menu_open Columnists
We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

Why is Trump suddenly so obsessed with Honduras?

3 6
03.12.2025
A woman waves a Honduran flag near a polling station during the general election in Tegucigalpa on November 30, 2025. | Orlando Sierra/AFP via Getty Images

The US may or may not be marching toward war with Venezuela, but at the moment, there’s another Latin American country that seems to be occupying President Donald Trump’s attention.

Counting is currently underway in Honduras’s presidential election, which was held on Sunday, and the margins are razor thin, with Nasry “Tito” Asfura of the conservative National Party leading Salvador Nasralla of the centrist Liberal Party by just a few hundred votes.

Trump has been a surprisingly prominent factor in the closing days of the race. Last week, he took the unusual step of publicly endorsing Asfura, posting on Truth Social, “Tito and I can work together to fight Narcocommunists, and bring needed aid to the people of Honduras.” He described Nasralla as a “borderline communist.”

The US president then proceeded, on Friday, to give a full pardon to former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted of drug trafficking in New York last year and was serving a 45-year sentence in the United States. Hernández, a member of Asfura’s party, was accused of taking bribes from Mexican drug cartels and running the country as a narcostate.

It might seem awkward, given that Trump is currently mulling military action against a Venezuelan president accused of drug trafficking, that he has pardoned another president convicted of the same thing. But since Trump took office, Hernández has been lobbying for his release,........

© Vox