Honduras faces political turmoil as former President Hernández returns amid impeachment debate

Former President Juan Orlando Hernández, convicted in the United States for drug trafficking and later pardoned by former President Donald Trump, announced his return to Honduras to testify in a corruption case. Journalist Ezequiel Sánchez linked Hernández’s continued influence to a broader shift toward neoliberal policies under President Xiomara Castro, noting the removal of subsidies, rising living costs and new extractive projects that he says undermine state sovereignty.

At the same time, lawmakers and legal analysts are questioning Honduras’s recent use of the “juicio político” (political trial) without first amending the constitution or the secondary law that regulates it. The debate follows the Gutiérrez Navas ruling, which warned against repeating the same impeachment procedures. The issue will be examined in a thematic hearing before the Inter‑American Commission on Human Rights, involving former fiscal general Marlon Ochoa and magistrate Mario Morazán as potential plaintiffs against the state.