It’s the Kingpins, Stupid

Shoving the drugs right up the noses of the gringos

Dec 04, 2025

The Ultimate Hypocrisy

President Donald Trump just issued a full and unconditional pardon to Juan Orlando Hernández, the former President of Honduras, who was convicted in June 2024 of drug trafficking and weapons charges in a U.S. federal court and sentenced to 45 years in prison.

As with all rightwing strongmen, the truth was anathema to Hernández. During his rule, journalists were attacked, beaten, and imprisoned. 22 were assassinated.

Military police units were widely deployed against Honduran citizens. Protesters were hit with tear gas, water cannons, rubber bullets, and in some cases, live ammunition. Constitutional rights were suspended. The Supreme Court was compromised. Corruption ran rampant.

Amid Protests, Honduran President Is Sworn In for 2nd Term - The New York Times — Police in Tegucigalpa use tear gas to disperse people protesting the inauguration of Juan Orlando Hernández.

Hernández was not only the president of Honduras, he was simultaneously a major drug kingpin. At his trial, drug traffickers testified that they paid him millions of dollars in bribes, including $1 million from notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, in exchange for protection and safe passage for their cocaine shipments.

During his two terms in office from 2014-2022, Hernández effectively ran Honduras like a narco-state, once famously saying he wanted to “shove the drugs right up the noses of the gringos.”

He succeeded. 400 tons of cocaine, worth 10-12 billion dollars, flowed straight to the United States. The death toll tripled. Then quadrupled. During the Hernández presidency, 119,000 Americans died from overdoses of cocaine mixed with opioids.

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández and President Trump celebrated at the signing of an agreement where Honduras will accept more asylum seekers heading to the U.S. October 2019

To Trump, Hernández is a kindred spirit. A man after his own heart. Not only by attacking the media and unleashing military troops on his own citizens, but by fabulously enriching himself while in office, and then claiming his prosecution was a “rigged trial” and a “political persecution” by the Biden administration.

In a lengthy letter of praise to Donald Trump, Hernández repeatedly stroked the president’s ego and condemned Trump’s arch-enemy, Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela.

The United States struck another small boat accused of carrying drugs in the waters off Venezuela, killing six people, October 14, 2025

Meanwhile, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is blowing up small boats off the coast of Venezuela that the administration alleges are smuggling drugs. The Trump administration declares it an “armed conflict” with “narco-terrorists.”

Yet, thanks to Donald Trump, drug kingpin, narcon-terrorist, and ex-authoritarian president Juan Orlando Hernández strolled out of a federal prison in West Virginia two days ago as a free man after serving only one year of a 45-year sentence.

Longtime political operative James Carville once famously quipped, “It’s the economy, stupid!” Donald Trump ran for office, making grandiose claims about creating a booming economy. Now that he has failed to deliver, he calls the affordability issue a “Democrat scam,” a “hoax,” and a “con job.”

Postscript:

Two weeks ago, a group of six Democratic lawmakers with military and intelligence backgrounds released a video titled “Don’t Give Up the Ship,” reminding members of the military of their duty not to obey illegal orders.

Pete Hegseth subsequently accused them of sedition and threatened investigations. Trump said it should be “punishable by death.”

Today, Adm. Frank M. Bradley is testifying on Capitol Hill about a strike on a small Venezuelan boat that was hit a second time after two survivors were observed clinging to the wreckage. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are expressing concerns that this was an illegal act, potentially bordering on a war crime, that comes in the wake of Hegseth reportedly saying, “Kill Everyone.”