"US President Donald Trump claims to be cracking down on drug gangs in Venezuela but has pardoned a Honduran drug lord serving 45 years in the US. As the United States ramps up strikes on Venezuelan boats and threatens a land invasion to fight alleged drug trafficking networks, President Donald Trump has pardoned Honduras's former President Juan Orlando Hernandez and released him from a 45-year prison sentence in the US for weapons and drug trafficking offences."
"Cocaine production hit a record 3,708 tonnes globally in 2023, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). However, it found that cocaine originates in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, and most US-bound cocaine routes go through Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, not Venezuela, which serves as only a minor transit corridor. The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reported last year that 84 percent of US-seized cocaine comes from Colombia and did not mention Venezuela as a source."
"US President Donald Trump pardoned the drug conviction of Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former president of Honduras and member of the country's right-wing National Party, on November 28. On Monday this week, Hernandez was released from his 45-year prison sentence at the high-security facility of USP Hazelton in West Virginia in the US. Hernandez had been extradited to the US in 2022 and was found guilty of conspiring to import cocaine to the US and of possessing machineguns, in 2024."
Since September, US strikes on at least 21 Venezuelan boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific have killed more than 80 people while the US threatened a land invasion to combat alleged drug‑trafficking networks. US officials claim the vessels trafficked drugs to the United States but have not provided supporting evidence. On November 28 President Donald Trump pardoned former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, who was serving a 45‑year US sentence after being extradited in 2022 and convicted in 2024 for conspiring to import cocaine and possessing machineguns. The UNODC reported global cocaine production reached a record 3,708 tonnes in 2023 and identified Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia as origin countries, with most US‑bound routes passing through Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador rather than Venezuela. The DEA reported that 84% of US‑seized cocaine comes from Colombia. The United States has a historical pattern of leveraging narcotics‑smuggling networks to support foreign‑policy goals dating back to the 19th‑century Opium Wars.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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