Former Honduran right-wing president Juan Orlando Hernandez, pardoned by Donald Trump after being sentenced to 45 years in prison in the United States for drug trafficking, has been released from prison as his country experiences turbulent elections, his wife said Tuesday.

"After almost four years of pain, waiting and difficult trials, my husband (...) is once again a free man, by virtue of the presidential pardon," Ana Garcia de Hernandez said on social media.

The website of the United States Bureau of Prisons indicated that a man matching Mr. Hernandez's name and age was released from a prison in West Virginia on Monday.

"It was a horrible witch hunt orchestrated by Biden. Many people in Honduras asked me to do it. And I did it," Donald Trump justified during an exchange with the press, citing his Democratic predecessor in the White House whom he never fails to attack.

"If there are drug traffickers in your country (...), we don't necessarily send the president to prison for 45 years," insisted the American head of state, who regularly displays the fight against drug trafficking as his leitmotif in his relations with Latin America.

Honduras is one of the most violent countries in the region, mainly due to gangs that control drug trafficking and organized crime.

Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was its head of state from 2014 to 2022, was serving a 45-year sentence on American soil for drug trafficking, after being found guilty of helping to ship hundreds of tons of cocaine to the United States.

His release comes as the country holds its breath to find out who won Sunday's presidential election, between the two right-wing candidates leading in the vote count.

On one side, the National Party (PN) of businessman Nasry Asfura, 67 – and of Mr. Hernandez – which has the support of Donald Trump. On the other, the Liberal Party of television presenter Salvador Nasralla, 72.

The American president believes that Latin America is part of the American sphere of influence and has adopted an interventionist stance in the region, citing in particular the fight against drug trafficking against countries led by the left, starting with Venezuela.

He does not hesitate to make American aid conditional on the goodwill of governments, on his affinities with their leaders, or even on the results of electoral consultations.

But it also exerts strong military pressure.

The United States has deployed its largest aircraft carrier along with a flotilla of warships and fighter jets to the Caribbean, as part of anti-drug operations specifically targeting Venezuela, an enemy of Washington.