Trending 
Hondurans cast their ballots for a new president on Sunday in a tightly contested, three-way race to replace leftist President Xiomara Castro.
The election was overshadowed by explicit threats from U.S. President Donald Trump to withdraw American aid if his favoured candidate, Nasry “Tito” Asfura of the right-wing National Party, does not win.
Trump, who has supported rightward political shifts in other Latin American nations, declared on his Truth Social platform that the U.S. would not “be throwing good money after bad” if Asfura loses and that continued support for one of the region’s poorest countries depends on the outcome.
Adding to the controversy, Trump unexpectedly announced his intention to pardon former National Party president Juan Orlando Hernandez, who is currently serving a 45-year sentence in the U.S. for cocaine trafficking—a move Asfura quickly distanced himself from.
Asfura’s main competitors are lawyer Rixi Moncada of the ruling Libre party, who frames the election as a battle against the “coup-plotting oligarchy,” and Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party.
The high-stakes, single-round contest, in which voters also select Congress members, has been marred by preemptive accusations of fraud from both sides, fuelling fears of potential post-election unrest.
