Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández have both been indicted by the U.S. government on federal drug trafficking charges; Hernández, last year, was convicted.
But as President Donald Trump wages an “armed conflict” with drug cartels in the Caribbean, he has taken very different approaches in his relationships with the two men—threatening to deploy military force in an escalating pressure campaign against one, while offering the other clemency.
Hernández, who received a 45-year sentence for conspiring with some of the most powerful drug traffickers in the world to transport an estimated 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S., was released from prison on Tuesday after Trump pardoned him.
“I will be granting a Full and Complete Pardon to Former President Juan Orlando Hernández who has been, according to many people that I greatly respect, treated very harshly and unfairly,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday.
Just a day later, the President ramped up his threats against Venezuela, saying that the airspace above the country should be considered “CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY.” He warned earlier the same week that land strikes against Venezuela could be happening “very soon.”
The Trump Administration has called Maduro’s government “illegitimate” and accused the Venezuelan President of being a “narco-terrorist” affiliated with the criminal network Cartel de Los Soles, which the U.S. designated as a terrorist organization last week. In recent months, the Administration has amassed a significant military presence in the Caribbean to pressure Venezuela’s leadership in what it has characterized as an effort to stop cartels from trafficking drugs to the U.S. Many see the buildup as an attempt to oust Maduro from power.
Read more: How Pete Hegseth’s Account of a Deadly Strike in the Caribbean Keeps Changing
The Venezuelan President has denied any ties to the illegal drug trade, and his government has…
