00:00Alexander Ardon was imprisoned in the United States from 2019 to 2025 and was a key figure
00:05in the case against former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez. The Honduran justice
00:10system, fully controlled by the country's far right, has dropped all charges against
00:15him and released him. Gerardo Torres Alaya reports from Honduras with the details.
00:21In the U.S. Southern District Court of New York, Alexander Ardon, the former mayor of
00:27El Paraiso Capán, Honduras, confessed to being directly responsible for 56 murders,
00:32including those of police officers and prosecutors, for which he was imprisoned in the United States
00:38from 2019 to 2025, and to play a key role in the cartel led in Honduras by former President
00:46Juan Orlando Hernandez and his brother Antonio Hernandez. Today, Honduras' controlled judiciary
00:52has dismissed all charges against him and ordered his release.
01:00We are witnessing selective justice when the public prosecutor's office, despite possessing
01:08all the information presented in U.S. courts, including the Southern District of New York
01:15regarding these individuals linked to the National Party, fails to take concrete action, file charges,
01:22or clarify these criminal acts.
01:26The fact that they do not act with due diligence or the necessary result to secure convictions
01:32suggests we are at risk of regressing to situations we have already experienced in the past.
01:45The country's opposition asserts that this is a plan to clear the records of the entire National Party
01:51leadership, which has recently been implicated in drug trafficking and corruption cases.
02:01We believe a very clear pattern is emerging.
02:07On one hand, it involves public officials linked to Juan Orlando Hernandez and the cartel surrounding
02:13the National Party.
02:16On the other, we are observing dismissals of charges and certain procedural privileges granted to individuals
02:23identified as drug traffickers or highly dangerous figures, such as Alexander Chander Ardon,
02:35who is alleged to be responsible for dozens of murders and an entire drug trafficking network in El Paraíso, Copán.
02:45Yet, the public prosecutor's office has opted to forego one of the key pieces of evidence in this trial, the
02:51financial reports.
02:58Ardon's case is not unique. Several officials from the current administration were implicated in various corruption scandals,
03:06yet received full exoneration, clearing the way for them to hold public office again.
03:12These swift actions by the Honduran judiciary to also individuals of criminal liability stand in stark contrast
03:19to the judicial prosecution of opposition figures.
03:27There is a disparity, a total imbalance in how justice is administered in our country, creating a paradoxical and absurd
03:37situation.
03:40On one hand, leaders and former officials of the Libre Party,
03:47the country's only opposition are being pursued and harassed.
03:51Yet, on the other, definitive dismissals, concessions and pardons are being granted to a group of individuals
03:56who have actually faced sustained legal proceedings.
04:04Following Juan Orlando Hernández's return to Honduras, having been pardoned by Donald Trump,
04:08the Honduran justice system appears to be following a path that rewards the key figures of the narco state with
04:16impunity.
04:16A regime that governed the country for over a decade and now, with the backing of the White House,
04:22seems to be making a rapid bid to regain the reins of power.
04:26Reporting for Telesurian English from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Gerardo Torres Zelaya.
04:31Thank you very much.
