HAVANA, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said Saturday that the pardon granted to former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez shows that the anti-drug war declared by the U.S. government "is a farce."

Hernandez, who had been sentenced in the United States to 45 years in prison for drug trafficking and other charges, was released Monday after receiving an official pardon from the Trump administration.

According to Rodriguez, the so-called anti-drug war is an excuse to justify Washington's "costly extraordinary naval deployment in the Caribbean Sea and the threat of military aggression to overthrow the legitimate government of Venezuela."

In a post on X, he said that the pardon exposes "the complicity of the U.S. government and its agencies with a vast drug market that claims the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in its own country."

The denunciation comes as the United States increases its military presence in the Caribbean Sea. As of Thursday, the Pentagon has carried out at least 22 known strikes on alleged drug vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean since Sept. 2, killing more than 87 people aboard. Enditem