of President Hernandez. Now the two, two very bad guys came to surrender to the United States because they felt the heat from the President Hernandez government. You know who one of those guys was? One who was lying in my trial and he was a senator who was brief and who went to Honduras. He even came, they went, some of them even came to my home to tell me, could you please talk to the other presidents in the region so that we can expand what you have here in Honduras.

[Interviewer]

Is this a well known senator in the us?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yes, several.

[Interviewer]

Do you have their names or.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

I don't remember clearly. I remember that he was from Delaware.

[Interviewer]

Delaware is where Biden's from.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

But I can send you the names and the photos and everything. And there were meetings also and they were asked about how Honduras were doing and they were saying words like this. He took unprecedented measures. The historic results are right there. He's a man of his word. And they even said in the cables and they told me in private, as never before, look at this. As never before, the United States has a close and effective relationship against narco traffickers with the government of President Hernandez. And that is in the classified cable.

[Interviewer]

Wow. Is that Tom Carper?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

I think, yeah, he used to be in my home.

[Interviewer]

Tom Carper used to be in your home?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

And so he's thankful for what you're doing. He's asking you to talk to the people around, to minimize the cartels and work with other world leaders. And then he comes back around the Portuguese Senate and then he sides against you.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

No, no, no.

[Interviewer]

He's a good guy.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

He didn't say anything that I know. Okay, got it. But in the Senate report, in the, how do you call the place and the put all the hearings, you are going to find that information over There, I got it.

[Interviewer]

Okay, interesting.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Well, and I can send it to you too.

[Interviewer]

I'd love to see it. I would love to see it. But let's stay on this because, Rob, if you can pull up the map. Do me. Just pull up the map where on the PowerPoint that he has. Can you go show where. Okay. If you can go to present mode, if you could.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

But also, if I could add something else. There were not only the International Narcotic Structure report saying that the improvements of Honduras against the drug traffickers. My administration was certified every year during my two terms as a reliable partner in the fight against drugs. And that report by law has to be sent on March every year from the office of the President in the name of the President, to Congress so that Congress can allocate money to the agency so that they can work with a reliable partner. It is right there. It is in the official documents. And so when you ask if they knew this, and in my case, there was a single US Official testifying against me, That's what we call a lawfare, because it was for political reasons, because they didn't like that I was using the military, that I was tough in law and order. They didn't like. Also, I back up the decision of President Trump moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. I did the same too. I back up Israel in the United nations as well. The new concepts that we create to attract investors to Honduras as the new free economic zones. After that, I went to see how they function in South Korea, in Singapore, in Asia. They were all against those ideas. They said there were two libertarians. And I said, listen, it is in Honduran territory. I want Honduras to be exposed to the best opportunities so that they can come and invest. We are very well located in the central of the continent. We create a dry canal to move cargo from the Pacific to the Atlantic. And of course, I wanted a train to do that faster, because the Panama Canal doesn't. It is not enough to move all the maritime cargo that move from one ocean to the other. So these other things, I mean, they didn't agree on that. And so many other things. For example, Honduras is a very Christian population. 94% could be Catholics or evangelicals. And they were pressuring me to change our constitution, because in the Constitution there is something that a provision that nobody can adopt children if they are couples of the same sex. And I said, listen, any president who wanted to do that in Honduras, all the churches of the people from faith, is going to overthrow that government. You have to understand that we have our own values, we believe in family, of course, we respect if anybody is, let's say, gay or however they can wanna call it. If it is a human being, we have to respect them. But you know, if you are going to talk to children that you can go to the school dressed like a little girl or whatever, you cannot do that in Honduras. So there were so many other things that they didn't like.

[Interviewer]

So in Honduras a gay couple cannot adopt kids?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

No, no. It's in the constitution for almost 20 years ago.

[Interviewer]

It's in the constitution that gay couples cannot adopt kids in Honduras. Yeah, Very interesting. So, you know, as we're going through this, it's making me think about something and I want to come back to all these flows of how drug is coming in, how it was in 07 and how it changed. It reminds me of you being the person that gave the playbook of what Bukele is doing right now. Because if I look at your playbook, you came in Honduras, all the drugs is going through you. You don't make cocaine, Colombia does, but it goes through Venezuela, you, Guatemala and then Mexico. Right. Okay, so you come in. In Honduras, a president can only serve one term. I think it's four years. In El Salvador, president can only serve one term. I think it's five years. Okay, so you come and you were able to change the constitution so you can go for a second term.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Well, I didn't ask the Supreme Court to rule in that way. There was a group of congressmen, mayors and other people, former presidents, and they went to make a request saying if the mayors in Honduras can be reelected, if congress people can be reelected. But also Honduras has signed a treaty that we have to respect the political rights of the citizens who want to choose. You have let them do it. And the other right is the guy who is in office because at the end is the will of the people if they want to vote for him or not if he's in office. But during my reelection, the other good part is that every party that wanted to compete, went to compete. They participate. I asked so many governments to send observers and they were there. And the people of Honduras choose. That was the highest votes that a candidate could have in history.

[Interviewer]

And I'm aware. So that means the Supreme Court, but the Supreme Court was probably on your side when they did this. I'm assuming they wanted you to be reelected. But this is kind of where I'm going with this with Bukele. Where I'm going with this with Bukele is you went in 2013, became president. He became president 2019. So six years prior to you, he became president. You're a young man yourself, he's much younger, but you're in your 50s. He's now in his 40s, I believe. I think he just turned 40, maybe 39. 40 or so, 41 years old. He goes in and he goes after Marasavatrucha. Ms. 13, right? You go after your drug lords. How old is he right now, Rob? 44. Okay, so you go after the narco, he goes after Ms. 13, he puts them in jail and crime rate drops dramatically. If you can pull up the data of what happened to crime rate in El Salvador, it's astonishing when you look at that. Okay, whether he did it or his people did it, Supreme Court changes. Now he can run infinitely and be the president. Some people call on him a not a dictator. But there's different words that you call Bukele now. He's made the play safer. They like him. It's great. Yeah, he lowered it from 38 per hundred thousand, 19 to 20 to 17 to 7.8 to 2.4. Right now it's 1.9 per 100,000. Insane figures they've never seen before. Right. So goes after Emirates 13, you go after narco. He cleans up crime. You clean up crime.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

We create a new security, high security prisons too.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, so, so. So, meaning he's modeling you. Right, but the difference is, you know, they come after you, but they leave him alone.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

They were coming after him too. If President Trump doesn't win, that's my deduction, they were coming after him.

[Interviewer]

So if President Trump doesn't win, they go after Bukele next?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yes.

[Interviewer]

So what you're telling me is right now, if a Newsom wins in 2028.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

And also creating stories, nothing. Got it solid.

[Interviewer]

Right.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

You know why? We have to realize, if you look at the world, look Lady Le Pen in France right now, Look Bolsonaro, look Bibi Netanyahu, look President Trump by excellence. He is the example of political persecution. Look at this other lady, President Nunez in Bolivia, she just went out of jail. Look at my case. This is part of the playbook of the radical left in the planet. And that's the reason, because they were trying to go after President Bukele too. It's clear as this water. What's their playbook to go after leaders of the conservative movement.

[Interviewer]

Why?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Because they want to destroy in order to give the opportunity to them. What happened in Honduras was they attacked me, they pushed me hard. My Party, too. In order for the radical left to go in power, this is what they did. And I'm going to send you many more detailed information so that you can have it and you can see it for yourself. But also being here, I could ask anybody not to rely on whatever media says, please go and do your own research. I am impressed when I was talking with your people, how deep you were into my past and everything. But you have to do that in order to understand what is going on. Because nobody wanted to do what I have to do. And I have to do it even though I knew that I was not only in danger myself, but my family. Because at the end, I cannot look back to the other way, as the former presidents in Honduras did. If I knew that something was terrible, terribly bad in Honduras, I have to do something, because that's what I am. And I have to clean my name, the name of my family, the name of my team, and the name of the country that at that point decided to get rid of that violence, of course, had a heavy price. And it would be easy for me at the beginning saying, okay, I'm going to make a deal. What do you want me to say? And I'm going to be free in two years, three years. And some of these other guys, did you know, one of the guys who testified against me, he told the judge that he was responsible for 57 deaths and he wasn't even six years in jail. He was walking around in the streets in the United States. But then President Trump ice sent them to Honduras.

[Interviewer]

This is a guy from Honduras. He killed 57 people in Honduras. He's in the streets here in America. He only did six years in jail.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

And President Trump less than six years.

[Interviewer]

What's this guy's name?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Alexander Ardon.

[Interviewer]

Alexander Ardon, yes. Who gave him only six years dividend doj.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

They make a deal. And this is, this is the other part, even worse right there.

[Interviewer]

Alexander Ardon, a former Honduran mayor and convicted drug traffic, confessed to involvement in 56 murders and trafficking tons of cocaine to the US and plea deal. He was sentenced to time served in the US federal court January 2020 by exchanges extensive cooperation as a witness of major drug cases, including the trial of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez. Oh, wow.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

And there is another guy who, who told the judge that he was responsible of 78 killings in Honduras. He's the leader of Los Cachiros. And I bet that he was about to get out, too, because of those deals. And when he was asked in 2013 about the politicians who were working with him. He didn't even mention me. And he said, no. The only thing that I have about Juan Orlando is that my brother gave $250,000 to his campaign. And my brother was in a meeting with him. My brother put me in a video call. And at what time was that? Somebody asked? 2011, 2012. We didn't even have cell phone services at that time in that place. That's how they create those things, you see. And now the damage that they have done to the image of my team, of my country, my family. I was thrown in a jail, like, three or five days before President Trump became in office. They ordered that I have to be moved to a jail in Hazelton. When I went there, some people told me, you shouldn't be here. Other guy told me, I cannot be with you in my cell because my group has a rule. You were part of the law enforcement. Law enforcement. You were at the highest level. They can ask me to stab you, and I have to do it.

[Interviewer]

Hazelton is this. By the way, this is the one Rivera Maradiaga.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Who killed 78 people in 2013. And he was. So you're in jail and a guy saying, if they find out you're my cellmate, they tell me to stab you. I have to do it.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

And this is your cellmate?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yeah. No, he. He didn't want me to be in his cell.

[Interviewer]

So what, did they move you?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Well, I have to. I have to go to. To find another place in order to avoid that. And there was Hazelton. Yeah. There were some others saying, did you.

[Interviewer]

Pull up Hazelton Wrap?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

There were some others telling me, listen, you shouldn't be here. You are in danger here. It is really complicated. And there are a lot of people from the cartels, from Mexico. And why didn't send me over there? The only explanation that I have is because they wanted to get rid of me.

[Interviewer]

I got you. So they put you there so somebody would kill you to get rid of you.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

That's my deduction.

[Interviewer]

That. That logic makes sense to me. That logic makes sense to me. If somebody wants to get rid of you, have somebody else do. They're already doing life anyway, so what do they have to lose? Nothing. It's an easy way to get rid of a target. Yeah, this, by the way, this jail. If some people are wondering who stayed here, Whitey Bulger stayed at this jail. Okay. Anthony Tonacosta, mob related inmates after Bulger. Okay? You got some very MS.13 and Latin King cartel killers stay at this place. These are the names. You got Photios, Freddy Giz, Frank Cadillac, Frank Salami, James, Alec Fields Jr. You got some interesting people that stayed here. So they're sending you to place as if you're a full on killer is what you are. That's who they put you with. And you said you got three, four. So this is January 16th, January 15th. Is that around the day of 2025 when they put you in jail?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

No, was the 21.

[Interviewer]

Oh, this is first time when Trump lost. This is after.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

No, when President Trump wins. This last time, five days before they gave the order to move me to.

[Interviewer]

Move you to Hazelton. That's what I'm saying. So January 15th, cuz Trump. Oh, Trump won, but he got elected. He was inaugurated January 20th. So is this in October or is this in January?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

In January.

[Interviewer]

In January. Got it. And when you were there, is this where you met Sam Bankman Fried? Where did you meet Sam Bankman Fried from?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

It was in Brooklyn. In Brooklyn. I was in a special unit and of course I met Sam there. This other guy who is a singer, you call it mogul, music mogul. Diddy. Yeah, yeah.

[Interviewer]

You were in prison with Diddy and Sam Bankman Fried?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Did you speak with them?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yes, well, at the beginning, you know, I didn't know them as the figures of.

[Narrator/Announcer]

They were.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

I mean, also I was just by myself, you know, reviewing my case in my things. There was another guy, rapper, he's very famous, they call it 69, I think. But I didn't know until the other inmates told me.

[Interviewer]

Tekashi 6ix9ine.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yeah, they called me. Those guys are really big in music and things like that. But with Sam, we developed a close relationship. He was, we were talking about my case, things like that. I met his father and mother because he. At one point I was really preoccupied about my family when I know that they had that green light from the Ms. 13 over my daughters. And I said, you know, I cannot sleep, I don't know what can I do. And he said, listen, you have to move your family from Honduras. But I said, I don't have any means to do it. And we were talking about how can we do. And at the end I told my lawyer, you have to call my wife and you have to tell her and do whatever you want you have to do in order to protect them. But at the end they have to be in my home for almost three months without going out at all. And you know, it's. At one point I said to God, I made my peace With God. And I said, my Lord, you can do whatever you want with me. It is you, right? But please protect my family. That's just what I'm asking.

[Interviewer]

Did Sam Bankman Fried help you financially with the family or no?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

No, no, no.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

At all.

[Interviewer]

What. What was he like to you? Was it a. Did you enjoy the conversation?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

He was a very quiet guy, but he had new ideas about the ward. And when he was reviewing my case, he said, listen, this is clearly a setup. And I said, but how can I explain this? You already passed for a trial and you know what? It is and it is hard, you know, when the prosecutors and the judge agree that you cannot. For example, they didn't allow me to bring the experts from Honduras to explain the jurors how I pass those laws to pass the extradition law, the seizing of assets law, the anti money laundering law, the reform of the police. It's easy to say it, but to do it is a huge risk. And they were going to come to explain to that. And you know, the judge agreed with the prosecutors and they didn't allow them to come to do it.

[Interviewer]

Do you know what Sam Bankman Fried said about you? Have you read what he said about you or. No.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

My daughter was explaining to me.

[Interviewer]

Sam Bankman Fried told Mario Nafal, rob, I think you have it somewhere. And he explains to him that. He says, I spent a year and a half in the same unit as Juan Orlando. I got to know him fairly well. I'd like to think we became friends. And I can't think of a single inmate more deserving of a pardon. He was framed. And SBF spent extensive time helping yourself with trial prep and reviewed evidence and his account. You were convicted in 2024 for decades long cocaine conspiracy involving hundreds of murders. But the actual evidence, A ceremonial machine gun, a selfie with a cartel connected soccer fan and testimony from the exact cartel leaders. You were arrested and extradited. Those cartel leaders were offered early release if they could implicate a bigger fish. They chose to testify against a man who put them in prison. The result, your presidency. Murder dropped 50%. Drug trafficking dropped 90%. Every major cartel leadership extradited to the US SPF. He wasn't just a narco traffic. He wasn't just not a narco trafficker. He was probably the most effective anti cartel leader in the world. Juan Orlando is the most innocent prisoner I've met. Including myself. The pardon came days before Honduras November 30th election where Trump endorsed Nasri Asfura of your national Party. The race is now a technical tie. The Trump warning there will be hell to pay if the electoral body changes the result. That's what Sam Bankman Fried said about you. Interesting. Did you ever speak to Diddy? Was Diddy would a couple of words.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

You know, we were getting into the elevator coming from the legal.

[Interviewer]

He doesn't like elevators. It's bad news to be around elevators with him.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

But I didn't know him at all. And he said, so you are going to four north was the same floor. I said yes. So you are the new guy. But he said yes. And he said, why you advise me? And I said, look, you have to keep your mind busy.

[Interviewer]

You told him, yeah, if you are.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

You have to do exercise every day. If you like music, you have to.

[Interviewer]

He likes other people's music.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

But also. But also if you are going to fight your case, get into that with your lawyers. Be busy because this thing could make you crazy. But if you focus on that. And then he continued to do that. There was some discussion between another guy if they were going to see some channel from the news or the other. And I said, listen, take your time, don't fight about that.

[Interviewer]

Oh, he was fighting with another guy from the news?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

No, they were discussing, but I was trying to stop a fight.

[Interviewer]

He was trying to watch a documentary by the guy in 57. Yeah, he wanted to watch it on. But that's interesting. So. But was he cordial with you? Was he respectful with you?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yeah, very respectful. At one point I was watching a dish and there was another dish there. It was dirty. I don't know who was belonged to. And I watch it. And so he came, I said thank you for washing my dish. Well, I didn't know that was yours. And he said, a president watching. And I said, listen, I mean I can clean the floor here. I was raised like that. I don't care about those things. They think that because you are president, you are like. No, I mean it's the way that you are raised. And I think that helped me with a lot of respect from so many people in jail too.

[Interviewer]

How long were you with all of them? With sbf, with Diddy, with Tekashi, with.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

With this guy. Tekashi I think was about a couple of months.

[Interviewer]

Oh really?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

With. With Diddy? Could be a little bit longer than that. I would. Sam, I think could be a year and a half.

[Interviewer]

Oh, so you guys, you guys spend real time together with Sam?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yeah, well, with Sam we prepare a lot of questions from. For my trial and unfortunately my lawyer we lost confidence and trust with him, but we lost communication. And at the end, when I finally came and said, listen, I know that you don't have any question for the witnesses. I already work on that. And then when he was looking at that, he said, this is amazing. Well, I did your work. Now please do it. But he couldn't do it.

[Interviewer]

Is this a guy that was sick?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

The guy, yeah. Yeah, he was really sick, but also afraid. He was taking care of his mother. She was also sick. And I bet that he also was afraid of some things.

[Interviewer]

Of course, I mean, if they're. If you're his lawyer, his life's probably also on the line. Would you ever. If. With what Xiomara was saying on that, on her tweet, would you ever aspire to go back and be the president again? If the people want you to be president of Honduras again?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

I believe that I. I did my duty as a citizen serving my country. I consider myself a soldier for my country. If they ask me to do something, I will. But, you know, going into the public arena again, that's going to avoid to pay a debt that I feel with myself because I was so immersed in my work. Remember that I was 16 years in Congress and I was Secretary of Congress, which is one of the more demanding jobs in Honduras. And then I was a speaker and two times president. I couldn't spend the quality time that I need with my family. Sometimes you are at home, they are there at your table, but you are not there. And I feel bad about that because now that I am being in jail, I am being blessed. My wife was always there, my children every day. All this information that sometimes I couldn't even remember things. They were digging in and they put it together. So I want to spend the rest of my life with my family, enjoy my grandchildren. And of course, I have to do this duty to explain the world what the truth is, because what I want to inherit to my children is a clean name. It's also to help the team that I put together. They also risk their lives. But also the name of Honduras has to be clean. It has to be recognized that although we were very complicated at that time, there was a generation who took the risk to change that, and we did it.

[Interviewer]

So the challenge with that is, if it seems like a pattern of if a person on the left gets elected president of the us you guys are screwed. So if you go back and your success is reliant upon Americans supporting you, cleaning up the streets and cleaning up your country, when those people are not There they're not going to have your back. Then what do you do?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Well, we have to figure out because we cannot longer be. We cannot go back to what we were.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

And that's the reason, because the people voted so overwhelmingly against the radical left. The same ones that for 12 years were calling me narco dictatorship. They did it because they were hiding the links that they have that now they are exposed. They even terminate the extradition treaty to avoid them to be extradited here. But also now you know, that doesn't work for them, trying to create lies or whatever. That's the reason, because I also, before I came here, I have to put a tweet responding to the lady president.

[Interviewer]

Did you tweet already at her or no?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yes.

[Interviewer]

What did you say? Can you go up to it, Rob?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

You can look at the Juan Orlando Hernandez.

[Interviewer]

I don't think it's that one. What is the go to people rap? What is the account? No, that's not it. I just found it yesterday.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

You can go or you can go to Instagram is more clear.

[Interviewer]

It's one Orlando H. Let's go to one Orlando Ho. No, don't put Hernandez. Just put one Orlando H and it will come up right there, the first one. There you go. There you go.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yeah, there.

[Interviewer]

Okay, so which one is it? Is it this one?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

The accusation.

[Interviewer]

Okay, zoom in a little bit. The accusation made by Zimmer Castle completely false. There's no plan for my entry into the country, nor any attempt to break the constitutional order. This narrative only seeks to spread panic, distract the public and create chaotic and tactic well known from the leaders of libre. For 12 years my name has been used to distract. In the past four years, the government has relied on hate and lies as a smoke screen to hide its absolute failure. The strategy no longer works. The people of Honduras rejected them clearly and decisively at the polls today. Once again, they are launching. Rob, can you increase it up a little bit? Another attack. Using my name to cling to power through chaos. We are not in 2021. Their lives have been exposed. Honduras must keep a firm focus on the special vote tally awaiting the official results from the cne. The process must be monitored and supported by all sectors of Honduran society, as well as the national international observers. Election matters to all of us, not just the political parties. I have been clear in my public statement. I have no intention of returning to Honduras at this time. Precisely because this government has shown it is not respect guarantees of rights and because my security and that my family would be Serious at risk to the evident political persecution and weaponization of justice against me. Once again, time has proven me right. I have information that has led to attacks in my life, that of my family and that of my family. One thing is political or ideological difference. Another is entirely crossing the line and putting humans lives on the line. I hold the current government leaders and leadership. I believe we're fully responsible for any attack, persecution and risk on my family or I may face. History will judge those who use the power of state to intimidate, persecute and so hatred of my condor brothers and sisters. My only desire to be my family, recover lost time and heal. As a father, husband, son, I want to care for my loved ones. And as a good Honduran, I wish for peace, unity and prosperity for my country so that Honduras may grow, strengthen and move forward. May God continue. May God protect and bless Honduras. Yeah, question for you about. Because when you go through this process and someone thinks and says, okay, why would the President pardon you? Okay. One, Roger Stone is very good at what he does and he can come in and say, hey, this guy's innocent, he didn't do anything wrong. We should pardon this guy. Okay, then you're pardoned. Fine. Two is you could play a role in making south and Central America safer. Because when you think about, you know, what's going on over there with Maduro, every day we're seeing what's going on with Maduro. Another boat, another boat, another boat, another boat and a, you know, President Trump is trying to get involved with Maduro and Maduro's going after Musk, Maduro's going after Trump. And then he says, don't worry, be happy. We're going to be okay. We don't want a war, we don't want this. In your eyes, how big of a role is Maduro playing in everything that's going on in south and Central America?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

We could see it in two different times. If you look back five, six, eight years ago, was a really important role because he inherited all this system that Chavez created. And Chavez was very good at that. But in Honduras, the last times, the last years, he's very influential. Listen to this. Everybody knows in Latin America and in the planet that Maduro stole the last election, but the Honduran government, the later president said it publicly, there is no doubt at all the winner is President Maduro. That's not even just a joke, it's a bad joke. But they are so close that they are willing to risk their low proven ratings. But the other thing is that when the attorney general, Pat Bundy said the drugs are coming from Venezuela and then go through Honduras, she knows what I know for almost 13 years, 15 years, and they are so close. That's the reason, because I expel the Venezuelan ambassador at that time. But the other relationship is that they. All the tactics that they use, for example, creating those small groups of radicals, they put weapons on their hands, they go on fire the streets, they burn homes of the political opposition. They have done that in Honduras too. And right yesterday they were taking the streets, putting fires with tires, with whatever, trying to block everything, trying to protest. Unfortunately, the police and the army forces, they said we have to protect the results of the elections, that the will of the Honduran people. But now the president, the Labour president is punishing, removing those officials who did that protection to the citizen yesterday.

[Interviewer]

What is, what is that you're playing?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

This is the protests ongoing in honduras as of 19 hours ago.

[Interviewer]

This is as of 19 hours ago in Honduras.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

That's what, that's what those group, those groups of radicals from the left were doing because they. They already know that they lost the election. They don't want the electoral body to come with the final result because they want to continue in power. Those are the guys. It's the same script, the same playbook that they use in Venezuela. They call it colectivos collectivos. Yeah.

[Interviewer]

So who won, though?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

I have to be respectful of the institutions they have to pronounce. But what I'm going to tell you is what I know about the count of the copy of each electoral poll document that our party has or party won the election, clearly. But they have to count it in the electoral process. Because in Honduras, if there is a table and let's say 200 people come to vote here, every party has a representative, but the electoral body also has a representative. But also you can come as a citizen five meters far and you can be recorded, whatever.

[Interviewer]

Really?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

That's how you guys do it in Honduras?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yes.

[Interviewer]

So people actually trust elections in Honduras?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yeah, everybody's involved in that.

[Interviewer]

Wow. Did you hear that, Rob? Did you hear what? So you got one from each party there, representative, and people can come within five meters. Five meters is 15ft, give or take five meters away. They can record and stream it live and the people can see it.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

And I promote that reform. When I was in Congress.

[Interviewer]

Is that a new law?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

It is in the law.

[Interviewer]

When did that happen?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

I think when I was in Congress, I think was 2013, something like that. But the thing is, this Everybody's counting and they said, this is the ballot and let's say Liberal party, National Party, and everybody can be recording there, but also the ones who are on the table, they are taking notes, that copy for each party. We are very good at keeping those records. So the information that I have from that process is that we win the election in the three presidency, Congress and mayors.

[Interviewer]

And who was a candidate for presidency?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Tito Afura. Good guy, Good guy, very humble, very charismatic, hard working. He has been all around the country. And of course, I have to tell you, the words of President Trump the.

[Interviewer]

Other day saw that.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

How could I say, show up what really was going on with the other candidates.

[Interviewer]

The last thing I want to say to you is because while they're given the pardon to you, it makes me think about how things have worked over the years. And I'm not even talking about your pardon, but my mindset. 1976, George Bush Sr. Is the director of CIA. There's a lot of drugs going on in South Central America, a lot of issues. So in 1976, while he's the director of CIA, Noriega goes to see him from Panama. Okay. And he goes to see him, comes back, allegedly. You can verify this, Rob, it could be wrong, but allegedly the CIA ends up paying him almost $200,000 a year. Okay. For him to give intel to us, to the CIA. By 83, he's making millions of dollars a year. Tens. Noriega's on fire. He's doing very well for himself. And every single time. Oh, so he was on the payroll? Yes, he was on. Can you find out what the number was? No evidence of. Bush personally authorized it. I just want to know what the number was. I hear was almost $200,000. So he gets on the payroll, then he starts making millions of dollars in exchange of being on the payroll and allow him to do the drug deal. Every single time one of the drug disputes took place and they didn't pay him, he would give their names to the DEA and they would get arrested. Well, by 83, 85, 86, it was no longer the communism and Russia was no longer the enemy. There you go, $200,000 to 320 a year. Communism was no longer the enemy. Eventually the enemy became war against drugs. Right. And so now we're more into Reagan era. By 1988, they bring Noriega to Miami and then he gets arrested. The rest is done. You know, he goes to jail. But during that time of him being on the CIA's payroll, he leaked a lot of information to him. So one, what are your thoughts about Noriega? What do you think about that business model? Do you think it's still currently happening today? Do you know what I'm asking?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Not really.

[Interviewer]

So what I'm asking is guys like Noriega who are used to give intel on other people that are selling drugs and a government would allow them. This could be from the Biden's administration, why they wanted to work with some of these guys. This could have been Kamala. This could have been, you know, any of these. As long as you're sending me information about other people for me to catch and you're willing to rat other people out, I'll let you keep making your billions kind of like what they did for them to come after you. Okay. What are your thoughts about what happened with them? And do you think any of those methods are being used today?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

I don't really know. I cannot tell other than my government. For me it was simple. If trust go through Honduras, we have a lot of death, a lot of corruption. So my policy was to avoid drugs coming to Honduras. That's the reason. Because through Honduras we create a maritime chill. And we work with the South Command, they put some very big ships in the Atlantic. And we, with our small navy, we did our part too. We also create the aerial chill, the tuning down law, and also we create a land chill. What means that I work with the Guatemalan government to put a special force in that border. We did the same with El Salvador and with Nicaragua. So Honduras was protected with those three shields. The thing is, you go to that.

[Interviewer]

Map rap, the one that he had on his PowerPoint. Please continue.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

So if you look at that. Yes, I think this is in oh7, which yours was 2007. You know who the president was at that time? The guy who is the husband of the late president right now. So it started right there. Before it was. They were moving drugs from Venezuela to the Dominican Republic. Republic. But then the Dominican Republic create this shutting down low. I got the idea.

[Interviewer]

You got the idea from Dr. I got you, yes.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

And then if you move the other one.

[Interviewer]

And what does that law mean? What does that law mean?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

If there is a flight, you have to have a legal permit. There have to be a communication between the country that you are coming from to the country that you are supposed to land. So they already have that information that that plane got it. The line says you've approved it, the name of the pilot, whatever. And then if they are, if there is, if they don't have that Permit, which is an illegal flight. So all planes come up and they have a protocol of how to communicate by radio, but also by signals. And they told them, you have to land in that airport or ship, whatever. If they don't do it, we're going to shoot you. Now I can say because I already passed, we weren't in the business of killing pilots. We were in the business of stopping those flights. And we achieved that, as General Kelly told those guys in the State Department, as a deterrent. That law is incredible.

[Interviewer]

Interesting.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

And we achieved that. That's the reason. Because you see at this time what is this year? No, that's by sea. This is by sea.

[Interviewer]

2010.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

That's the trend. That's the synergy that was going on after this Mel Salaya guy was in power. So that's the problem that we have. That's the reason. Because we started with that law. If you continue the next.

[Interviewer]

This shows though, Rob, that goes from now from Venezuela to Honduras because of Zelaya Castro's close relationship, friendship with the Venezuelan regime.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yes. And if you see now Dominican Republic have. Lower, lower. Okay, if you continue. Look now. No, this is by sea. Keep going, keep going. Now if you see Honduras is almost free, then we weren't even between the fifth countries with more drugs passing through.

[Interviewer]

Got it.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

After being the first Bush, that's what we did. And they didn't allow me to use that information on trial. And do you know that's information where it's coming from? From southcom.

[Interviewer]

That's coming from southcom.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Southcom. That's the information that they share with us.

[Interviewer]

So it's as accurate as it gets.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yes. They have a satellite system and human sources also 2017. Yes. But if you continue to do that, it improves even more. You see how Honduras is free. All the things is moved to the Pacific, to Costa Rica, to Guatemala and to Mexico. And Honduras is in the, in the middle, the green.

[Interviewer]

Yep. Let me put an arrow on it, Rob, so the audience can see where it's at. That, that green right there. Yeah.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

They come to, to Belize, to Guatemala, whatever. Because that. What we did.

[Interviewer]

And this is 2020.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

2020. The, the. The last year of my presidency.

[Interviewer]

Interesting. And has it. Did the flow of drug come back up when the liberal individual won, Xiomara won that it opened up again.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

If you look at the International Narcotic Strategic Report, you are going to find that argument that the situation complicated when they came to power.

[Interviewer]

Interesting.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Which match with the statement of Attorney General Bundy.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. So it looks like you're optimistic about the new guy that's in it looks like you're optimistic. If he wins, Giomari Castro, if he wins, what do you think will happen to Giomaro Castro?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

I mean there is a lot of wrongdoings that happen. Now the Attorney General in Honduras is elected for seven years, which means that the, the guy who is now in office, who is from the same radical left party of the later president, if he continues there, they are going to be protected. You see that guy that we saw in that video with the Kachiros, the brother in law of the President, he even started the indictment having that piece of evidence there. But a couple of days ago, the candidate from the radical left Liberal Party, Rixie Moncada, she said it in public. And now we asked the Attorney General that he has to indict former President Hernandez in less than 24 hours. The attorney General was doing what he was asked a political order. So I have to fight that legal challenge too. But that's the thing. In order to us to answer you, all depends how the Attorney General office are going to develop. And all depends also if the United States is going to request them in extradition or something. Because the Attorney General Bondi already said something about the Honduran government.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. So final words. The audience watched you and I think they need to know. Normally we'll have people that will reach out who are dignitaries or leaders of countries who have done what they've done initially. They'll come up and they'll say these topics are off. You know, we can't talk about these topics. I think you need to know this. There is nothing, and I'm saying you as the audience, there's nothing he told me or his camp told us that's off base for us to ask. Nothing. Or else we wouldn't do the interview. So I applaud you for doing that because you're coming in here knowing I could ask you any question. And I brought up your, you know, brother, I brought up all this stuff. I played clips of Merrick, Merrick Garland. I played everything. The audience now can make a decision for themselves. But to me watching this, it's very obvious. You hurt a lot of people that were making a lot of money illegally. The narco who don't like you. And you made some very, very bad enemies with people that make money illegally. And when you make bad enemies with them, and when you have a guy who's killed 56 something people does less than six years and he gives away names and they tie you to one of them. And he goes free. It's on the streets. And he was sent back by ICE April of 2025 under Trump's regime. You know, it says there's some wrongdoing there and some manipulation going on under Biden administrations. Probably not himself, probably Kamala Harris and some of the other people that were doing what they were doing. But is there any final words you want to give to the audience?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Well, I want to thank all of those Hondurans and other people, even from the United States, even former presidents in the region who were not only praying for my release, but some of them write letters to President Trump saying what they knew about me. But also I want to thank the people who put together all this information for the White House to review it. And of course, I want to thank President Trump because he knew me when we worked together. But he now also has more detail what really happened. It is in the documents, it is in the statements right there. And of course, people like Roger Stone, I didn't even know him. He just empathized because he went through to something like I was. And of course, I want to thank you. My lawyer told me, as you told me, Juan Orlando, if you want the world to know, you have to take this opportunity. I don't know who of your team called my lawyer and he said, you have to be there, please. Because I don't know much about the United States media, of course, but then when I do a research, and my little daughter said, father, please, you have to go there. We need the people of the United States to know the truth. And now that's my task. I have to clean my name, the name of my family, the name of my team, of my country. But also I want to ask anybody, anybody who go and do a research about my case. And I told the judge the day of my sentence, please release all these things for people to know. Because if you do that, your conscience, the day you die, at least you were going to say, you know, I allow everybody to see what really was there. And in Honduras, we are a small country, everybody knows each other. I'm coming from a rural area and they know me. So my teachers, my family, I mean, my friends, everybody was like, in shock. How could that be? If you look at the asset that they seize, about 80% is an inheritance from my father. My father bought those pieces of land, let's say 70 years ago, 80 years ago. I am not one who has money. Otherwise I could have paid very good lawyers. At the end, I ended up with a lawyer appointed by the judge?

[Interviewer]

No way.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Yes.

[Interviewer]

Your lawyer, the one that is sick, was appointed by the judge.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

No, no, that was the one who we started to pay, but we couldn't continue with him. But then the judge appointed another lawyer, Renato Stabile, and he was working with us. And he said at one point, I feel ashamed what they have doing to you. And I want to say something very important. For me, Thanksgiving for you is of such an important day. Last time, Thanksgiving before this, I was called to have a visit and a legal visit. And I said, wow. And the. And the officer said, there is no legal visits this day. But he was there and he said, I'm not here to talk about your case, and I'm here to be with you. You shouldn't be here. He's an amazing person and a very good lawyer. He put together a memo very compelling. And I'm pretty sure that whoever read that memo was clear that it was a very great injustice. But I also think that when you talk about the deep state in America, some people say that's a conspiracy theory. I have lived. Fortunately, you have a very strong institution. That's the reason. Because America is what it is, and they are good people, too. And I know that very good people who knew me were working backwards, sending information to my family and saying, use this. We couldn't use it on trial, but now we can use it in public. In a way, I'm trying to prosecute my case in public. And thank you for helping me to do that, because I don't want anybody to go through what I have been through as well as my family. So I want to fight for this law firm way of doing things to stop. And at the conservative movement in the planet, they have to know that this is real. So we have to work on that.

[Interviewer]

Well, God willing, you will be with your family, with your wife and your daughters here soon. You'll be back with your friends here soon. You will get back that land that Your father got 70 years ago back to you that he passed down to his son, and you'll be able to do exactly what you want to do for your family, and justice will be served. And again, I respect you for coming out and sitting down and having this conversation, and it was great to learn more about you. This was an incredible, fascinating conversation with you. Thank you so much for coming out. I appreciate you. All the best to you.

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Thank you.

[Interviewer]

And by the way, with the PowerPoint you gave, are you okay if we share that with the audience?

[Juan Orlando Hernandez]

Sure.

[Interviewer]

Okay, so here's what we're going to do. If you're watching this, Rob, let's put that in the manect circle. If anybody wants to go see it, it'll be in a manect circle free. Go investigate all of it. Because it's 60 something pages. We only showed eight or nine pages of it. You can go see it all. Take care, everybody. God bless. Bye bye. Bye bye. When we set out to create a shoe that blends comfort, function and luxury, we had the choice to make it fast. We had the choice to make it cheap. We chose neither. Instead, we chose Tuscan Italy. We chose true Italian craftsmanship. Each pair touched by 50 skilled hands. We chose patience, spending two years perfecting every detail. And we chose the finest quality at every step. Introducing the future looks bright collection. Not rushed, not disposable, not ordinary, rather intentional. Luxurious, timeless.