Palm Beach, Florida - President Donald Trump on Friday made a major intervention into Honduran politics days before the country's presidential election, pardoning a convicted ex-leader and threatening to cut US support if his preferred candidate loses.

Trump said he will pardon ex-president Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was convicted last year in a US court of drug trafficking charges and sentenced to 45 years in prison.

Hernandez, who led the Central American nation from 2014 to 2022, was accused by US prosecutors of facilitating the import of some 400 tons of cocaine into the US.

He was extradited to the US just weeks after leaving office, when the current president, leftist Xiomara Castro, came to power.

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Trump's stunning announcement came in a social media post proclaiming support for Nasry Asfura, the candidate of Hernandez's right-wing party in Honduras's presidential election on Sunday.

The US president had earlier endorsed Asfura, but his latest comments went further, apparently conditioning future aid to Honduras on his victory.

"If he doesn't win, the United States will not be throwing good money after bad, because a wrong Leader can only bring catastrophic results to a country, no matter which country it is," Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

Trump had made a similar threat before Argentina's election last month.

Asfura, when reached by AFP on the phone, denied any links to Hernandez but celebrated Trump's re-upped endorsement.

Hernandez "was president of the Republic, the party is not responsible for his personal actions," Asfura said.

A jury in New York convicted Hernandez in March 2024 of having facilitated the smuggling of hundreds of tons of cocaine – mainly from Colombia and Venezuela – to the US via Honduras since 2004, starting long before he became president.

The pardoning of Hernandez comes despite a major US operation in Latin America, which Washington says aims to halt drug trafficking, in which over 80 people have been killed in strikes in international waters.