Honduras

After decades of mistakes and neglect, the U.S. is finally getting more involved in their own backyard. Trump seems to be involved all over the Americas and have fights with presidents from Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and the list can go on. His most recent focus is Honduras, a country in Central America. Its capital and largest city is Tegucigalpa. Honduras became independent in 1821 and has since been a republic, although it has consistently endured much social strife and political instability, and remains one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere with a population of about 11 million.

The nation’s economy is primarily agricultural, making it especially vulnerable to natural disasters. In 2022, according to the National Institute of Statistics of Honduras (INE), 73% of the country’s population lived in poverty and 53% lived in extreme poverty. The country is one of the most economically unequal in Latin America.

The nation had a relatively high political stability until a 2009 military coup and controversy arising from claims of electoral fraud in the 2017 presidential election. As the U.S. focus on Americas is growing, the 2025 election is followed carefully by the White House. Elections were held on November 30, 2025. Voters elected the President, all 128 members of the National Congress, and 20 representatives to the Central American Parliament.

Nasry Asfura, 67, from the right-wing National Party led 72-year-old rival Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party by just 515 votes, making it a technical tie. The process of a manual count has started in a vote that left the ruling left-leaning party out in the cold in one of Latin America’s most impoverished countries. Days before the vote, former Tegucigalpa mayor Asfura won Mr. Trump’s backing, as the U.S. president sought to put his finger on the scale of another Latin American election, similar to his successful endorsement in Argentina.

In a post today on his own Truth Social platform, Trump accused the Honduran electoral body of trying to change the results of the vote, adding: “If they do, there will be hell to pay!” He claimed that the electoral body had abruptly stopped counting ballots on the night of the election when the initial count showed a close race between Asfura and Nasralla, noting the slight lead that tally showed for Asfura, Trump’s favorite. Nasralla has pledged to cut ties with Venezuela if he wins.

The U.S. president has become increasingly vocal about his support for allies in Latin America, threatening to cut aid to Argentina and Honduras if his picks do not win. Ally Javier Milei came out on top in Argentina’s mid-term elections, but it is not yet clear if Mr. Trump’s endorsement will be enough to secure victory for Asfura.

The election is a clear defeat for ruling leftists trailing far behind in the vote count. A swing to the right could help build U.S. influence in a country that under leftist government had looked increasingly to China and built closer ties to Cuba and Venezuela. The election campaign was dominated by Mr. Trump’s threat and the surprise announcement that he would pardon former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez of Asfura’s National Party. Hernandez, who has always maintained his innocence, was serving a 45-year prison sentence in the United States, where he was convicted of belonging to one of the largest and most violent drug trafficking conspiracies in the world. During his trial, U.S. federal prosecutors said Hernandez turned his Central American country into a narco-state during his 2014-2022 presidency. Trump’s recent migrant clampdown and deportations has dealt a severe blow to Honduras, where money sent home from the U.S. accounted for 27% of GDP last year.

Preemptive accusations of election fraud from the ruling party and the opposition have sparked fears of unrest. The vote count has progressed slowly, and final results could take days. Lawmakers and hundreds of mayors were also elected in the fiercely polarized nation, which has swung back and forth between nominally leftist and conservative leaders.

The head of the electoral commission called for patience and prudence while the result was tallied, but officials have not released an update since, leading to confusion and growing tensions among voters about the status of the race. The website of the electoral council has also collapsed, adding to public fears about problems with the count. The President of the National Electoral Council (CNE) has not released an update today, when 57% of the vote had been counted. Many Hondurans had a sense that this would not be an entirely straightforward election but few would have foreseen the vote count being this close.

For now, the vote count goes on, and the tension in Honduras continues to rise. People have bad memories of street violence following disputed election result in 2017 when Juan Orlando Hernández claimed victory in a vote count which was questioned by international observers and the Organization of American States (OAS). Pitched battles between protesters and the police lead to at least 20 deaths.

At this point, there is no other option than to wait for all the votes to be counted. Trump will follow this closely and the U.S. will conduct their policy toward Honduras based on who wins.