Hondurans are voting in a pivotal election under the direct influence of former US President Donald Trump, who has threatened to cut American aid if his preferred candidate loses. This could see Honduras, after years of left-wing rule, follow other Latin American nations in swinging to the right. The race to succeed President Xiomara Castro is a statistical dead heat between three candidates: Trump's favorite, 67-year-old Nasry "Tito" Asfura of the right-wing National Party; 60-year-old ruling party lawyer Rixi Moncada; and 72-year-old TV host Salvador Nasralla.
Trump explicitly conditioned US support for the impoverished nation on an Asfura victory, writing on Truth Social, “If he doesn’t win, the United States will not be throwing good money after bad.” In a dramatic parallel move, he announced his intention to pardon former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, a National Party figure serving a 45-year US prison sentence for turning the country into a "narco-state." Trump claimed Hernández was treated unfairly, a statement that contrasts with his own administration's anti-narco policies.
Domestic reaction to the US intervention is mixed, with some hoping it leads to leniency for Honduran migrants and others decrying foreign interference. The outcome is critical for a country where remittances are a economic lifeline and nearly 30,000 nationals have been deported from the US this year. The campaign has been marked by Moncada's framing of the vote as a choice between a "coup-plotting oligarchy" and democratic socialism, while Nasralla has shifted to the right and Asfura has distanced himself from the convicted Hernández. With pre-emptive fraud accusations fueling tensions, electoral authorities have pleaded for calm to avoid post-election violence.
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Source: The Guardian
