Both men are grinning--the news anchor, professionally coiffed and tanned for camera, and the guest, having recently traded prison scrubs for suit and tie. Drug abuser and sex offender Matt Gaetz is interviewing Honduras's narco-dictator, Juan Orlando Hernández.
The teaser paragraph above the interview reads:
The 38th President of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández Alvarado, gives his first exclusive interview to One America News following his pardon by President Donald Trump. Alvarado (sic, his last name is Hernández but white supremacy prohibits the site from learning that Spanish-speaking countries use the first paternal last name) had been serving a 45-year sentence for drug-trafficking and related firearms offenses.
Is he a victim of Joe Biden’s lawfare, or is he one of the greatest narco-traffickers of all time? Matt Gaetz finds out.
Everyone who has come to the page already knows that the whole point of the interview is to fix in the public's mind the first part of that dichotomy. Never mind that that means erasing years of investigation and undercover work carried out by hundreds of U.S. government officials, including dedicated DEA agents, lawyers and judges, counternarcotics agents, academics, experts and congressional offices of both parties.
It's a rare moment of triumph for two men who have lived their own "rise and fall" stories, from public leaders to disgraced delinquents in their respective nations. Their tales are as dramatic as any Greek classic.
But in the classics, the story ends with the fall--and a cautionary moral on the cost of men's hubris. In Trump's dystopia, the fall is merely a leap into the next level of depravity.
*********
The interview is titled "Nowhere to Run" to drum up sympathy for a convicted drug and arms trafficker and former president responsible for the assassination of at least 38 of his own people in protests after he stole the 2017 election, deemed by the OAS too dirty to call.
On Dec. 2, after being pardoned by Donald Trump, JOH as he's known by his initials, walked out of the Hazelton Penitentiary in West Virginia a free man. Shock waves spread through Honduras and the world as the leader who converted his impoverished Central American country into the principal route for illegal drugs and transnational cartel activity was released by the same government that just violently relaunched the war on drugs, with extrajudicial executions in the Caribbean and Pacific and the pirating of a foreign oil tanker, and now the invasion of Venezuela, the kidnapping of its president and the attempted approriation of its oil.
All justified--illegally--by slapping a narcotics charge on a sitting president of a foreign country with coveted resources.
The invasion happened just weeks after this interview. The interview is repulsive on its own, but even more so as part of the propaganda leading up to launching war on Venezuela. The Trump team knew that violently overthrowing Nicolas Maduro for alleged drug trafficking without evidence would face criticism of hypocrisy after releasing Juan Orlando Hernández, whose case was widely documented by U.S. government agencies.
*****
Juan Orlando Hernández has always been a useful pawn for the far right's geopolitical aspirations, so in some ways it's not a surprise that the Trump team yanked hum out of prison to clean him up for a new phase of dirty politics.But before going into the geopolitical power dynamics, let's take a closer look at these two men beaming out of One America's split screen.
Juan Orlando Hernández is the headliner, overjoyed after being rescued for the second time by Trump (the first Trump administration was key in assuring the 2017 election steal). He just shirked a 45-year sentence for trafficking more than 400 tons of cocaine to the United States, after serving just over a year.
But let's start with Gaetz, because it's his show.
The Sordid Story of Matt Gaetz
Matt Gaetz's history is long and convoluted and involves literally thousands of pages related to judicial and congressional investigations into his illegal behavior. However, it can be summarized fairly easily because many of the subplots are irrelevant attempts to distract from the extensive documentation of Gaetz's habitual abusive and criminal behavior and his hubris in attempting to avoid any consequences for it while climbing the political ladder as a rightwing libertarian politician.
Florida's 1st District elected Gaetz to the House of Representatives in 2017. Just three years later, in 2020, he was formally accused of sex trafficking and statutory rape. Years of investigation followed. Firsthand testimony came from a close acquaintance of Gaetz, convicted sex trafficker, Joel Greenberg, who collaborated with investigagtors. Other key witnesses included Joseph Ellicott and numerous women victims of Gaetz and others who saw his crimes, which he made little attempt to conceal. Many of the women were deemed "not credible" as so often happens when women denounce sex crimes against them.
Despite the overwhelming evidence, the Justice Department inexplicably announced it was dropping the case in February of 2023. Although hard evidence confirmed the statutory rape charge, the court claimed the sex trafficking charge could not be sufficiently substantiated.
It is not clear why the trafficking investigation was halted, or why rape and drug charges were not pursued separately. Vague pretexts for whatever behind-the-scenes negotiation took place included that Florida has complex laws on statute of limitations, including a 3-year limit for the rape of minors. The lack of protection for children and women, and the impunity for male perpetrators it creates, is almost unbelievable--a 3-year limit is particularly unconscionable considering the psychological impact of rape on children and how they deal with it.
Unless one's sole criteria is to promote and protect powerful male sex offenders, the legal loopholes make no sense. That does, in fact, seem to be the motive in Florida. After the charges, the 1st District re-elected Gaetz twice.
While in office, Gaetz blocked a law that would prohibit revenge porn and hired a speechwriter closely associated with the White Nationalist movement. Multiple sources reported that he passed around photos of naked women on the House floor, boasting that he'd had sex with them.
As the evidence continued to pile up even after the DOJ desisted, the House Ethics Committee decided to reopen the case against Gaetz. In December 2024, the Committee made its report public, raising serious questions about the sitting Congressman and about the Justice Department's decision to call off the investigation. The report concludes:
Based on the above, the Committee determined there is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House Rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress.
Specifically related to prohibited drug use, the man Donald Trump originally chose to be Attorney General his second term was found to be an habitual drug user:
There is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz used cocaine, ecstasy, and marijuana. At least two women saw Representative Gaetz using cocaine and ecstasy at different events. Even more women understood him to regularly be using ecstasy.
The Committee report cited at least 20 documented incidents in which Gaetz, publicly the defender of "family values", paid women for sex or drugs. As amply documented, a Black youth will spend years in prison for smoking a joint, while a powerful white man like Gaetz can flaunt his use of illegal drugs and girls' bodies and not even be charged.
Gaetz resigned from Congress on Nov. 13, 2024 in a failed attempt to keep the House Ethics report from coming out. He also withdrew as nominee for Attorney General. Less than a month later, the far-right One America News network founded by Robert Herring Sr., which apparently has no moral compunctions regarding sex offenders and drug users, hired him as anchor.
Considering all the evidence of sex and drug crimes amassed in the Greenberg case, the House Ethics Committee investigation and the aborted Justice Department investigation, the government now has Matt Gaetz in its pocket. Theoretically it could still move against him at any time--and should, if all U.S. citizens were subject to the same rules. What this means is that the messaging on his show comes straight from the White House. Politically resuscitating Juan Orlando Hernandez was a Trump mandate and state policy.
From druglord to victim (and back again?): The return of Juan Orlando Hernández
In the Dec. 10 interview, Hernández has been prepped to portray himself as the victim of a Deep State conspiracy orchestrated by the Biden administration. As if the judiciary were not an independent branch of government, which is the right's end game, JOH claims to be the victim of a "wrongful conviction" due to "Biden lawfare", while thanking Trump repeatedly and obsequiously for correcting this "injustice".
Gaetz steers the president-turned-felon into confirming the bizarre theory that the New York District court investigated, tried and prosecuted JOH for drug trafficking and arms possession solely as political punishment for cooperating with the first Trump administration to block migration flows to the U.S. Gaetz even resorts to journalistic ventriloquism at one point, asking his guest:
"So you believe that they were targetting you becase you took positions on migration that would not have allowed for open borders and people just moving through Honduras and Nicaragua and El Salvador and Guatemala unchecked? You think it was a consequence of your border policies?"
Hernández, whose English is not good, only has to say yes.
Operation Honduran Whitewash has begun.
The rest of the interview is a rewriting of history in which JOH, with Gaetz's help, attempts to present himself as a crusader against drug trafficking, maligns Honduran former president Mel Zelaya and President Xiomara Castro, and dodges the question of his brother Tony's 2019 conviction for drug trafficking (and using the proceeds to finance JOH's political career).
This absurd PR piece on the former Honduran president raises the question: How does the immediate release and political rehabilitation of Juan Orlando Hernández serve the interests of Donald Trump and his cronies?
The answer is threefold: geopolitical influence, economic gain and dirty money.
****
On Nov. 28, just two days before the Honduran presidential election, Donald Trump posted a message calling on Hondurans to vote for the extreme right candidate, Nasry Asfura of the National Party. In a follow-up post he threatened to cut off U.S. aid if Hondurans failed to vote his candidate into office and he promised to release former president Juan Orlando Hernández.
The first threat, according to interviews, influenced many who feared collapse if the country were expelled from the U.S. economic orbit. The threat also sparked rumors that if Hondurans did not follow orders and elect Asfura, Trump would cut off remittances. Remittances from the U.S. are the top source of income for the nation and for thousands of Honduran families.
The promise to release JOH seemed counterintuitve at first. President Xiomara Castro won the last election over Asfura by a landslide, based in part on popular outrage and the slogan "Fuera JOH!" "(JOH Out!"). The vast majority of Hondurans voted precisely to rid the country of corrupt National Party rule. While National Party core followers, estimated at around 20% of the population, would undoubedtly celebrate the return of their real leader, millions of Hondurans had long ago repudiated the convicted criminal and former strongman.
Also the move directly questions the U.S. justice system. For Trump to decide with a stroke of a pen that a years-long investigation and trial was a cover for a political persecution was to put many U.S. government officials in a very uncomfortable position. The April 22, 2022 State Department announcement of the extradition of Juan Orlando Hernández to stand trial in the United States details the extensive investigation behind the extradition and charges, citing Justice Department findings.
Anne Milgram, the head of the DEA, which did most of the work on the case, stated:
“DEA’s multi-year investigation revealed that Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former President of Honduras, was a central figure in one of the largest and most violent cocaine-trafficking conspiracies in the world. Hernandez used drug-trafficking proceeds to finance his political ascent and, once elected President, leveraged the Government of Honduras’ law enforcement, military, and financial resources to further his drug-trafficking scheme.”
The DEA has remained silent on the pardon of their prize catch, while eagerly embracing the revival of the war that justifies their budget and celebrating the unproven claims against Venezuela. In a Jan. 6 interview, Terry Cole, the new DEA head, attempted to justify the overthrow of the Venezuelan president and the kidnapping of Maduro by employing a bizarre word salad, peppered with references to "terrorism", "narcoterrorism", "poison", and "drugs", while utterly devoid of evidence or causal links. The Fox news interviewer attempted to get a plausible answer to accusations that Venezuela does not ship significant amounts of prohibited drugs to the U.S. (according to DEA figures) and almost no fenatanyl. She failed--and obviously did not ask about the JOH pardon.
The Congressional Research Service issued a document on the pardon recommending use of oversight autorization to launch an investigation:
Some Members of Congress have questioned and criticized the Hernández pardon. Resolutions condemning the pardon have been introduced in both houses (H.Res. 929 and S.Res. 530). In addition to considering those measures, Congress could use its oversight authority to examine the Administration's justification for the pardon and the potential implications for U.S. security interests and relations with Honduras, among other issues.
The report also recommends requiring that the executive provide Congress with justification for the pardon:
President Trump has asserted that Hernández was treated "unfairly" and was "set up" by the Biden Administration. To date, the Trump Administration has not provided any evidence to support those claims other than echoing some of Hernández's complaints about his trial. The U.S. investigation into Hernández spanned several U.S. presidential Administrations, including President Trump's first term, during which several of Hernández's co-conspirators were charged and convicted.
Needless to say, Congress did none of that.
In the U.S. war on drugs, the rules change at will. Indeed, hypocrisy is why it works so well as a vehicle for imperialist aims, repression and resource grabs. The operating principle is simple: Take a almost universal human activity (the use of mind-altering substances), selectively prohibit and criminalize it (not alcohol), and apply the draconian laws only to your enemies.
Hypercriminalizing the low-rent segments of the international black market that you've created through prohibition and uncontrolled consumption while largely ignoring the high-rent segments within your own country is the international corollary.
In the United States, Nixon's version led immediately to mass incarceration of youth, people of color and political and sexual dissidents. In other countries, it brings bloodshed, U.S. foreign intervention and state violence.
*****
This long view of the war on drugs as a cover, seen alongside the increasingly transparent aims of the Trump administration, reveals the logic behind the pardon of Juan Orlando Hernandez. JOH has an important geopolitical role to play that goes well behond the small nation of Honduras.
Honduras is a domino in the plan of Trump administration and the international extreme right to topple left-leaning governments that defend national sovereignty and control of resources in the "backyard"--the Western Hemisphere. The Honduras election of the LIBRE Party and break with the U.S.-friendly narcodictatorship was an affront to this plan.
Honduras had begun to undo some of the most aggregious attacks on the welface of its own people. The government rescinded an extreme plan for control of Honduran territory and resources by transnational corporations call ZEDEs, which had many U.S. investors drooling and was the capital pilot for a future of complete access.
Moreover, Honduras under Xiomara Castro played a role in building South-South alliances, including the Community of Latin American and Caribbean states (CELAC), which she directed during her term. Trumps hates the CELAC, a body that meets without the inclusion of the hegemon.
There are many reasons behind the defeat of the left in the Honduran Nov. 30 election but the road map for the return of the far right, despite its direct links to drug trafficking, is clear. Trump refused even the leading rightwing candidate, Salvador Nasralla, who bent over backward to court his favor. With Asfura he has pocketed the compliant leader he needs and has the power behind the throne, Juan Orlando Hernández, wrapped around his finger.
Having chipped off little Honduras, kidnapped the Venezuelan president, and strangled Cuba, he now turns his attention to Mexico, Brasil and Colombia.
The second reason for dusting off Juan Orlando Hernandez for action is the economic exploitation of Honduras. The country has mining, biodiversity and agricultural resources and tourism possibilities that capitalism needs to invest and expand. The ZEDEs not only hand over those resources to foreign investors, they also represent the most radical experiment to date in ceding national territory and resources to foreign capitalist interests. Trump and company need to see it succeed in order to replicate the model in other countries.
Finally, illegal drug trafficking is a murky area of tremendous impact. The United States invented the drug war to assure its ability to control and employ the underground profits it generates. The duo of Asfura and Hernández will restore Honduras as a major trafficking route under the watchful eye of the DEA and the Trump administration. It will likely pay what we call here "derecho de piso"--the right to operate while paying off the gang leaders--in the form of opening up investment and providing cheap labor and resources.
The dirty money that the multibillion-dollar drug industry generates is funneled into political campaigns (as revealed in the Tony Hernandez case), funds illegal paramilitary groups for counter-insurgency efforts (as seen in the financing of the Nicaraguan Contra), and is pocketed by politicians as payback. The complicities between the cartels and the global oligarchy can be seen on every level from the daily operation of mines and agribusiness, to the global financial system. Since drug money is largely untraceable, this money can be used for any number of nefarious activities.
Many Honduras warn that Trump's release of Juan Orlando Hernández and programmed asension to power of Asfura Jan. 27, illegitimate by national and international standards, signifies restoring Honduras to its key role as a hub for illegal drug trafficking, especially cocaine from South America to the U.S. market. After the current government og Xiomara Castro managed to reduce homicides by 15%. They fear the violence that accompanies a surge in state-sanctioned illegal drug activity.
We must analyze all these intersecting dynamics must be analyzed and understood to predict risks in the future and defend rights and security. Matt Gaetz, Donald Trump, Juan Orlando Hernández--these are the men who are defining the future of millions. The only factor that they cannot control is the resistance provoked by their avarice and brutality and disdain for the laws that bind us. We have a moral responsibility to call out the lies even in a "post-truth era" when it seems like it doesn't matter, to stand up for the rule of law and society, and to reject the unchecked exploitation of women's bodies and the earth's resources.
Men like these cannot define our future. Or we will not have one.
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