Trump-backed Asfura edges ahead in Honduras vote as accusations fly

Honduras is staring down a razor-thin presidential race, and a heavy dose of Washington interference, as conservative candidate Nasry Asfura takes a narrow lead with about 40 percent of the vote counted.

Preliminary results on Monday put Asfura, the National Party’s 67-year-old former Tegucigalpa mayor, at 41 percent. Liberal Party rival Salvador Nasralla is close behind at 39 percent, while LIBRE’s left-wing candidate Rixi Moncada trails with 20 percent.

The vote followed an unusually blunt intervention from US President Donald Trump, who publicly endorsed Asfura, claiming he would stand up to “narco-communists”.

“If he [Asfura] doesn’t win, the United States will not be throwing good money after bad,” Trump warned on Truth Social just days before ballots were cast.

His comments echoed his loud backing of Argentina’s Javier Milei, and came paired with another political grenade: Trump said he would pardon former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who is serving 45 years in the US for drug trafficking and firearms charges.

On the ground, tensions were already high. The three main candidates spent the campaign accusing one another of rigging the vote. Ana Paola Hall, head of the National Electoral Council, urged them to “not fan the flames of confrontation or violence”.

Security and jobs remain the top concerns for Hondurans. Under outgoing President Xiomara Castro, homicide and unemployment rates have improved, but Honduras still holds the grim title of Central America’s highest murder rate.