Honduras presidential race tightens: Country sees potential right shift; Trump threatens US aid cuts

Honduras held its presidential election on Sunday, amid growing concerns that the country could lose US aid if US President Donald Trump’s preferred candidate fails to win.

The incumbent leader, Xiomara Castro, is a leftist and the first woman to serve as president of Honduras. Trump, however, has thrown his support behind the right-wing National Party candidate, Nasry “Tito” Asfura.


Polls indicate a tight three-way race to replace Castro, whose husband, Manuel Zelaya, previously served as president before being ousted in a 2009 coup.

Trump's preference lies in favour of the right-wing National Party candidate, Nasry "Tito" Asfura. Competing alongside Asfura are Rixi Moncada, a 60-year-old lawyer from the ruling Libre party, and Salvador Nasralla, a 72-year-old television host representing the Liberal Party.

Honduras may become the next Latin American nation—following Argentina and Bolivia—to shift to the right after years of left-leaning governance.

Trump has tied continued US assistance for one of the region’s poorest nations to an Asfura victory. “If he (Asfura) doesn’t win, the United States will not be throwing good money after bad,” he wrote Friday on his Truth Social account, reiterating similar threats he made in support of Argentine President Javier Milei’s party during recent midterm elections. The same day, he also said he would pardon former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, a National Party figure currently serving a 45-year prison sentence in the United States on cocaine trafficking and related charges.

Polling stations opened at 1300 GMT for ten hours of voting, with initial results expected late Sunday.