President Trump pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was found guilty by an American jury last year of conspiring to import cocaine into the U.S.

The details:

U.S. authorities convicted Hernández of taking bribes during his campaign from El Chapo, the former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, and of running Honduras like a narco-state.
The judge in the case said Hernández masqueraded as an antidrug crusader while partnering with traffickers.
Hernández was sentenced to 45 years in prison and was supposed to have his appeal heard next week.
The prosecution stretched across Trump’s first term and concluded during Biden’s administration.

The reaction: The news came as a shock to both to Hondurans and to U.S. authorities who had built the case. Some experts/officials criticized the pardon and said it imperiled the reputation of the U.S. and its international investigations into drug trafficking.

The larger context: Trump’s pardon of such a high-profile convicted drug trafficker appears to contradict with his military campaign against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific and pressure on Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

Just a day before announcing the pardon, Trump said the efforts to stop drug traffickers in the region would move to land-based operations.
It also comes amid increased scrutiny of the strikes from members of Congress. The House and Senate Armed Services Committees vowed to investigate over the weekend following reports that in the first attack, a second strike was ordered to kill those who survived the first strike on the boat, a potential war crime.