The Honduras Electoral Fraud crisis deepened this week after Vice Minister Gerardo Torres Zelaya accused the ruling National Party of orchestrating a “massive electoral coup,” presenting detailed evidence of manipulated tally sheets and calling for immediate investigation. The denunciations come amid growing unrest following the November 30 elections and echo earlier warnings from electoral commissioner Marlon Ochoa, who described the vote as “the most manipulated in Honduras’ democratic history.”
Gerardo Torres Zelaya, Vice Minister for Foreign Policy, confirmed his support for the denunciations made by Marlon Ochoa of the National Electoral Council (CNE). Both officials accused the ruling National Party of tampering with Preliminary Electoral Results Transmission System (TREP) data to inflate votes in rural regions, historically used for fraudulent vote padding.
During an online address, Torres Zelaya presented evidence of ballot irregularities that he said “prove beyond doubt that the election was rigged.” He cited cases such as the Voting Station (JRV) 18099 in Negrito, Yoro, where 111 voters were registered, yet the National Party received 635 votes. Similarly, in JRV 00371 in El Porvenir, Atlántida, only 198 voters were recorded while the National Party appeared with 766 ballots.
Such numbers, Torres Zelaya said, show technical manipulation of tally sheets uploaded to the TREP system, a pattern consistent across dozens of municipalities. He also criticized the media’s silence and the failure of international monitors to respond swiftly to documented evidence.
#Política || El subsecretario de Política Exterior de Honduras, Gerardo Torres, denunció un “fraude escandaloso” en las recientes elecciones y acusó al opositor Partido Nacional y y a estructuras vinculadas al narcotráfico de manipulación electoral.
— Agencia Hondureña de Noticias (@AHNoficial) December 6, 2025
Data Reveals 86% of Ballots Contain Irregularities
Quoting the report titled Golpe Electoral 2025 presented by Ochoa, Torres Zelaya revealed that by December 3 at 8:00 a.m. local time, a total of 15,297 tally sheets had entered the TREP system. Of these, 13,246 (86.6%) showed inconsistencies between biometric data and voter counts. The majority, he said, favored the National Party candidate Nasry Asfura, widely backed by former U.S. president Donald Trump.
“The election results do not add up,” Torres Zelaya insisted. Historically, Honduran presidents win either the capital Tegucigalpa or San Pedro Sula, but not both. “If the National Party did not win in either city, how can they claim a national victory?” he asked, calling the rural vote numbers “votes of theft.”
The Vice Minister accused the ruling party of orchestrating a coordinated scheme to exploit remote precincts with weak oversight. “These are votes stolen from the rural poor to maintain the narco-political system,” he said, alluding to networks left behind by former President Juan Orlando Hernández, currently accused of ties to organized crime.
FRAUDE! Jajajaja vaya hasta Cerimedo está denunciando fraude. Unámonos Honduras 🥹 @FerCerimedo_ok
— Gerardo Torres Zelaya (@gtorreszelaya1) December 6, 2025
Condemnation of Silence from International Actors
Organization of American States – Elections Observation Reports)
Torres Zelaya issued a strong rebuke against what he described as the “deafening silence” of major international observers—the Organization of American States (OAS) and the European Union (EU)—which, he claimed, have failed to condemn U.S. interference in the Honduran election. He pointed specifically to the public endorsement of Asfura by Donald Trump, calling it “a foreign intervention that violates Honduran sovereignty.”
He praised instead the international oversight mission of more than 150 delegates from 22 countries, who have supported the Honduran people’s call for electoral transparency. Their testimonies, he said, are crucial to maintaining the fraud complaint on the global stage.
Honduras Electoral Fraud and the Fight for Democracy
( United Nations – Electoral Integrity and Democracy)
The Vice Minister urged CNE Commissioner Ana Paola Hall to break her silence and publicly support Marlon Ochoa’s findings. “We must face this fraud, regardless of party affiliation, because it’s about defending democracy itself,” he declared. Torres emphasized the need for courage to “stand up against the narco-state,” referring again to the National Party and former President Hernández, recently pardoned by the U.S. administration.
He also called on the Libre Party (Partido Libre) to avoid a defeatist stance and prepare for the next phase of struggle. Despite the manipulation, he reported that the party had secured 34 congressional seats and 70 mayoral victories, coming close to winning Tegucigalpa, an unprecedented milestone.
“Honduras is waiting for Libre to rise again and confront the narco-state with dignity,” Torres Zelaya said, concluding his appeal for unity.
Geopolitical Context: Crisis of Bipartisanship
The allegations of Honduras Electoral Fraud expose more than an electoral scandal—they reveal the erosion of a two-party system long dominated by the Liberal and National parties. The controversy highlights deep structural cracks in Honduras’ political culture, where elite control, U.S. influence, and corruption have perpetuated decades of instability.
Analysts argue that the 2025 electoral crisis represents a historic confrontation between grassroots democratic forces led by the Libre movement and entrenched political interests tied to economic and narcotrafficking networks. The outcome could redefine the regional balance of power in Central America, where democratic backsliding has become a recurring trend.
International observers warn that if these allegations remain unaddressed, public trust in democratic institutions will decline further, potentially setting off a new cycle of political unrest and migration surges toward the United States.
Honduras electoral fraud: 3 alarming signs deepen growing political turmoil
Election officials and party observers review tally sheets in Tegucigalpa as Honduras faces a deepening electoral fraud crisis and calls for a new vote.
December 7, 2025 Hour: 10:25 am
Honduras electoral fraud crisis grows as vote counting stalls, nullity is requested, and foreign intervention is alleged, deepening political uncertainty.
Honduras electoral fraud crisis exposes deepening uncertainty and institutional mistrust
A week after the presidential elections in Honduras, the country remains without official results amid a growing Honduras electoral fraud crisis, stalled vote counting and mounting public mistrust of institutions. The paralysis of the official tally, officially attributed to technical failures in the transmission system, has been compounded by formal accusations of fraud, irregularities and foreign interference in favor of conservative candidates.dropsitenews+2
The president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Ana Paola Hall, has publicly blamed the prolonged collapse of the vote-processing platform on technical problems allegedly outside the control of the electoral authority. More than 24 hours after the system went offline, Hall insisted that the CNE “has the firm will” to ensure continuous dissemination of results but claims the failures fall on the private company contracted to manage the platform.kvia+1
In response to these interruptions, the CNE announced a two-and-a-half-day extension to file administrative nullity actions, pushing the deadline to midday on 8 December. The electoral body also extended the period for special reviews and recounts until midnight on 15 December, formally acknowledging that the Honduras electoral fraud claims and delays have seriously disrupted the normal timeline of the process.abc17news+1
The paralysis of the official scrutiny has triggered strong criticism inside the CNE itself, where counselor Marlon Ochoa has denounced what he calls an “electoral coup” and a deliberate manipulation of the Transmission of Preliminary Electoral Results (TREP) system. Ochoa describes the TREP as a “real trap” that would have enabled automated fraud, vote transfers and the retention of thousands of key tally sheets in the Honduras electoral fraud scheme.youtubetnh+1
According to Ochoa, this could become “the least transparent election” and “the most manipulated in the country’s democratic history,” with failures that go far beyond simple technical glitches. Among the irregularities he lists are the elimination of biometric controls, erroneous tally sheets, automatic alteration of vote counts, fraudulent transfers between candidates and the retention of more than 16,000 critical records for more than 40 hours.elfaro+1youtube
From his perspective, the entire processing chain of the vote was compromised, eroding confidence in the TREP and giving fuel to Honduras electoral fraud accusations from both the ruling party and the opposition.dropsitenews+1
New allegation of foreign intervention in Honduras elections
In parallel to the internal disputes within the CNE, a new controversy has erupted over alleged foreign interference in the Honduran elections, adding another layer to the Honduras electoral fraud narrative. The Argentine political consultant Fernando Cerimedo, hired by the National Party, is accused of having intervened in the campaign to secure a public endorsement from U.S. President Donald Trump for conservative candidate Nasry Asfura
Honduran lawyer Ric Soto shared a social media post in which Cerimedo appears to admit playing a direct role in provoking Trump’s message of support for Asfura, a move that critics see as a clear example of foreign meddling in the country’s electoral process. According to Soto, this revelation is sufficient evidence to establish foreign intervention, a practice explicitly forbidden by Honduran electoral law and now central to the Honduras electoral fraud debate.
Faced with these allegations, pressure is mounting on the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Foreign Ministry, Congress and the Supreme Court to investigate the links between foreign consultants, the National Party and the controversial digital campaign that boosted the conservative candidacy. For legal experts, these bodies have a constitutional obligation to act swiftly in defense of Honduran sovereignty and to clarify whether the Honduras electoral fraud crisis has been aggravated by illegal external influence.nytimes+2
The wave of complaints and public denunciations has placed the Honduran institutions under intense scrutiny from citizens, political parties and international observers, all concerned about the gravity of the Honduras electoral fraud claims. Analysts warn that the credibility of the CNE, the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the judiciary is at stake, especially if investigations into technical failures, alleged manipulation and foreign intervention fail to produce clear and timely answers.kvia+3
Human rights organizations and democracy watchdogs have also called for independent investigations and transparent audits of the TREP, as well as a comprehensive review of the contracts and oversight mechanisms involving the private company responsible for the system. These groups underline that restoring confidence in the electoral process is essential to avoid escalating the Honduras electoral fraud crisis into a broader political and social conflict.elfaro+1
Amid the uncertainty generated by the stalled count, the ruling Freedom and Refoundation Party (Libre) has formally requested the nullity of the presidential scrutiny before the CNE, citing what it describes as a “disaster” in the TREP. Libre argues that the Honduras electoral fraud scenario is so severe that the integrity of the results from the 19,167 Vote Receiving Boards (JRV) has been irreparably compromised.tnh+1
In its written submission, filed by Libre’s legal representative Edson Javier Argueta, the party asks for the administrative annulment of all presidential-level tallies processed through the TREP. The document stresses that the failures in the transmission system distorted the popular will and violated the Electoral Law, justifying the demand to restore legality in a context marked by Honduras electoral fraud complaints.tnh+1
Given the scale of the alleged irregularities, Libre’s legal action goes beyond a simple review and explicitly requests that the presidential election be repeated in each and every polling station in the country. The party bases this demand on what it describes as “serious acts” that violate the Constitution, Honduras’ Electoral Law, and multiple regulations and resolutions, all of which have led to an alteration of the sovereign will of the Honduran people.
From the party’s perspective, only a full repetition of the vote can restore legitimacy and dispel doubts surrounding the Honduras electoral fraud scandal, especially after the system collapse, missing tally sheets and inconsistent figures across different layers of the count. Libre leaders have also called on international observers and regional organizations to monitor the process and ensure that any decision on nullity or repetition respects democratic standards.kvia+2
The Honduras electoral fraud crisis is unfolding in a regional context marked by repeated disputes over electoral integrity in Latin America, where contested results have often led to street protests, institutional crises and external pressure from powerful states. In recent years, countries such as Bolivia, Brazil and Guatemala have experienced cycles of contested elections, accusations of foreign interference and sharp polarization, dynamics that now echo in the Honduran scenario.nytimes+2
This environment has heightened the role of international actors such as the Organization of American States (OAS), the United Nations and foreign governments, whose statements and recognition decisions can reinforce or undermine domestic legitimacy claims. In Honduras, Trump’s endorsement of conservative candidate Nasry Asfura and the involvement of foreign consultants have turned the Honduras electoral fraud dispute into a geopolitical issue, intertwining domestic tensions with global power rivalries.nytimes+2
On the streets and across social media, citizens have expressed growing frustration over the lack of clear results and the perception that the Honduras electoral fraud crisis is unfolding without adequate institutional response. Civil society groups have warned that prolonged uncertainty could trigger protests, road blockades and clashes, recalling the violent aftermath of previous contested elections in the country.youtubedropsitenews+2
The Honduran Center for Democracy Studies (CESPAD) has issued alerts about the repeated failures of the TREP and urged the CNE to act with transparency, timely information and open communication channels with all political forces. The organization stresses that preventing an escalation of the Honduras electoral fraud conflict requires immediate confidence-building measures, including audits, public disclosure of technical reports and guarantees for observers and party representatives.dropsitenewsyoutube
International human rights bodies and observation missions have reiterated the need for transparent, verifiable and inclusive procedures as Honduran authorities deal with the Honduras electoral fraud allegations and the possible nullity of the presidential scrutiny. These organizations insist that the results, whether validated or annulled, must be backed by clear documentation, accessible data and the participation of all political actors to prevent further delegitimization.elfaro+1
In this context, calls have intensified for the CNE to publish detailed information on the technical failures, the role of the private provider of the TREP and the chain of custody of tally sheets, especially those retained for long periods without explanation. Observers argue that only full disclosure and independent audits can reduce tensions and address the perception that Honduras electoral fraud has overshadowed voters’ will.dropsitenews+1
Next steps and scenarios for Honduras
Looking ahead, Honduras faces several possible scenarios, ranging from the validation of the current results after partial corrections to a full or partial repetition of the elections if the nullity actions prosper. Political analysts note that any decision taken by the CNE and the courts will have to balance legal arguments, technical evidence and the political impact of either confirming or overturning a vote clouded by Honduras electoral fraud accusations.tnh+3
If the nullity request is accepted and the elections are repeated, the country will enter a prolonged transition without a clearly recognized winner, increasing the risk of institutional vacuum and power disputes. Conversely, if the current results are maintained without a thorough clarification of the irregularities, the Honduras electoral fraud narrative could become entrenched, weakening the legitimacy of the next government from the outset.abc17news+3
In all cases, the capacity of Honduran institutions to manage the crisis, guarantee due process and respond to citizens’ demands for truth and transparency will determine whether this electoral conflict becomes an opportunity for democratic reform or a new chapter of instability. For many sectors, the central challenge is to ensure that the Honduras electoral fraud crisis does not end up eroding the very foundations of the country’s fragile democracy.nytimes+2
Trump’s Interference Invalidates the Presidential Election in Honduras
Posted by Internationalist 360° on December 6, 2025
John Perry
Salvador Nasralla, Liberal Party candidate. Photo: Salva Presidente / X
An extraordinary catalog of US interference – amounting to an electoral coup – may have destroyed what was already a struggling democracy in Honduras. Trump has succeeded in closing the door to progressive government and in all likelihood his preferred neoliberal candidate – previously trailing in many opinion polls – will be declared president when the count eventually finishes.
While Washington’s aversion to foreign interference in its domestic elections verges on paranoia, the gross hypocrisy which runs through its foreign policy leaves it free of any compunction when meddling in other countries’ elections, especially in Latin America. Perhaps no country has greater recent experience of this than Honduras. Although most accounts of this meddling begin in 2009 with the ousting by army officers of its democratically elected president, Mel Zelaya, in truth US dominance of the country has a much longer history, as I described at the time.
The US refused to designate Zelaya’s toppling as a “military coup” or to back international calls for his rapid return to office. Washington then backed all the post-coup governments, including those established by Juan Orlando Hernández when his National Party “won” two highly manipulated elections. Rampant corruption by him and his predecessors ensured that Honduras became a “narcostate.” Nevertheless, US administrations embraced Hernández as a prime ally in the war on drugs up until the point when he left office, was extradited and committed to 45 years in a US prison. Only the large majority won by the Libre party’s Xiomara Castro in the 2021 election, and the fact that Hernández had become a liability, temporarily frustrated Washington’s customary ability to get the Honduran president that best suited its interests.
Castro’s government only partly fulfilled its progressive aims, not least because of the continuing power wielded by Honduras’s often corrupt elite, a judicial and security system still strongly subject to US influence, and social media campaigns which often originated in Washington. Opinion polls showed that Castro’s chosen successor as Libre Party candidate, Rixi Moncada, would be in a close race with the right-wing candidates of the two traditional parties, the Liberals’ Salvador Nasralla and the National Party’s Nasry Asfura. Trump favored Asfura, effectively the successor to Juan Orlando Hernández, as the candidate most attuned to his policies.
The fact that the November 30 election took place at the height of the US military build-up in the Caribbean was itself a crucial ingredient in determining the outcome. Both right-wing candidates were able to warn Hondurans that a vote for Libre would be an invitation to the US military to turns its guns on them. Trump emboldened them by asking on Truth Social, “Will Maduro and his Narcoterrorists take over another country like they have taken over Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela?” According to him, a vote for Asfura would ensure that Honduras did not face the same potential fate as Venezuela. “Tito and I can work together to fight the Narcocommunists,” he added. “I cannot work with Moncada and the Communists.” Nor, apparently, could he even trust Nasralla, whom he described as “borderline communist.”
The president then trumped this statement by declaring that only if Asfura won would US aid for Honduras continue. “If he doesn’t win, the United States will not be throwing good money after bad,” he said. When Nasralla appeared to have edged ahead of Asfura, in a close count, Trump said that it “looks like Honduras is trying to change the results of their Presidential Election,” adding, “If they do, there will be hell to pay!” Then, in a night “marked by technical failures and tension in the results system,” the count suddenly gave the lead to Asfura. The International Observation Mission of the American Association of Jurists asserted that Trump’s intervention “has placed the legitimacy of the democratic process in crisis.”
In an even more extraordinary move, Trump announced that he would be pardoning the disgraced former president Hernández, who has indeed since walked free from prison. A move that might have harmed the National Party appears instead to have been an astute boost to Asfura’s campaign, given that many of his supporters still idolize Hernández and regard Asfura as an inferior leader. However, Mike Vigil, a former senior official in the US Drug Enforcement Agency, told the Guardian that pardoning Hernández “shows that the entire counter-drug effort of Donald Trump is a charade.” Activist and author Dana Frank told the Guardian that “his repressive, thieving, dictatorial history, backed by the United States year after year, has evaporated from the story.”
Another, very effective but little publicized intervention appears to have taken place, if Rixi Moncada’s claim in an interview with Telesur is correct. According to her, huge numbers of the 2.5 million Hondurans who receive remittances from family members in the US were warned that, if Libre won, they would not receive their December payments. The magnitude of the threat (whether or not it could have been carried out in practice) is indicated by the fact that remittances account for a quarter of Honduras’s GDP. It seems possible that many poor households’ votes, which might have gone to Libre, didn’t – because of text messages sent directly to their phones.
That electoral fraud would again favor the US-supported candidate was indicated in the run up to November 30 by leaked audios implicating the National Party’s representative on the national election council. The council’s Libre representative, Marlon Ochoa, who denounced that planned fraud, has now published a detailed account of irregularities since counting started, which he claims invalidate 86 per cent of polling returns. Indeed, at the time of writing, following a week of technical problems in vote counting, there is still no official winner.
Rixi Moncada harshly questioned the silence of the electoral observation missions from the Organization of America States and European Union, which she accused of deliberately omitting any reference to Trump’s interference in their bulletins on the conduct of the election. “So far they have not commented on the intervention of the U.S. president in their reports,” Moncada claimed, noting their attitude “borders on complacency.” New York Times interviews with Hondurans showed clearly that Trump’s comments influenced their votes. Mark Weisbrot, of the US Center for Economic and Policy Research, pointed out that his interventions were “a violation of Article 19 of the Charter of the Organization of American States, to which the United States is a signatory.”
Emboldened by his apparent success in defeating “communism,” even if (at the time of writing) he may not yet have secured the victory of his preferred neoliberal candidate, Trump has gone on to publish his own “corollary” to the century-old Monroe Doctrine, endorsing its claims to a unique US sphere of influence covering the whole region. Echoing the 1904 corollary to the doctrine issued by President Roosevelt, which declared that the US would be a “hemispheric police power,” Trump says he is “proudly reasserting” control over “our hemisphere,” guarding the American continents “against communism, fascism, and foreign infringement.”
Nothing could be a clearer manifestation of what has been called the “Donroe Doctrine” than the military build-up in the Caribbean, which provided the threatening backdrop to the final weeks of the Honduran election campaign. As Roger Harris and I noted in a recent article, the deployment of one-fifth of US maritime power is aimed not just at Venezuela, but at starting a wider domino effect in the Caribbean basin. In the aftermath of November’s election night in Honduras, the first domino appears to have fallen.
Honduran Electoral Entity’s Adviser Denounces Security Flaws During the Counting
The electoral councilor Marlon Ochoa speaks during a press conference this Sunday, in Tegucigalpa (Honduras). Photo: EFE/ Gustavo Amador
December 7, 2025 Hour: 5:27 pm
Marlon Ochoa, one of the three councilors of the National Electoral Center (CNE) of Honduras, denounced this Sunday failures in the security of the electronic system for transmitting the results of the general elections of November 30th.
Ochoa, representing the leftist Liberty and Refoundation Party (Libre), appeared before the media without the accompaniment of the presiding councilor of the CNE, Ana Paola Hall, of the Liberal Party, nor the councilor of the National Party, Cossette Alejandra López, who complete the full board of the electoral body.
Specifically, Ochoa denounced a change in the security code of two modules of the system used for the count.
In this regard, the councilor pointed out that the company responsible for the preliminary transmission of votes acknowledged that in the module for the dissemination of electoral results there was a variation in the “hash” (label or numeral), although it assured that the source code “had not been modified.”
The “hash,” according to Ochoa, serves to ensure that the counting system software has not been altered.
Therefore, if the “hash” changes, it means that something in the modules of the results transmission system (TREP) was modified, which may raise doubts about the reliability of the vote count.
“The irregularities that I share with you today are in addition to those that had already been found on Thursday, and every day we are finding new ones,” Ochoa emphasized to journalists at the CNE headquarters in Tegucigalpa.
In fact, Ochoa explained that the verification of the operating time of the transmission systems showed that many had been in operation for “less than six days,” and “some, even, less than five minutes.”
Therefore, he clarified, “there is no certainty that the sealed systems that remain in action are effectively those that have been used these last seven days” during the counting of the votes.
For Ochoa, the lack of certainty regarding the cybersecurity of the electoral process in Honduras leaves the CNE “unable to guarantee that the electoral records were processed by the same software that was identified on election day.”
This situation “compromises the validity of the results generated from these systems” and exposes the CNE “to potential administrative, civil, and criminal liabilities,” for which he proposed that the Public Ministry (Prosecutor’s Office) open an investigation in this regard.
The councilor cited Article 282 of the Electoral Law, which establishes that the software cannot be modified without the approval of the plenary, and warned that a change in the source code “without authorization from the plenary” would imply access and modifications to the already sealed system.
He also criticized the lack of transparency and the absence of updates on the results dissemination page for 36 hours, calling the process “the most manipulated and least credible elections in the country’s democratic history.”
Honduran Leftist Candidate Calls for Protests, Rejects Election Results
Rixi Moncada, 2025. Photo: teleSUR
December 8, 2025 Hour: 8:42 am
Rixi Moncada denounces U.S. interference and system manipulation.
On Sunday, Rixi Moncada, the presidential candidate of the ruling Liberty and Refoundation Party (Libre), called on Hondurans to take to the streets to protest the results of the Nov. 30 general elections.
“Libre does not recognize the elections held under the interference and coercion of U.S. President Donald Trump and the allied oligarchy, who have attacked the Honduran people with an ongoing electoral coup after sending one million messages through different platforms threatening people that if they vote for Rixi, they will not receive their remittances in December,” she said.
The Libre candidate said Trump’s interference is “distorting popular sovereignty” and claimed that the system used to transmit election results has been “manipulated in its source code.”
“Without using the three keys of the security system, and behind the backs of the responsible technicians, the software was altered and tampered with, violating the Electoral Law and security protocols,” Moncada said, adding that the breach was “confirmed” in both the reporting and tally-processing modules. She detailed several alleged irregularities.
“There are 5,000 electoral tallies with zeros, inconsistencies in 95.17% of transmitted tallies compared to the biometric system, 4,659 tallies without biometric support, and the results-reporting webpage has crashed repeatedly,” she said.
Regarding the latter, Moncada said the results webpages have remained altered and without updates for three consecutive days. She warned of “possible direct connections” from the opposition National Party to the National Electoral Council’s (CNE) transmission system for “manipulating the results.”
At the LIBRE party press conference, Honduran presidential candidate #RixiMoncada talks about the manipulated results and the ongoing fraud.#Honduras #US #Trump #teleSUR pic.twitter.com/n5C1kUAo1N
— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) December 2, 2025
Annulment of the Elections and Mobilizations
According to the preliminary vote count—which has been frozen since Friday with 88% of tally sheets reviewed—Nasry “Tito” Asfura, the National Party’s conservative candidate who has received the support of U.S. President Donald Trump, had 1,132,321 votes (40.19%), while Salvador Nasralla, the Liberal Party candidate, had 1,112,570 votes (39.49%).
In the official tally, Moncada has only 543,675 votes (19.30%), far below polling projections that had given her a clear lead over the two conservative contenders.
In a statement read after a meeting convened by the Libre party’s coordinator, former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, the leftist organization instructed its members to “denounce the foreign interference” by Trump and “the crime of treason against the homeland in replacing and adulterating popular sovereignty” before the United Nations, the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).
Libre called for “the total annulment of the elections” and for an investigation into “acts of electoral terrorism carried out through the transmission system.” It also urged supporters to join “mobilizations” and an “extraordinary national dignity assembly” on Dec. 13.
The leftist party also condemned Trump’s pardon of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who had been sentenced in 2024 to 45 years in prison on drug-trafficking and weapons charges. It also requested that an international arrest warrant be issued for him.
Trump’s interference invalidates the presidential election in Honduras
December 10, 2025 John Perry
An extraordinary catalog of U.S. interference – amounting to an electoral coup – may have destroyed what was already a struggling democracy in Honduras. Trump has succeeded in closing the door to progressive government and in all likelihood his preferred neoliberal candidate – previously trailing in many opinion polls – will be declared president when the count eventually finishes.
While Washington’s aversion to foreign interference in its domestic elections verges on paranoia, the gross hypocrisy which runs through its foreign policy leaves it free of any compunction when meddling in other countries’ elections, especially in Latin America. Perhaps no country has greater recent experience of this than Honduras. Although most accounts of this meddling begin in 2009 with the ousting by army officers of its democratically elected president, Mel Zelaya, in truth U.S. dominance of the country has a much longer history, as I described at the time.
The U.S. refused to designate Zelaya’s toppling as a “military coup” or to back international calls for his rapid return to office. Washington then backed all the post-coup governments, including those established by Juan Orlando Hernández when his National Party “won” two highly manipulated elections. Rampant corruption by him and his predecessors ensured that Honduras became a “narcostate.” Nevertheless, U.S. administrations embraced Hernández as a prime ally in the war on drugs up until the point when he left office, was extradited and committed to 45 years in a U.S. prison. Only the large majority won by the Libre party’s Xiomara Castro in the 2021 election, and the fact that Hernández had become a liability, temporarily frustrated Washington’s customary ability to get the Honduran president that best suited its interests.
Castro’s government only partly fulfilled its progressive aims, not least because of the continuing power wielded by Honduras’s often corrupt elite, a judicial and security system still strongly subject to U.S. influence, and social media campaigns which often originated in Washington. Opinion polls showed that Castro’s chosen successor as Libre Party candidate, Rixi Moncada, would be in a close race with the right-wing candidates of the two traditional parties, the Liberals’ Salvador Nasralla and the National Party’s Nasry Asfura. Trump favored Asfura, effectively the successor to Juan Orlando Hernández, as the candidate most attuned to his policies.
The fact that the November 30 election took place at the height of the U.S. military build-up in the Caribbean was itself a crucial ingredient in determining the outcome. Both right-wing candidates were able to warn Hondurans that a vote for Libre would be an invitation to the U.S. military to turns its guns on them. Trump emboldened them by asking on Truth Social, “Will Maduro and his Narcoterrorists take over another country like they have taken over Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela?” According to him, a vote for Asfura would ensure that Honduras did not face the same potential fate as Venezuela. “Tito and I can work together to fight the Narcocommunists,” he added. “I cannot work with Moncada and the Communists.” Nor, apparently, could he even trust Nasralla, whom he described as “borderline communist.”
The president then trumped this statement by declaring that only if Asfura won would U.S. aid for Honduras continue. “If he doesn’t win, the United States will not be throwing good money after bad,” he said. When Nasralla appeared to have edged ahead of Asfura, in a close count, Trump said that it “looks like Honduras is trying to change the results of their Presidential Election,” adding, “If they do, there will be hell to pay!” Then, in a night “marked by technical failures and tension in the results system,” the count suddenly gave the lead to Asfura. The International Observation Mission of the American Association of Jurists asserted that Trump’s intervention “has placed the legitimacy of the democratic process in crisis.”
In an even more extraordinary move, Trump announced that he would be pardoning the disgraced former president Hernández, who has indeed since walked free from prison. A move that might have harmed the National Party appears instead to have been an astute boost to Asfura’s campaign, given that many of his supporters still idolize Hernández and regard Asfura as an inferior leader. However, Mike Vigil, a former senior official in the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, told the Guardian that pardoning Hernández “shows that the entire counter-drug effort of Donald Trump is a charade.” Activist and author Dana Frank told the Guardian that “his repressive, thieving, dictatorial history, backed by the United States year after year, has evaporated from the story.”
Another, very effective but little publicized intervention appears to have taken place, if Rixi Moncada’s claim in an interview with Telesur is correct. According to her, huge numbers of the 2.5 million Hondurans who receive remittances from family members in the U.S. were warned that, if Libre won, they would not receive their December payments. The magnitude of the threat (whether or not it could have been carried out in practice) is indicated by the fact that remittances account for a quarter of Honduras’s GDP. It seems possible that many poor households’ votes, which might have gone to Libre, didn’t – because of text messages sent directly to their phones.
That electoral fraud would again favor the U.S.-supported candidate was indicated in the run up to November 30 by leaked audios implicating the National Party’s representative on the national election council. The council’s Libre representative, Marlon Ochoa, who denounced that planned fraud, has now published a detailed account of irregularities since counting started, which he claims invalidate 86 per cent of polling returns. Indeed, at the time of writing, following a week of technical problems in vote counting, there is still no official winner.
Rixi Moncada harshly questioned the silence of the electoral observation missions from the Organization of America States and European Union, which she accused of deliberately omitting any reference to Trump’s interference in their bulletins on the conduct of the election. “So far they have not commented on the intervention of the U.S. president in their reports,” Moncada claimed, noting their attitude “borders on complacency.” New York Times interviews with Hondurans showed clearly that Trump’s comments influenced their votes. Mark Weisbrot, of the U.S. Center for Economic and Policy Research, pointed out that his interventions were “a violation of Article 19 of the Charter of the Organization of American States, to which the United States is a signatory.”
Emboldened by his apparent success in defeating “communism,” even if (at the time of writing) he may not yet have secured the victory of his preferred neoliberal candidate, Trump has gone on to publish his own “corollary” to the century-old Monroe Doctrine, endorsing its claims to a unique U.S. sphere of influence covering the whole region. Echoing the 1904 corollary to the doctrine issued by President Roosevelt, which declared that the U.S. would be a “hemispheric police power,” Trump says he is “proudly reasserting” control over “our hemisphere,” guarding the American continents “against communism, fascism, and foreign infringement.”
Nothing could be a clearer manifestation of what has been called the “Donroe Doctrine” than the military build-up in the Caribbean, which provided the threatening backdrop to the final weeks of the Honduran election campaign. As Roger Harris and I noted in a recent article, the deployment of one-fifth of U.S. maritime power is aimed not just at Venezuela, but at starting a wider domino effect in the Caribbean basin. In the aftermath of November’s election night in Honduras, the first domino appears to have fallen.
According to LIBRE, foreign interference and an electoral manipulation plot affected the decision of the Honduran people and popular sovereignty.
December 09, 2025 by Pablo Meriguet
Rixi Moncada, presidential candidate for LIBRE, speaking in a press conference. Photo: LIBRE
The presidential candidate for the ruling Liberty and Refoundation party (LIBRE), Rixi Moncada, announced that an “electoral coup” was committed in the presidential elections on November 30. “Here in Honduras, I am not only facing the oligarchy and direct interference from Trump but also an ongoing electoral coup,” Moncada said in a press conference.
The vote count continues in Honduras, even though eight days have passed since election day. According to the authorities, the conservative Nasry Asfura, of the National Party of Honduras (PNH), has 40.2% of the votes, while the neoliberal Salvador Nasralla, of the Liberal Party of Honduras (PLH) has 39.5% of the votes. Just less than 20,000 votes separate them, so no official results have yet been given, despite more than 88% of the tally sheets being counted.
“Electoral coup”
According to Moncada, the elimination of a series of biometric requirements shortly before the elections was a key piece of the electoral fraud (or “electoral coup”, as the former minister of defense calls it) that has operated to prevent LIBRE from winning the presidency again.
Faced with this reality, LIBRE has demanded: “the total annulment of the elections” and requested an immediate “investigation” to understand what happened: “[The] acts of electoral terrorism carried out through the transmission system must be investigated.”
The current ruling party has condemned the handling of the elections and their outcome: “LIBRE does not recognize the elections held under the interference and coercion of US President Donald Trump and the allied oligarchy that have attacked the Honduran people with an ongoing electoral coup, after sending millions of messages through different platforms threatening the people that if they vote for Rixi, they will not receive remittances in December, adulterating popular sovereignty when … it was demonstrated in the Plenary Session of Councilors that the transmission system’s source code had been manipulated without using the three keys of the security system.”
In addition, it has called for an “Extraordinary National Assembly for next Saturday, December 13.” LIBRE also called for demonstrations, local and departmental assemblies, protests, strikes, and sit-ins to express their rejection of what they consider a “coup against democracy”.
Rejection of Trump’s pardon for Juan Orlando Hernández
LIBRE also condemned the pardon granted by President Donald Trump to former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was sentenced to 45 years in prison for his proven involvement (as determined by the US judicial system) in a drug trafficking scheme that brought hundreds of tons of cocaine into US territory.
Moncada emphasized that Donald Trump’s interference, both through his overt support for conservative candidate Nasry Asfura and his pardon of the former president (from the same party as Asfura), has “clouded the electoral process” and “altered popular sovereignty”.
“I never imagined interference of such magnitude as Trump’s in the Honduran presidential elections,” Moncada said in response to the US president’s seemingly spontaneous involvement in the elections. In this regard, Honduran Attorney General Johel Antonio Zelaya Alvarez on December 8, activated an arrest warrant for former President Juan Orlando Hernández and called on INTERPOL to “execute the international arrest warrant against former president Juan Orlando Hernández, accused of money laundering and fraud in the Pandora II case. Our fight is head-on.”
In this way, the Honduran left rejects foreign interference, which, in alliance with an alleged electoral manipulation plot, has robbed the citizenry of their democratic decision. For now, it remains to be seen what actions they will take and whether they will have a similar impact to the demonstrations in 2017 when Juan Orlando Hernández was accused of electoral fraud to govern the Central American country, which resulted in several deaths, injuries, and countless persecutions of the left and social movements.
Honduras: Special Vote Recount Begins Amidst Fraud Claims
Photo: EFE.
December 13, 2025 Hour: 7:05 am
Honduran electoral authorities initiate a special recount of nearly 3,000 ballots with inconsistencies, aiming to define the presidential winner amidst widespread fraud allegations.
Amid multiple allegations of fraud in the elections on November 30, the National Electoral Council of Honduras begins this Saturday, December 13, a special ballot of 2,773 ballots with inconsistencies, which seeks to define the winner of the November 30 electionsw.
Electoral authorities confirmed the special recount focuses exclusively on these identified inconsistent ballots, whose thorough review could decisively shift the outcome of the presidential race.
Lino Tomas Mendoza, co-electoral Director of the National Electoral Council, confirmed that the scrutiny will occur in the presence of designated representatives from the five political parties that participated in the November 30 General Elections. Additionally, electoral authorities and both national and international observers will monitor the proceedings.
Contested Results and Calls for Transparency According to the latest vote count released by the Electoral Council, with 99.40% of the ballots scrutinized, Nasry Asfura, the presidential candidate for the right-wing National Party, accumulated 1,298,835 votes, an equivalent to 40.52%.
Salvador Nasralla, the Liberal Party’s aspirant, tallied 1,256,428 votes, representing 39.48% of the total.
Rixi Moncada, the presidential candidate for the ruling Freedom and Refoundation Party (LIBRE), secured third place with 618,448 votes, or 19.29%.
Nasralla previously asserted that his party’s independent count of 100 percent of the “physical ballots in hand” indicated his victory in the November 30 elections.
More than a few inconsistencies
During a press conference, the right-wing candidate denounced that more than 5,000 electoral ballots presented “inconsistencies and serious errors”, demanding a “thorough review” from the electoral authorities. This review, he stated, could potentially include a vote-by-vote verification to address the reported irregularities.
Manuel Zelaya, General Coordinator of LIBRE -a party that has also reported widespread electoral fraud and requested the elections’ annulment– corroborated Nasralla’s claims, confirming that LIBRE’s own ballot counts showed a victory for the Liberal Party candidate.
External Interference and Congressional Condemnation Political forces in Honduras have collectively denounced that the electoral process has been significantly influenced by overt United States interference and marked by severe irregularities. These grave accusations include the alleged hacking of the Preliminary Electoral Results Transmission System (TREP), a critical component of the voting infrastructure.
Last Wednesday, the Permanent Commission of the National Congress of Honduras officially condemned the interference from United States President Donald Trump, who openly called for votes in favor of Asfura. The Congress simultaneously rejected validating an electoral process tainted by internal pressures from organized crime structures.
This Friday, Asfura publicly called for the special recount by the National Electoral Council to be publicly televised. His request, disseminated via his X social media account, explicitly stated, “I ask that the review of the ballots with inconsistencies that the National Electoral Council will carry out be televised and publicly broadcast.”
Text reads: “I ask that the revision of the minutes with inconsistency that will make the National Electoral Council be televised and broadcast publicly. Civil society, churches, media and international agencies should also be present. (…) Honduras. Here I am calm and serene, as a former president used to say. GOD BLESS HONDURAS.”
Asfura’s demand aims to eliminate any lingering doubts regarding the final results, seeking to ensure maximum transparency in the critical electoral audit.
Honduran Election Official Calls for Full Vote Count
A citizen waving the Honduras flag. X/ @Carep_Politica
December 15, 2025 Hour: 10:24 am
A limited review undermines trust as presidential candidates allege fraud in Nov. 30 election.
On Sunday, Marlon Ochoa, a member of the Honduran National Electoral Council (CNE), rejected a new attempt to avoid transparency in the results of the general elections held Nov. 30.
During a CNE plenary session, Ochoa denounced “scandalous inconsistencies” recorded during the election and proposed counting all presidential votes cast at the 19,167 polling stations nationwide.
His proposal, however, was not accepted by the other two CNE members, Ana Paola Hall and Cossette Lopez, who decided to carry out a special review of only 1,081 tally sheets. Their decision limits the review of inconsistencies to just 5.6% of the total number of tally sheets.
“If the council is not willing to verify everything, then it is not in a position to ask the people to blindly trust the result,” Ochoa said, addding that reviewing only those 1,081 tally sheets is insufficient given the thousands of irregularities detected in the results transmission system.
He pointed out that 17,036 tally sheets show some type of inconsistency. Of that total, 14,073 tally sheets show serious discrepancies when compared with data produced by the biometric identification system, raising doubts about the identity of registered voters or the validity of the votes cast.
Congreso Nacional de #Honduras le da clase de dignidad a #Argentina y otros países de LATAM y declara que las #EleccionesHonduras2025 fueron un fraude organizado por redes criminales ligadas al narcotráfico apoyado por Donald Trump y que no las validará. Escuche audio pic.twitter.com/zwqtffAsWr
— Hugo Gutiérrez (@Hugo_Gutierrez_) December 11, 2025
The text reads, “The Honduran Congress is giving a lesson in dignity to Argentina and other Latin American countries by declaring that it will not validate the 2025 elections, which were a fraud organized by criminal networks linked to drug trafficking and supported by Donald Trump.”
Another 1,882 tally sheets contain procedural and substantive errors that cannot be ignored. These include missing required signatures on the documents, clear mathematical errors in vote totals, and signs of disorder or manipulation, such as the delivery of tally sheets to the relevant authorities outside the required time frames and procedures.
Under current regulations, the electoral council has until Dec. 30 to officially declare the winner of Honduras’ presidential election. According to the most recent preliminary vote count, Nasry Asfura, the candidate of the right-wing National Party, has 40.53% of the vote.
Salvador Nasralla of the conservative Liberal Party has 39.1%, and Rixi Moncada of the Liberty and Refoundation Party has 19.30%. Both Moncada and Nasralla have alleged fraud, citing multiple irregularities, and have demanded that the electoral council conduct a thorough and accurate recount.
Honduras on the edge: Xiomara Castro calls for popular mobilization to confront US-backed coup plot
Two weeks after elections in Honduras, no winner has yet been declared yet. As the irregularities grow, both the Liberal Party and LIBRE have denounced electoral fraud is being committed in favor of the far-right candidate.
December 17, 2025 by Pablo Meriguet
LIBRE campaign rally in November ahead of the elections. Photo: LIBRE
After a five-day hiatus and more than two weeks since the elections, the Honduran National Electoral Council (CNE) has resumed counting votes in an electoral process that has been widely questioned by various political forces on the left and right in Honduras. According to the CNE, several technical problems are hindering the count.
According to official data, the candidate of the National Party of Honduras (PNH), right-wing Nasry Asfura (backed, among others, by US President Donald Trump) maintains a slight but sustained lead (40.53%) over television presenter Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party of Honduras (PLH) (39.21%).
Thus, Asfura would have 1,302,264 votes in his favor, while Nasralla would have 1,258,580. For her part, the ruling party’s candidate, leftist Rixi Moncada of the Liberty and Refoundation Party (LIBRE), obtained 19.3%.
Moncada and LIBRE denounced that the electoral process was marred by foreign interference (pressure from Trump) and irregularities in the process. But it is not only the ruling party that has severely questioned the elections.
Nasralla denounces “fraud”
Candidate Nasralla said in an interview with CNN that “fraud in the vote count” had been committed: “Today they are stealing from the place where the ballot boxes with the votes are located. Representatives of the National Party turned off the cameras and prevented representatives of the Liberal Party from entering.”
He also directly accused the PNH, which governed Honduras between 2010 and 2022, of being behind a possible fraud plot: “[The CNE] must review vote by vote the ballot boxes that we have claimed from the Liberal Party of Honduras, which are more than 14,000 (2,773 in a special count that begins today at 7 a.m.) of the 19,167 in which they cheated. If they do not, voters in Honduras and around the world will know that the Honduran elections are not decided by the people with their votes, but by the organized crime that ruled from 2010 to 2022.”
Likewise, a congressional commission has severely questioned the way in which the vote count has been conducted and announced that if the irregularities are proven, they will not validate the November 30 election: “We denounce the existence of an ongoing electoral coup… We absolutely condemn the interference of US President Donald Trump.”
Defense of the results
For its part, the observer mission of the Organization of American States called for the recount to resume immediately. “The mission urgently calls on the electoral authorities to immediately begin the special recount and to seek all possible means to obtain the official results in the shortest time possible… The current delay in processing and publishing the results is unjustifiable,” said Eladio Loizaga, head of the mission, during a special session of the OAS Permanent Council.
The President of the CNE, Ana Hall, defends the actions of the institution she presides over and affirms that the highest electoral body is being intimidated: “Today, I have ratified that I reject the intimidation tactics that are being used and that I will stand in the way of those who seek to prevent the declaration of the General Elections.”
The specter of fraud
Candidate Asfura, who currently holds a slight lead, has requested that the review of the records be made public and televised: “Let there be no doubt about the results, [so that the new government] can work in peace and tranquility.”
Asfura knows that the delay in officially announcing the results, in addition to allegations of fraud by his two main opponents, undermines the legitimacy of his possible victory. It is one thing for one of Honduras’ three major political parties to reject the results. It is quite another for two parties, which together account for almost 60% of the votes cast, to do so.
It has not been many years since a large part of the political spectrum denounced alleged electoral fraud in 2017 that gave victory to Juan Orlando Hernández (2014-2022) of the PNH, the same party that today supports Asfura. After the elections, there were major demonstrations that left dozens injured and several dead. Despite this, Hernández took office as president and completed his term after a series of questions about the persecution of left-wing leaders.
After his term, Hernández was investigated, charged, and sentenced to more than 40 years in prison in the United States for being part of a drug trafficking network that allegedly trafficked several tons of drugs into the country. Despite this, Trump pardoned Hernández, who is currently out of prison in the United States.
President Castro denounces attempted coup
According to Honduran President Xiomara Castro, Juan Orlando Hernández’s release could have more serious implications. As she stated in X, Hernández’s upcoming entry into the Central American country is intended to launch a “coup d’état”: “I report with historical responsibility that, based on verified intelligence information, Juan Orlando Hernández, pardoned in the US, is planning his entry into the country to proclaim the winner of the elections while an attack is underway aimed at breaking the constitutional and democratic order through a coup against my government.”
She also called on the Honduran people to defend the Republic and the constitutional order: “In light of this grave situation, I urgently request the conscious and peaceful support of the Honduran people. I call on the people, social movements, collectives, grassroots organizations, activists, and citizens to gather urgently and peacefully in Tegucigalpa to defend the popular mandate, reject any coup attempt, and make it clear to the world that a new coup is brewing here.”
Several demonstrations by LIBRE activists and other social movements have taken place. In response, the police have deployed heavy-handed repression, which was condemned by Castro, who has requested an investigation and the dismissal of the law enforcement officers who participated in the repression.
Honduras on the Edge: Xiomara Castro Calls for Popular Mobilization To Confront US-Backed Coup Plot
December 19, 2025
By Pablo Meriguet – Dec 17, 2025
Two weeks after elections in Honduras, no winner has yet been declared yet. As the irregularities grow, both the Liberal Party and LIBRE have denounced electoral fraud is being committed in favor of the far-right candidate.
After a five-day hiatus and more than two weeks since the elections, the Honduran National Electoral Council (CNE) has resumed counting votes in an electoral process that has been widely questioned by various political forces on the left and right in Honduras. According to the CNE, several technical problems are hindering the count.
According to official data, the candidate of the National Party of Honduras (PNH), right-wing Nasry Asfura (backed, among others, by US President Donald Trump) maintains a slight but sustained lead (40.53%) over television presenter Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party of Honduras (PLH) (39.21%).
Thus, Asfura would have 1,302,264 votes in his favor, while Nasralla would have 1,258,580. For her part, the ruling party’s candidate, leftist Rixi Moncada of the Liberty and Refoundation Party (LIBRE), obtained 19.3%.
Moncada and LIBRE denounced that the electoral process was marred by foreign interference (pressure from Trump) and irregularities in the process. But it is not only the ruling party that has severely questioned the elections.
Nasralla denounces “fraud”
Candidate Nasralla said in an interview with CNN that “fraud in the vote count” had been committed: “Today they are stealing from the place where the ballot boxes with the votes are located. Representatives of the National Party turned off the cameras and prevented representatives of the Liberal Party from entering.”
He also directly accused the PNH, which governed Honduras between 2010 and 2022, of being behind a possible fraud plot: “[The CNE] must review vote by vote the ballot boxes that we have claimed from the Liberal Party of Honduras, which are more than 14,000 (2,773 in a special count that begins today at 7 a.m.) of the 19,167 in which they cheated. If they do not, voters in Honduras and around the world will know that the Honduran elections are not decided by the people with their votes, but by the organized crime that ruled from 2010 to 2022.”
Likewise, a congressional commission has severely questioned the way in which the vote count has been conducted and announced that if the irregularities are proven, they will not validate the November 30 election: “We denounce the existence of an ongoing electoral coup… We absolutely condemn the interference of US President Donald Trump.”
Defense of the results
For its part, the observer mission of the Organization of American States called for the recount to resume immediately. “The mission urgently calls on the electoral authorities to immediately begin the special recount and to seek all possible means to obtain the official results in the shortest time possible… The current delay in processing and publishing the results is unjustifiable,” said Eladio Loizaga, head of the mission, during a special session of the OAS Permanent Council.
The President of the CNE, Ana Hall, defends the actions of the institution she presides over and affirms that the highest electoral body is being intimidated: “Today, I have ratified that I reject the intimidation tactics that are being used and that I will stand in the way of those who seek to prevent the declaration of the General Elections.”
The specter of fraud
Candidate Asfura, who currently holds a slight lead, has requested that the review of the records be made public and televised: “Let there be no doubt about the results, [so that the new government] can work in peace and tranquility.”
Asfura knows that the delay in officially announcing the results, in addition to allegations of fraud by his two main opponents, undermines the legitimacy of his possible victory. It is one thing for one of Honduras’ three major political parties to reject the results. It is quite another for two parties, which together account for almost 60% of the votes cast, to do so.
It has not been many years since a large part of the political spectrum denounced alleged electoral fraud in 2017 that gave victory to Juan Orlando Hernández (2014-2022) of the PNH, the same party that today supports Asfura. After the elections, there were major demonstrations that left dozens injured and several dead. Despite this, Hernández took office as president and completed his term after a series of questions about the persecution of left-wing leaders.
After his term, Hernández was investigated, charged, and sentenced to more than 40 years in prison in the United States for being part of a drug trafficking network that allegedly trafficked several tons of drugs into the country. Despite this, Trump pardoned Hernández, who is currently out of prison in the United States.
President Castro denounces attempted coup
According to Honduran President Xiomara Castro, Juan Orlando Hernández’s release could have more serious implications. As she stated in X, Hernández’s upcoming entry into the Central American country is intended to launch a “coup d’état”: “I report with historical responsibility that, based on verified intelligence information, Juan Orlando Hernández, pardoned in the US, is planning his entry into the country to proclaim the winner of the elections while an attack is underway aimed at breaking the constitutional and democratic order through a coup against my government.”
She also called on the Honduran people to defend the Republic and the constitutional order: “In light of this grave situation, I urgently request the conscious and peaceful support of the Honduran people. I call on the people, social movements, collectives, grassroots organizations, activists, and citizens to gather urgently and peacefully in Tegucigalpa to defend the popular mandate, reject any coup attempt, and make it clear to the world that a new coup is brewing here.”
Several demonstrations by LIBRE activists and other social movements have taken place. In response, the police have deployed heavy-handed repression, which was condemned by Castro, who has requested an investigation and the dismissal of the law enforcement officers who participated in the repression.
7 Shocking Revelations from Honduras Electoral Fraud 2025: Military Intimidation and U.S. Interference Exposed
Military presence and threats during the Honduras electoral fraud 2025 recount process spark national outcry over democratic backsliding.
Officials of Honduras’ National Electoral Council oversee the validation of tally sheets amid political tensions following the November 30 elections. Photo: @diarioelheraldo
December 21, 2025 Hour: 4:40 am
The European Union’s Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) has determined that delays in Honduras’ vote count are the result of an “intentional paralysis,” as the country remains without official results three weeks after the November 30 elections.
In a statement, the EU mission expressed concern over the prolonged process and urged “the parties to refrain from obstructing the proclamation of the results.” Partial tallies show conservative candidate Nasry Asfura, backed by U.S. President Donald Trump, leading narrowly ahead of liberal contender Salvador Nasralla.
The EU EOM noted that while the vote count itself has been carried out with “transparency,” the validation of tally sheets has been “compromised by a continuous and intentional paralysis,” producing “serious delays,” according to the statement issued on Saturday.
The process has entered a decisive stage with a special review of tally sheets, amid political tensions and mutual accusations. This review has been suspended several times and was entrusted to a private company that cited technical problems, further fueling suspicions of electoral fraud.
During the count, Nasralla at one point moved into the lead and accused authorities of a “theft” of the election, calling for a new “vote-by-vote” recount. Outgoing left-wing President Xiomara Castro has made similar claims. Her party’s candidate, Rixi Moncada, currently in third place, has denounced a “falsification” of the results and alleged “interference” by U.S. President Donald Trump in the electoral process.
Trump’s role has drawn particular attention after he conditioned U.S. aid to Honduras in November on an Asfura victory, coupled with a promise to pardon former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, convicted in the United States on drug trafficking charges, a pardon Trump has already granted.
On Friday, the U.S. administration again intervened by revoking the visa of electoral judge Mario Morazán and denying a visa to Marlon Ochoa, another member of the National Electoral Council (CNE) who had denounced what he described as “fraudulent” elections.
Since Thursday, party representatives have been reviewing around 2,800 tally sheets flagged for “inconsistencies,” representing approximately 500,000 votes, while the gap between the two leading candidates stands at about 40,000 votes.
“Now that the special recount is under way, it is essential that the elections be conducted without interruptions and without intentionally invalidating tally sheets in order to alter the results of the presidential elections,” the EU mission said.
Under the current electoral calendar, the CNE has until December 30 to announce the name of Honduras’ next president.
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