Honduran ex-president Juan Orlando Hernandez returned to his country on Sunday, almost eight months after US President Donald Trump controversially pardoned his 45-year prison sentence for drug trafficking.Hernandez arrived on a private flight at Palmerola Airport near the capital Tegucigalpa and was greeted by his family and supporters, Agence France-Presse journalists observed.“We are very happy and very excited” to welcome him back, said Eva Amador, 56, a supporter of the former president, as she held a banner with a message thanking Trump.Hernandez led the Central American nation from 2014 to 2022 but was extradited soon after leaving office by his left-leaning successor, Xiomara Castro, to face US drug trafficking charges.A US court found him guilty in 2024 of having helped smuggle hundreds of tons of drugs into the United States and sentenced him to decades behind bars.But in a surprise move just days before Honduras’s presidential election last year, Trump pardoned Hernandez.