Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez thanked Donald Trump on Wednesday for pardoning him from a 45-year prison sentence for drug trafficking, saying the US president "changed my life."

"You reviewed the facts, recognized the injustice, and acted with conviction. You changed my life, sir, and I will never forget it," Hernandez wrote in his reappearance on social media after leaving a US prison on Monday.

Hernandez was granted a surprise pardon as part of Trump's push for Nasry Asfura, candidate of the former president's party, to win Honduras's presidential election, held on Sunday.

The former president has no immediate plans to return to his country due to claimed threats to his life, his wife told AFP earlier.

"He's not thinking about returning to public or political life, but rather a private life where we can have time as a family and return to our professions," she said. They are both lawyers.

In his social media post, Hernandez repeated his claim that he was the victim of a "setup" by former US president Joe Biden and his vice president Kamala Harris -- echoing Trump's position on the case.

Trump has used his Department of Justice to target political opponents in an unprecedented manner since taking office earlier this year, while pardoning a slew of political allies, supporters and others.

Hernandez was convicted of helping to smuggle hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States starting in 2004, long before he became president.

US prosecutors charged Hernandez with using drug money to enrich himself, finance his political campaigns and commit electoral fraud in the 2013 and 2017 elections.

In March 2024, he was convicted and in June that year sentenced to 45 years behind bars.

On Wednesday, he repeated his rejection of the allegations against him.

Hernandez's pardon shook up the Honduran general election, in which the Trump-backed Asfura is trailing right-wing television presenter Salvador Nasralla by a paper-thin margin, with 80 percent of votes counted.