Well, this has very much slipped under the radar. Other than the occasional Honduran gang member swept up in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, Honduras doesn't exist in the national consciousness.
There was a momentary kerfluffle in the middle of the War Over Double Taps on Coke Boats, when President Trump inexplicably pardoned former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández (that's him in the post photo), along with Democratic congressman Henry Cuellar. This was, admittedly, a head-scratcher of a move from an ardently anti-drug president, considering what the man had been convicted of and was sitting in a US prison for.
But from what President Trump said, discussing the pardon before he actually signed it, it seemed as if he felt both men had been victims of the Biden-era witch hunt.
...Mr. Trump discussed the planned pardon with reporters over the weekend in terms similar to those Mr. Hernández had used in his letter, saying that “the people of Honduras really thought he was set up, and it was a terrible thing.”
“He was the president of the country, and they basically said he was a drug dealer because he was the president of the country,” Mr. Trump said. “And they said it was a Biden administration setup. And I looked at the facts, and I agreed with them.”
Nowhere in the entire article in the New York Times about Trump's pardon, and the sins of Orlando Hernández, was there any discussion of what was happening in Honduras.
It turns out that the country had gone to the polls on 30 November in a national election to choose the next president from three candidates who represented the Conservative, Liberal, and ruling Socialist parties.
Interestingly, Trump had Xweeted on the 28th about the upcoming elections, and invoked the spectre of Maduro hanging over them, while boosting one of the candidates by name.
HE’S BACK pic.twitter.com/j2tEpUXNgj
— Dustin Grage (@GrageDustin) November 28, 2025
...The man who is standing up for Democracy, and fighting against Maduro, is Tito Asfura, the Presidential Candidate of the National Party. Tito was the highly successful Mayor of Tegucigalpa where he brought running water to millions, and paved hundreds of kilometers of roads. His chief opponent is Rixi Moncada, who says Fidel Castro is her idol. Normally, the smart people of Honduras, would reject her, and elect Tito Asfura, but the Communists are trying to trick the people by running a third Candidate, Salvador Nasralla. Nasralla is no friend of Freedom. A borderline Communist, he helped Xiomara Castro by running as her Vice President. He won, and helped Castro win. Then he resigned, and is now pretending to be an anti-Communist only for the purposes of splitting Asfura’s vote. The people of Honduras must not be tricked again. The only real friend of Freedom in Honduras is Tito Asfura. Tito and I can work together to fight the Narcocommunists, and bring needed aid to the people of Honduras. I cannot work with Moncada and the Communists, and Nasralla is not a reliable partner for Freedom, and cannot be trusted. I hope the people of Honduras vote for Freedom and Democracy, and elect Tito Asfura, President!
Naturally, this also caused some angst at the time from certain quarters.
WAAH
In a tiny country with a long record of disputed elections, America’s president is making things much worse. We explain how his interventions in Honduras are complicating matters https://t.co/GokPSRi8gZ
— The Economist (@TheEconomist) December 6, 2025
As of the morning of December 1, it looked as if the Trump-backed conservative candidate was on his way to a victory, with the ruling Socialist party bringing up the rear at a miserable 19.7%. Then suddenly, the brakes came on the vote count.
Sound familiar?
Five days went by, and the Election Council still wasn't toting anything up for the public.
the presidential election in honduras is somehow getting crazier
— ice (@penguin_pmkt) December 6, 2025
despite Tito Asfura winning by more than 20,000 votes with more than 80% of votes counted, the honduran electoral council has apparently stopped counting votes.
Salvador Nasralla's chances of winning the election… pic.twitter.com/STWH59BhTv
...despite Tito Asfura winning by more than 20,000 votes with more than 80% of votes counted, the honduran electoral council has apparently stopped counting votes.
Salvador Nasralla's chances of winning the election polymarket, have quadrupled from 5% to 20%, while Asfura has collapsed from 94 to 77.
are we witnessing an election being rigged in real time?
By yesterday evening, the silence was ominous to the point even al-Reuters was commenting on it, and the ruling Socialist Libre Party candidate was calling for the election to be annulled and for civil unrest.
Delays like this always spike public frustration, but they’re not uncommon in tightly contested races. Honduras’ 2021 election also saw nearly 48 hours of silence before certified updates were released, largely due to manual tallying and verification protocols. The key now is…
— Ghodakiya Ankur (@Ghodakiya_Ankur) December 8, 2025
Oh, I'll bet she was.
Impatience grew in Honduras on Sunday as electoral officials failed to provide an update on the results of the November 30 national elections for over 48 hours, with the presidential race still far too close to call.In the latest results released on Friday, Nasry Asfura of the National Party led with 40.19%, less than 20,000 votes ahead of centrist rival Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party, who stood at 39.49% with 88% of ballots tallied. Rixi Moncada of the ruling leftist Libre Party trailed far behind with 19.30%. Some 14% of ballots showed inconsistencies, officials said, and would be reviewed.There have been no updates to these results over the weekend, testing residents' patience as the presidency hangs in the balance."It's frustrating," said Gabriela Osorio, a dentist who voted in Siguatepeque, a small town in central Honduras. "The vote count hasn't changed in days, and now it's been a week since the election and we still don't know anything."On Sunday, Moncada demanded the elections be annulled and said the party was calling on its supporters to take part in marches, strikes, and sit-ins to protest what she has called election fraud.
And just like that, as I'm writing this post, election results are beginning to trickle in once again, and Asfura is maintaining his lead.
Honduran election officials have resumed releasing presidential election results after a three-day pause, with candidate Nasry Asfura currently holding a narrow lead.
— PiQ (@PiQSuite) December 8, 2025
The prolonged and at times chaotic vote count has led to allegations of fraud and calls for protests. pic.twitter.com/XSPSCOzDtz
89% of the ballots have been tabulated, and nothing has really changed, but people are still very wary of the chance for disturbances, particularly with the losing Libre party already calling for strikes and protests.
Sore losers.
...With 89% of the ballots tallied, Asfura, a 67-year-old former Tegucigalpa mayor who has received open backing from U.S. President Donald Trump, had 40.21% of the vote. Salvador Nasralla, a television host and three-time presidential hopeful, trailed with 39.50%. Rixi Moncada, the ruling Libre Party's candidate and a former leftist minister, was in third place with 19.28%, roughly half the support of her two main rivals.
"After carrying out the necessary technical actions (with external auditing), the data is now being updated in the results," Ana Paola Hall, president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), said on X.
The slow vote count is being blamed on the processor.
...On Monday, streets in Tegucigalpa and other cities remained calm. But memories linger of the contested 2017 vote, when security forces opened fire on protesters, killing at least 16 people, according to a U.N. report. About 30 people were killed in total as mass protests swept the country.
The November 30 vote unfolded peacefully, according to independent observers. But the release of results has been chaotic, with fluctuations fueling frustration over the tight race. CNE officials have blamed the company behind the tabulation platform for the slow count.
What this means for South and Central America, though, should Asfura hold onto the lead and become the next president of Honduras, could be really incredible.
La narcoizquierda fue derrotada en Honduras. El chavismo no pudo ni meter las manos! Su candidata quedó en un lejano 3er lugar.
— México Libertario 🐍 (@Mex_Libertario) December 1, 2025
Los hondureños entendieron antes que mexicanos que sacar a la izquierda del poder es el requisito para hacer países libres, prósperos y democráticos. pic.twitter.com/SqcaWIUgB6
The narco-left was defeated in Honduras. Chavismo couldn't even get their hands in! Their candidate ended up in a distant 3rd place.
Hondurans understood before Mexicans that removing the left from power is the requirement to make countries free, prosperous, and democratic.
Chile and Bolivia have both booted decades-old Marxist regimes this fall in favor of conservative, capitalist, US-friendly new presidents, and Argentina's Milei won an overwhelming victory in his mid-term elections to continue his reforms.
The old Communistas of Latin and South America are a shrinking minority. A super-small, not very select, not very exclusive club anymore that their countrymen want out of badly.
It's going to be something when the doors finally close.
I hope they slam like hell when they do.
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