Trump Meets Honduras’ President-Elect Amid Contentious Election Dispute
Donald Trump, the President of the United States, met with Nasry Asfura, the president-elect of Honduras, at his residence in Florida, in a move critics interpret as an attempt to legitimize the controversial election results in Honduras.
The meeting took place while several candidates and political factions in Honduras have rejected the announced presidential election results. During the meeting, Trump emphasized strengthening security ties between Washington and Tegucigalpa and described Honduras as part of a regional coalition to combat drug trafficking and illegal immigration in Latin America.
The U.S. president also identified the slogan “America First” as a shared principle between himself and Honduras’ president-elect; a slogan that has underpinned Trump’s foreign and domestic policies in recent years.
On the other hand, Xiomara Castro, the former president of Honduras whose party was defeated in the recent elections, has alleged that the electoral process was marred by fraud and influenced by Washington. She is among the figures who have questioned the legitimacy of the announced results.
After nearly four weeks of delay, Honduras’ National Electoral Council announced the final results in early January, declaring Nasry Asfura, the right-wing candidate supported by the White House, as the election winner. The announcement sparked widespread protests in parts of Honduran society.
According to the official results, Asfura of the National Party received 40.27% of the votes, narrowly surpassing Salvador Nasralla, the leader of the Liberal Party, who garnered 39.53%. María Andréa Chávez, the candidate from the ruling leftist party, came in third with 19.19%.
Following the results, Salvador Nasralla refused to concede defeat, again accusing electoral authorities of fraud and stating that they had betrayed the people of Honduras. This stance reflects dissatisfaction among a portion of the population regarding the election process and its transparency.
Previously, Trump warned that if Asfura did not win against Nasralla, U.S. aid to Honduras would be cut; a position critics interpret as political pressure from Washington on the electoral processes in regional countries.
