During an appearance Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio was asked to reconcile the differing approaches. “I don’t do the pardon file,” Rubio said. “The president reviewed the case and believed the former Honduran president was treated very unfairly by the previous administration.” Rubio added that the Hernandez decision “doesn’t mean you leave Maduro in place,” arguing that pending indictments justified the Venezuelan leader’s removal.
The secretary maintained that the capture of Maduro, whom U.S. prosecutors have pursued since 2020, was necessary to ensure he “faces American justice.” Critics in Congress, however, say the administration has yet to explain how Hernandez’s case differed in substance. Senator Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the pardon “especially glaring” in light of Saturday’s operation. “You cannot credibly argue that drug trafficking charges demand intervention in one case while issuing clemency in another,” Warner said in a written statement.
Speaking at Mar-a-Lago shortly after Maduro’s arrest, Trump defended the pardon of Hernandez by comparing the Honduran’s prosecution to his own legal troubles stemming from allegations of mishandling classified documents and efforts to overturn the 2020 election. “He was persecuted very unfairly,” Trump said. The former president also cited his endorsement of Nasry Asfura, Honduras’ president-elect, noting that Hernandez belongs to the same political party. “Obviously the people liked what I did,” Trump told reporters. “The party in power felt very strongly that he was treated very badly.”
Trump pointed to Rubio and other national security officials standing behind him at the news conference, implying that senior advisers supported the pardon. “I went to a lot of the people standing behind me, and they felt that that man was persecuted,” he said.
Legal analysts note that presidential pardon power is nearly absolute and requires no formal justification. Yet the overlap between Hernandez’s crimes and the charges now pending against Maduro has led lawmakers to demand further explanation from the administration. Congressional aides said members of the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Judiciary Committees are preparing letters seeking internal records related to the pardon decision.
The debate also touches on U.S. regional policy. Hernandez was considered a close Washington ally during his tenure, cooperating on migration and security initiatives. Maduro, by contrast, has been a long-standing adversary, subject to extensive sanctions and diplomatic isolation. Some critics argue that the divergent treatment underscores a broader tendency to base enforcement actions on geopolitical alignment rather than legal criteria.
While Rubio declined to say whether a formal review of the pardon process is underway, he emphasized that “nothing about the Hernandez decision changes the fact that Maduro has been indicted and must stand trial.” The secretary said the administration intends to transfer Maduro to New York “as quickly as possible” for arraignment.
Officials at the Justice Department did not respond to questions about whether evidence used in Hernandez’s trial overlaps with material in the Maduro indictment. Former federal prosecutors say similarities are likely, given both men’s alleged reliance on established Central American trafficking corridors.
As Maduro awaits transfer, Honduran authorities have remained largely silent on the status of Hernandez. Asfura’s transition team issued a brief statement supporting continued cooperation with U.S. counter-narcotics efforts but did not address the pardon directly. Human-rights groups in Tegucigalpa, meanwhile, contend the clemency undermines local anti-corruption initiatives.
With Maduro in custody and facing trial, administration officials now must navigate both the legal proceedings and the political fallout from Hernandez’s release. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have signaled plans for oversight hearings that could place additional pressure on the White House to clarify its criteria for granting clemency to foreign leaders convicted of drug offenses.
Crédito da imagem: Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
