Schumer Slams Trump’s Pardon of Convicted Drug Kingpin as ‘Shameful’
According to the International Desk of Webangah News Agency, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer has condemned President Donald Trump’s decision to pardon former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, a convicted drug trafficker, as an act of hypocrisy and a dangerous message to criminals.
Schumer, referencing simultaneous actions including the pardon and military actions against Venezuela under the guise of combating drug trafficking, stated, “We all know that Trump does many contradictory things; the White House is full of contradictions and hypocrisy, but pardoning one of the world’s biggest drug traffickers is a shameful, wrong, and dangerous action, even for Trump himself.”
The Democratic senator further criticized the administration’s approach as nonsensical. “Freeing a drug trafficker while targeting ships suspected of carrying drugs is ridiculous,” he said.
Schumer emphasized that Hernández was convicted of smuggling 400 tons of cocaine into the United States. He juxtaposed this with Trump’s actions of targeting ships suspected of carrying drugs to prevent them from entering America, a move that he says increases the risk of involving the U.S. in a conflict with Venezuela.
“Mr. President, you cannot both promote the fight against drug traffickers and cleaning up the streets from drugs, and then free a dangerous and convicted trafficker,” Schumer stated. “This sends a dangerous message to other criminals: If you have a good relationship with Trump, no matter how much drugs you bring to the streets, you will be pardoned.”
In recent months, the U.S. military presence in the Caribbean Sea and on the Venezuelan border has increased, ostensibly to combat drug trafficking. Washington has been targeting vessels in Venezuelan waters under the pretense of fighting drug smugglers.
The White House has not released any details regarding claims that individuals targeted in over 20 attacks in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific were indeed drug traffickers. Experts suggest that such attacks, even if targeting traffickers, constitute “extrajudicial executions.”
