Elections in Venezuela and Honduras: Two Sides of the Same Coin — Minted in Washington
Posted on December 25, 2025 by Curro Jimenez
Unsurprisingly, the electoral commission in Honduras has declared the Trump-backed candidate, “Tito” Nasry Asfura, as the winner of the presidential elections by a margin of less than one percent, over Salvador Nasralla.
The election of Asfura represents a continuation of a U.S.-backed coup in 2009, which installed a “narco regime” in power, as described by the U.S. Department of Justice. Asfura belongs to the same party as the former president, Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been re-elected unconstitutionally for a second mandate in 2017, during Trump’s first term, and who was later convicted in the U.S. for drug trafficking and recently pardoned by Trump.
The electoral process has been plagued by irregularities and inconsistencies since it began. Nick Corbishley explained how the outcome of the elections was already decided before a vote was cast:
Honduran politicians, including the presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla, converged on Washington last week to attend a Western Hemisphere Subcommittee hearing in the US Congress. The subcommittee is chaired by Representative María Elvira Salazar, another Floridian lawmaker who is desperate to see the back of left-wing governments in Latin America (more on her later).
As the Observatory of the Progressive International reports, the hearing was titled “Democracy in Danger: The Fight for Free Elections in Honduras”:
The hearing was framed in Washington as an “urgent” assessment of the situation in Honduras. In reality, the hearing sought to preemptively question the legitimacy of Honduras’s electoral institutions, to cast doubt on the democratic process, and to prepare the ground for claims of fraud before a single vote has been cast. This represents a dangerous escalation of foreign interference — one that threatens the integrity of the upcoming elections and echoes a long history of external interference in the country’s political life.
The playbook bears clear echoes of what happened last year with the presidential elections in Venezuela. Then, as now, senior local opposition figures, including, ahem, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado, and US lawmakers began sowing doubts about the election process before a single vote had been cast. If the opposition parties ended up losing, they said, it would all be down to fraud. As such, there was no intention of ever accepting the results.
Following that meeting, Trump published an extensive post on Truth Social endorsing Asfura: “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!”
The electoral process was then heavily manipulated. The electoral authority acknowledged thousands of polling station records with inconsistencies: mathematical errors, missing signatures, and mismatches between physical records and digital results. This led to a special count, meant to review problematic actas.
The counting of the actas lacked transparency. The electoral body reduced the number of actas reviewed, leaving thousands of disputed votes outside the recount. The special count was delayed for weeks, interrupted by protests and political disputes. Another key issue was the electronic transmission of results. Reporting pauses, sudden changes in vote trends, and limited access for observers fuelled accusations of manipulation.
In an ironic contortion, The Intercept reported that MS-13, a Trump-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, intimidated Hondurans into not voting for the left-leaning presidential candidate, urging them instead to cast their ballots for the right-wing National Party candidate — the same candidate endorsed by the U.S. president.
The final decision of the electoral body to declare Nasry Asfura as president was therefore expected, as were Nasralla’s fraud accusations, supported by the current president, Xiomara Castro, who denounced an electoral coup. Nasralla demands that votes be counted one by one and that the process not rely on the electoral sheets which, he says, have been manipulated and are not legitimate. However, Nasralla was Washington’s second-best option, as he was also present at the Washington meeting should election manipulation prove insufficient. This is further evidenced by Nasralla’s naive attempt to seek Trump’s help to review the electoral process.
Minutes after the election result was announced, Marco Rubio published a press release: “The United States congratulates President-Elect Nasry Asfura of Honduras on his clear electoral victory, confirmed by Honduras’ National Electoral Council.” Hours later, Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and the Dominican Republic followed suit and published statements recognising Asfura as the winner. However, this election was anything but a “clear electoral victory.”
The inconsistencies and irregularities in the electoral process in Honduras are similar, as noted by Nick above, to what happened in Venezuela about a year ago.
Before official results were announced, María Corina Machado declared Edmundo González president-elect, claiming a landslide victory based on quick counts from only about 30 percent of polling stations. The Consejo Nacional Electoral (CNE) took longer than usual to release results and failed to publish vote breakdowns by polling station, prompting calls for transparency from the Carter Center and Brazil’s government.
The narrative was further shaped by exit polls from Edison Research, a U.S.-based pollster with a history of providing politically convenient exit-poll numbers, circulated by U.S. media and opposition figures before official results were known. The government of Nicolás Maduro reported a cyberattack on the electronic transmission system, while social media disinformation — including a fake ballot-theft video amplified by Elon Musk — intensified public confusion.
The diffrence is that, in this case, the U.S. had much less manouvering room to achieve it’s desired results. So, of course, did not congratulate the winner after the results were announced, and Latin American countries aligned with Washington were quick to question the outcome. Immediately afterward, a widespread campaign against Maduro’s government was set in motion.
Maduro was asked to provide the tally sheets from voting stations to “publicly” verify the results. He could have done so, but nothing in Venezuelan law requires him to do it and, taking into account the allegations of a cyberattack on the electronic transmission system that could have altered those sheets, if true, it is understandable that his government might have chosen not to do so.
The tally sheets have been the central pillar of the widespread accusation of electoral fraud and what critics — even left-leaning ones, like Petro — have used to denounce him. Are we going to see the same campaign demanding a vote-by-vote count to “publicly” certify the electoral result in Honduras, as Nasralla demands?
Definitely not. As it stands right now, Asfura is already the president-elect of Honduras, certified by the U.S. and recognised by at least ten other US aligned countries in the region. Those who might have doubts regarding the results are not going to risk opposing Washington to support a relatively small electoral process, especially when there is plausible political cover for not doing so.
Ultimately, we will never know for sure whether Maduro was elected fairly, whether he tampered with the count — certainly, he would have had reasons to do so — or whether Nasralla received more votes than Asfura. But it does not really matter. What matters is which candidate the U.S. decides has to win. This is the real-time meaning of the “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine.
But there is more at stake here than U.S. hemispheric ambitions. The U.S. and the Western world uphold the democratic process as the only valid source of political authority. By using that same process to legitimise governments that are not necessarily the result of it but are vested with its legitimacy — as is arguably the case in Honduras, but also in Romania and the attempt in Venezuela — the entire rationale of democratic legitimacy collapses.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2025/12 ... ngton.html
Hondouras
Re: Hondouras
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
Re: Hondouras
Honduras Government Official: Electoral Coup Was Unprecedented Fascist Operation
December 27, 2025
Nasry Asfura, declared president-elect of Honduras, addresses supporters on December 24, 2025. Photo: EFE.
Ricardo Salgado, the Honduran secretary of Strategic Planning, said that the country suffered a new form of coup d’état following the proclamation of right-wing candidate Nasry Asfura as the president of Honduras by the two CNE councilors who belong to the Honduran bipartisan system: Ana Paola Hall García and Cossette Alejandra López.
On December 24, the two aforementioned CNE officials declared Asfura the winner of the November 30 elections, without completing the special recount or resolving the challenges filed in response to the numerous irregularities reported.
In a statement on Friday, December 25, referring to the grave US interference and external maneuvers that affected the democratic process, Salgado accused US President Donald Trump and fascist forces of implementing “every possible form of fraud” in an “unprecedented psychological and military operation.”
“Fascism, driven by the Miami gusanos and Donald Trump, has carried out an unprecedented psychological and military operation in Honduras,” he said, adding that the Honduran left had to contest not against right-wing parties but “against the empire and all fascist forces in the Hispanic world.”
“All existing forms of fraud were applied simultaneously, along with new techniques,” the official stated, arguing that it cannot be considered that the Honduran electorate was convinced by Asfura, given that he “had no campaign” and was dubbed the “silent candidate.”
Salgado downplayed the role of the two councilors on the National Electoral Council, claiming that their participation is insignificant compared to the “imperialist deployment” that affected the peoples of the continent. Even the local oligarchy, he argued, was rendered “insignificant” by the operation.
In addition to Donald Trump’s explicit endorsement of Nasry Asfura ahead of the elections, the US government threatened economic sanctions if its preferred candidate did not win. Meanwhile, millions of text messages were sent to remittance recipients warning of losses if Trump’s candidate did not prevail.
Salgado emphasized the need to “fully analyze what has happened, because a new form of coup d’état is being imposed, and the alleged winner’s lack of resolve to defend the people’s will only reflects that they are complicit and were always part of the plan.”
“If we learn the Honduran lesson well, this could be stopped sooner than anyone may think,” he remarked.
The declaration of Asfura, the candidate publicly endorsed as president by Donald Trump, comes amid serious allegations of irregularities during the vote-counting process, strong foreign interference, and a plot orchestrated before the November 30 elections.
The complaints were presented by Libre and the Liberal Party, as well as by CNE Councilor Marlon Ochoa, who, among other issues, objected to the other two councilors’ refusal to conduct a vote-by-vote recount.
https://orinocotribune.com/honduras-gov ... operation/
******
Hondurans protest Asfura’s election, demand full vote recount
Thousands of Hondurans gathered on Friday night outside the National Electoral Council headquarters in Tegucigalpa to reject the proclamation of far-right candidate Nasry Asfura as the country’s President-elect.
Protesters vociferously demanded that the electoral body conduct a full recount of all ballot tally sheets, asserting that this measure is the sole path to guarantee the legitimacy of the final results from the November 30 general elections. Their demands also underscored a pressing need for transparency and respect for the popular will.
Against this backdrop of electoral controversy, residents of Tegucigalpa and Comayagüela responded to a call from the current capital mayor and reelection candidate, Jorge Aldana in a peaceful sit-in in front of the facilities, intending to press for a direct, vote-by-vote recount.
Aldana’s campaign maintains that over 400 ballot tally sheets exhibit inconsistencies, and that these specific documents, if properly reviewed, would confirm his victory.
Text reads: “In Honduras, the National Electoral Council, following the instructions of the empire, murdered our fledgling democracy, but our people are not naive: the proclamation of the “president-elect” is a fraud and a foreign imposition. They betrayed the Fatherland.”
Demanding Sovereignty and Transparency
Rafael Alegria, a militant from the ruling Freedom and Refoundation Party (LIBRE), affirmed the widespread belief among supporters.
“Jorge Aldana has won the mayoralty of Tegucigalpa, but because there is a mounted, scandalous fraud, they also want to snatch his victory here in the mayor’s office”, Alegria stated.
“That’s why there is a permanent mobilization of Libre sympathizers demanding they count the 492 ballot sheets. The National Electoral Council resists, because they know that if they are counted, Jorge Aldana wins the mayor’s office”, he added.
The discontented citizens also vocalized their rejection of the United States interference in the electoral process, denouncing that the conservative candidate, Nasry Asfura, has been imposed upon the nation by Washington, undermining Honduran sovereignty and the democratic choices of its citizens.
The National Electoral Council faces a deadline of December 30 to announce the complete election results, in a process marked by significant technical problems and allegations of deliberate sabotage targeting the vote counting procedure.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/honduras ... ry-asfura/
December 27, 2025
Nasry Asfura, declared president-elect of Honduras, addresses supporters on December 24, 2025. Photo: EFE.
Ricardo Salgado, the Honduran secretary of Strategic Planning, said that the country suffered a new form of coup d’état following the proclamation of right-wing candidate Nasry Asfura as the president of Honduras by the two CNE councilors who belong to the Honduran bipartisan system: Ana Paola Hall García and Cossette Alejandra López.
On December 24, the two aforementioned CNE officials declared Asfura the winner of the November 30 elections, without completing the special recount or resolving the challenges filed in response to the numerous irregularities reported.
In a statement on Friday, December 25, referring to the grave US interference and external maneuvers that affected the democratic process, Salgado accused US President Donald Trump and fascist forces of implementing “every possible form of fraud” in an “unprecedented psychological and military operation.”
“Fascism, driven by the Miami gusanos and Donald Trump, has carried out an unprecedented psychological and military operation in Honduras,” he said, adding that the Honduran left had to contest not against right-wing parties but “against the empire and all fascist forces in the Hispanic world.”
“All existing forms of fraud were applied simultaneously, along with new techniques,” the official stated, arguing that it cannot be considered that the Honduran electorate was convinced by Asfura, given that he “had no campaign” and was dubbed the “silent candidate.”
Salgado downplayed the role of the two councilors on the National Electoral Council, claiming that their participation is insignificant compared to the “imperialist deployment” that affected the peoples of the continent. Even the local oligarchy, he argued, was rendered “insignificant” by the operation.
In addition to Donald Trump’s explicit endorsement of Nasry Asfura ahead of the elections, the US government threatened economic sanctions if its preferred candidate did not win. Meanwhile, millions of text messages were sent to remittance recipients warning of losses if Trump’s candidate did not prevail.
Salgado emphasized the need to “fully analyze what has happened, because a new form of coup d’état is being imposed, and the alleged winner’s lack of resolve to defend the people’s will only reflects that they are complicit and were always part of the plan.”
“If we learn the Honduran lesson well, this could be stopped sooner than anyone may think,” he remarked.
The declaration of Asfura, the candidate publicly endorsed as president by Donald Trump, comes amid serious allegations of irregularities during the vote-counting process, strong foreign interference, and a plot orchestrated before the November 30 elections.
The complaints were presented by Libre and the Liberal Party, as well as by CNE Councilor Marlon Ochoa, who, among other issues, objected to the other two councilors’ refusal to conduct a vote-by-vote recount.
https://orinocotribune.com/honduras-gov ... operation/
******
Hondurans protest Asfura’s election, demand full vote recount
Thousands of Hondurans gathered on Friday night outside the National Electoral Council headquarters in Tegucigalpa to reject the proclamation of far-right candidate Nasry Asfura as the country’s President-elect.
Protesters vociferously demanded that the electoral body conduct a full recount of all ballot tally sheets, asserting that this measure is the sole path to guarantee the legitimacy of the final results from the November 30 general elections. Their demands also underscored a pressing need for transparency and respect for the popular will.
Against this backdrop of electoral controversy, residents of Tegucigalpa and Comayagüela responded to a call from the current capital mayor and reelection candidate, Jorge Aldana in a peaceful sit-in in front of the facilities, intending to press for a direct, vote-by-vote recount.
Aldana’s campaign maintains that over 400 ballot tally sheets exhibit inconsistencies, and that these specific documents, if properly reviewed, would confirm his victory.
Text reads: “In Honduras, the National Electoral Council, following the instructions of the empire, murdered our fledgling democracy, but our people are not naive: the proclamation of the “president-elect” is a fraud and a foreign imposition. They betrayed the Fatherland.”
Demanding Sovereignty and Transparency
Rafael Alegria, a militant from the ruling Freedom and Refoundation Party (LIBRE), affirmed the widespread belief among supporters.
“Jorge Aldana has won the mayoralty of Tegucigalpa, but because there is a mounted, scandalous fraud, they also want to snatch his victory here in the mayor’s office”, Alegria stated.
“That’s why there is a permanent mobilization of Libre sympathizers demanding they count the 492 ballot sheets. The National Electoral Council resists, because they know that if they are counted, Jorge Aldana wins the mayor’s office”, he added.
The discontented citizens also vocalized their rejection of the United States interference in the electoral process, denouncing that the conservative candidate, Nasry Asfura, has been imposed upon the nation by Washington, undermining Honduran sovereignty and the democratic choices of its citizens.
The National Electoral Council faces a deadline of December 30 to announce the complete election results, in a process marked by significant technical problems and allegations of deliberate sabotage targeting the vote counting procedure.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/honduras ... ry-asfura/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
Re: Hondouras
Hondurans Call Sit-In Demanding Annulment of Presidential Election
LIBRE party supporters protest against the election results, Dec. 2025. X/ @losangelespress
December 29, 2025 Hour: 8:13 am
Protesters denounce fraud and foreign interference.
On Monday, the National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP) called for a sit-in outside the National Institute for Professional Training (INFOP) in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras.
The mobilization seeks to demand the complete annulment of the electoral process held on Nov. 30, in which presidential candidate Nasry Asfura — who was backed by U.S. President Donald Trump — was declared the winner with 40.27% of the vote.
The call comes amid a climate of widespread discontent. Organizers are urging the Honduran population to remain permanently in the streets under slogans such as “Against the electoral coup d’etat,” “No to imperialist interference” and “Vote by vote, respect the will of the people.”
According to the demonstrators, the process lacks legitimacy due to a systematic accumulation of irregularities that altered the popular will.
Public anger intensified after the paralysis of the Preliminary Results Transmission System (TREP) and corruption allegations linked to the company ASD, which was responsible for the vote-counting software.
The process was not only inefficient, organizers say, but was designed to favor one political sector through deliberately induced technical failures and a lack of transparency in the processing of tally sheets.
As a result, Honduran social organizations and progressive movements argue that the 2025 elections ended in what they describe as an “electoral coup.” Despite the criticism from opposition parties and social sectors, the National Electoral Council (CNE) ratified the results on Dec. 24.
LIBRE party candidate Rixi Moncada and Liberal Party candidate Salvador Nasralla flatly rejected the ruling. The call to take to the streets aims to pressure judicial and electoral authorities to invalidate the vote before the inauguration.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/honduran ... -election/
LIBRE party supporters protest against the election results, Dec. 2025. X/ @losangelespress
December 29, 2025 Hour: 8:13 am
Protesters denounce fraud and foreign interference.
On Monday, the National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP) called for a sit-in outside the National Institute for Professional Training (INFOP) in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras.
The mobilization seeks to demand the complete annulment of the electoral process held on Nov. 30, in which presidential candidate Nasry Asfura — who was backed by U.S. President Donald Trump — was declared the winner with 40.27% of the vote.
The call comes amid a climate of widespread discontent. Organizers are urging the Honduran population to remain permanently in the streets under slogans such as “Against the electoral coup d’etat,” “No to imperialist interference” and “Vote by vote, respect the will of the people.”
According to the demonstrators, the process lacks legitimacy due to a systematic accumulation of irregularities that altered the popular will.
Public anger intensified after the paralysis of the Preliminary Results Transmission System (TREP) and corruption allegations linked to the company ASD, which was responsible for the vote-counting software.
The process was not only inefficient, organizers say, but was designed to favor one political sector through deliberately induced technical failures and a lack of transparency in the processing of tally sheets.
As a result, Honduran social organizations and progressive movements argue that the 2025 elections ended in what they describe as an “electoral coup.” Despite the criticism from opposition parties and social sectors, the National Electoral Council (CNE) ratified the results on Dec. 24.
LIBRE party candidate Rixi Moncada and Liberal Party candidate Salvador Nasralla flatly rejected the ruling. The call to take to the streets aims to pressure judicial and electoral authorities to invalidate the vote before the inauguration.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/honduran ... -election/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
Re: Hondouras
Honduras’ Moncada: We Do Not Recognize President Elected Through Fraud
Rixi Moncada (L), Dec. 29, 2025. X/ @JorgeGestoso
December 30, 2025 Hour: 8:07 am
The leftist leader supports the constitutional right of citizens to protest.
On Monday, LIBRE party presidential candidate Rixi Moncada sharply criticized Honduras’ Nov. 30 elections, calling them illegitimate and tainted by fraudulent practices and manipulation of results.
Her remarks came amid a mobilization called by LIBRE Party coordinator Manuel Zelaya in support of Central District Mayor Jorge Aldana, who remains at the electoral warehouses of the National Institute for Professional Training in protest over authorities’ refusal to recognize his electoral victory.
Moncada voiced support for the protest and said Hondurans must not yield to what she described as external impositions or internal decisions that betray the popular will.
She directly criticized the National Electoral Council (CNE), accusing it of acting in favor of the country’s traditional two-party system and of violating constitutional and legal principles.
The political leader warned that those responsible for alleged irregularities will have to face justice, regardless of how much time passes or what power they seek to shelter behind.
Moncada said that in response to electoral fraud and the imposition of a president, civic struggle is a duty, not an option, because giving up citizen mobilization would amount to surrendering popular sovereignty.
“We do not recognize the president of fraud. The elections are null because not all the votes, biometric devices and voter booklets were counted. The CNE violated popular sovereignty,” Moncada said, stressing that the Honduran Constitution upholds citizens’ right to defend the democratic order when it is violated.
“Honduran laws provide for criminal, civil and administrative liability” in cases of electoral fraud, Moncada stated, addressing the Organization of American States, the European Union and countries that have recognized the alleged winner of the presidential elections.
“We will remain firm and strong against organized crime and against those who, through fraud, coercion and threats, have imposed an electoral result that does not reflect the popular will,” she concluded.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/honduras ... ugh-fraud/
Market Fire Destroys Dozens of Businesses in Honduras
A fire caused by stored fireworks swept through a major market in San Pedro Sula, destroying dozens of businesses and prompting a donation pledge from Honduras' president-elect.
Firefighters work to control flames at a market in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, after a fire triggered by stored fireworks destroyed dozens of businesses. Photo: @EFEnoticias
December 30, 2025 Hour: 4:12 am
Dozens of businesses were destroyed on Monday by a fire at a densely populated market in San Pedro Sula, Honduras' second-largest city, after flames broke out in a stall storing fireworks, according to preliminary reports from the Fire Department.
Firefighters said the blaze originated in a business that kept rockets and firecrackers, allowing the fire to spread rapidly through the market. An officer participating in the firefighting operations told reporters, "Fireworks should never have been stored here in the market; look at the tragedy that has just occurred. Many families will be left on the street before the end of the year. This is regrettable."
The same source said that many vendors have failed to comply with Fire Department orders prohibiting the storage of hazardous products such as gunpowder-based items. Authorities said the total number of businesses affected by the fire has not yet been determined.
Fire officials also reported repeated resistance during safety inspections. According to the officer, when authorities have carried out checks in markets to verify compliance with safety measures, some business owners “have even pulled machetes on authorities when they were asked not to keep gunpowder, to prevent this type of incident.”
Preliminary information indicates that the fire spread across businesses located on a site of approximately 10,000 square meters. Firefighters stressed that authorities should apply stricter oversight of vendors who sell fireworks and firecrackers in popular markets.
After the fire was reported, Honduras' president-elect, Nasry 'Tito' Asfura, announced that he would donate 1.5 million lempiras, about 56,818 US dollars, to support those affected. “We will be watching over them, including the injured,” Asfura said in statements to the television channel Hable Como Habla (HCH) in Tegucigalpa.
Asfura urged affected merchants to “organize themselves” to facilitate the delivery of the funds and ensure their distribution “is fair.” “These are my own resources to serve the people,” he added. Asfura won the presidency under the banner of the conservative National Party.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/market-f ... -honduras/
Rixi Moncada (L), Dec. 29, 2025. X/ @JorgeGestoso
December 30, 2025 Hour: 8:07 am
The leftist leader supports the constitutional right of citizens to protest.
On Monday, LIBRE party presidential candidate Rixi Moncada sharply criticized Honduras’ Nov. 30 elections, calling them illegitimate and tainted by fraudulent practices and manipulation of results.
Her remarks came amid a mobilization called by LIBRE Party coordinator Manuel Zelaya in support of Central District Mayor Jorge Aldana, who remains at the electoral warehouses of the National Institute for Professional Training in protest over authorities’ refusal to recognize his electoral victory.
Moncada voiced support for the protest and said Hondurans must not yield to what she described as external impositions or internal decisions that betray the popular will.
She directly criticized the National Electoral Council (CNE), accusing it of acting in favor of the country’s traditional two-party system and of violating constitutional and legal principles.
The political leader warned that those responsible for alleged irregularities will have to face justice, regardless of how much time passes or what power they seek to shelter behind.
Moncada said that in response to electoral fraud and the imposition of a president, civic struggle is a duty, not an option, because giving up citizen mobilization would amount to surrendering popular sovereignty.
“We do not recognize the president of fraud. The elections are null because not all the votes, biometric devices and voter booklets were counted. The CNE violated popular sovereignty,” Moncada said, stressing that the Honduran Constitution upholds citizens’ right to defend the democratic order when it is violated.
“Honduran laws provide for criminal, civil and administrative liability” in cases of electoral fraud, Moncada stated, addressing the Organization of American States, the European Union and countries that have recognized the alleged winner of the presidential elections.
“We will remain firm and strong against organized crime and against those who, through fraud, coercion and threats, have imposed an electoral result that does not reflect the popular will,” she concluded.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/honduras ... ugh-fraud/
Market Fire Destroys Dozens of Businesses in Honduras
A fire caused by stored fireworks swept through a major market in San Pedro Sula, destroying dozens of businesses and prompting a donation pledge from Honduras' president-elect.
Firefighters work to control flames at a market in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, after a fire triggered by stored fireworks destroyed dozens of businesses. Photo: @EFEnoticias
December 30, 2025 Hour: 4:12 am
Dozens of businesses were destroyed on Monday by a fire at a densely populated market in San Pedro Sula, Honduras' second-largest city, after flames broke out in a stall storing fireworks, according to preliminary reports from the Fire Department.
Firefighters said the blaze originated in a business that kept rockets and firecrackers, allowing the fire to spread rapidly through the market. An officer participating in the firefighting operations told reporters, "Fireworks should never have been stored here in the market; look at the tragedy that has just occurred. Many families will be left on the street before the end of the year. This is regrettable."
The same source said that many vendors have failed to comply with Fire Department orders prohibiting the storage of hazardous products such as gunpowder-based items. Authorities said the total number of businesses affected by the fire has not yet been determined.
Fire officials also reported repeated resistance during safety inspections. According to the officer, when authorities have carried out checks in markets to verify compliance with safety measures, some business owners “have even pulled machetes on authorities when they were asked not to keep gunpowder, to prevent this type of incident.”
Preliminary information indicates that the fire spread across businesses located on a site of approximately 10,000 square meters. Firefighters stressed that authorities should apply stricter oversight of vendors who sell fireworks and firecrackers in popular markets.
After the fire was reported, Honduras' president-elect, Nasry 'Tito' Asfura, announced that he would donate 1.5 million lempiras, about 56,818 US dollars, to support those affected. “We will be watching over them, including the injured,” Asfura said in statements to the television channel Hable Como Habla (HCH) in Tegucigalpa.
Asfura urged affected merchants to “organize themselves” to facilitate the delivery of the funds and ensure their distribution “is fair.” “These are my own resources to serve the people,” he added. Asfura won the presidency under the banner of the conservative National Party.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/market-f ... -honduras/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
Re: Hondouras
Nasry Asfura is proclaimed president-elect of Honduras amid allegations of electoral fraud
Despite being declared the winner, the other candidates do not recognize Asfura, the candidate supported by Trump, as the legitimate winner of the elections.
December 30, 2025 by Pablo Meriguet
Nasry Asfura of the National Party of Honduras at a campaign rally in November 2025. Photo: PNH / X
Almost a month after the elections were held, the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Honduras proclaimed the candidate of the far-right National Party of Honduras (PNH), businessman and former mayor of Tegucigalpa Nasry Asfura, as president-elect.
Asfura was personally endorsed by Donald Trump on the eve of the elections, who said that if his preferred candidate did not win, there would be negative consequences for Honduras, which analysts, movements, and political leaders from across the political spectrum have interpreted as foreign interference in the internal affairs of the Central American country.
According to the highest electoral authority, Asfura obtained 40.27% (1,479,822 votes), closely followed by former television presenter and former vice president Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party of Honduras (PLH), who obtained 39.53% (1,452,796 votes). In third place is former minister and candidate for the leftist Liberty and Refoundation Party (LIBRE), Rixi Moncada, with 19.19%.
The President of the CNE, Ana Paola Hall, defended the actions of the institution she heads, despite the multiple accusations and criticisms it has received due to the delay in announcing the results and recorded irregularities in the counting process. Several politicians have stated unequivocally that electoral fraud has taken place.
Accusations of fraud
Among the critics are members of the CNE itself, such as Marlo Ochoa, who serves as senior advisor: “Continuing their tradition of illegalities, the representatives of the two-party system, Councilors Ana Paola Hall and Cossette López, have rushed to impose, from an embassy, the final declaration of the presidential election without having completed the vote count and without even having resolved the complaints and demands for a recount. Of course, I understand that the United States and the elites allied with organized crime want a president who responds to their interests, regardless of whether he emerges from an electoral coup.”
In addition, Ochoa stated: “Honduras will only be free, sovereign, and independent when Hondurans are the masters of their own destiny. I ask that it be recorded in the national memory that today, December 24, 2025, the date on which we celebrate the birth of the redeemer crucified by the Roman Empire, was the day that in Honduras, the will of the people was murdered and supplanted by that of the empire. They cannot crucify the truth!”
For his part, Nasralla, who at one point claimed he was sure of victory, said that electoral fraud had been committed and that he would not recognize Asfura as the winner: “The will of the sovereign is worth less than a penny. The people vote for the candidate of their choice, and the corrupt members of all parties decide who will govern in a pact of impunity in which they forgive each other’s crimes.”
The Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) wrote in a statement on December 24, that it rejected CNE’s “illegal declaration” of Asfura as the president-elect, “along with the irregularities of the process, foreign interference, and the lack of a full vote count, prevents the legitimacy of the 2025 General Elections.”
Former presidential candidate Moncada added to these criticisms, stating that an electoral coup has been staged to the detriment of Honduran democracy, which in recent years has survived a coup d’état by the army and several allegations of electoral fraud, such as when Juan Orlando Hernández was accused of being a president who won the election fraudulently.
On her X account, Moncada denounced US interference in the elections and the alleged complicity of the economic elites in committing the crime: “In Honduras, the CNE, following the instructions of the empire, assassinated our fledgling democracy, but our people are not naive: the proclamation of the ‘president-elect’ is a fraud and a foreign imposition. They betrayed the homeland. The civilized peoples of the world should know that the president-elect is one of the businessmen who asked for Donald Trump’s intervention. In the electoral silence, they paid for massive threatening messages against voters who receive remittances, with the sole intention of twisting the will of the people.”
Adding to the list of growing accusations, a report was published in early December by the outlet The Intercept, which revealed that residents in working class neighborhoods faced threats by members of the notorious gang MS-13 to vote for Asfura. Residents reportedly received voice notes warning that those who voted for left-wing LIBRE “have three days to leave the area” and “If you don’t follow the order, we’re going to kill your families, even your dogs. We don’t want absolutely anyone to vote for LIBRE. We’re going to be sending people to monitor who is going to vote and who followed the order. Whoever tries to challenge the order, you know what will happen.”
For his part, Asfura, the winning candidate, said: “Honduras, I am ready to govern. I will not let you down.” In addition, the right-wing candidate thanked the CNE for its work after the controversial announcement of the results: “I recognize the great work done by the (CNE) councilors and the entire team that carried out the elections.”
However, Asfura will now have to bear the weight of accusations of electoral fraud. If the votes for Nasralla and Moncada are added together, more than half the country not only did not vote for the president-elect, but a large proportion of those voters claim, following their candidates, that a terrible electoral fraud was committed in Honduras. Thus, Asfura will begin his term with enormous wear and tear, delegitimization, and accusations of crimes before he even takes office.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/12/30/ ... ral-fraud/
*****
Honduras Prosecutor Announces Legal Action Over Disputed Elections
Honduras’ attorney general announced judicial actions to clarify the November 30 elections after disputed results favored National Party candidate Nasry Asfura.
Honduras Attorney General Johel Zelaya during a public appearance amid controversy surrounding the country’s general elections. Photo: @Canal8_hn
December 31, 2025 Hour: 4:32 am
Honduras’ Attorney General Johel Zelaya announced on Tuesday that judicial actions will be launched to clarify what occurred during the general elections held on November 30, following the release of the final declaration by the National Electoral Council (CNE).
In a post on his X account, Zelaya said that “the Public Prosecutor’s Office, acting with constitutional responsibility and absolute respect for the democratic order, did not intervene in or interrupt any stage of the general elections process.” He added that “no act that undermines the popular will and, therefore, sovereignty will remain in impunity,” reaffirming the institution’s commitment to the Honduran people.
The announcement followed the virtual release of election results by CNE councilors Ana Paola Hall and Cossette López, together with alternate councilor Carlos Cardona, six hours before the legal deadline. The results favored National Party candidate Nasry Asfura, who received public support from former US President Donald Trump during the campaign, including promises of increased assistance to Honduras if Asfura won.
El fiscal general de #Honduras
, Johel Zelaya, anunció que se van a emprender “acciones judiciales” para esclarecer lo sucedido en las elecciones generales del 30 de noviembre, al darse a conocer la declaración final por parte del CNE.https://t.co/M0hg0Ux35Z
— teleSUR TV (@teleSURtv) December 31, 2025
Asfura’s victory was made public on December 24 and has been described by various sectors as an institutional fraud, citing an incomplete vote count. Opposition voices rejected the outcome and called for a process they argue should be fair and fully transparent. CNE councilor Marlon Ochoa stated that he would not accept the results without the completion of the vote tally for all polling records.
According to official figures released by the CNE, the National Party secured 49 of the 128 seats in the National Congress, followed by the Liberal Party with 41 seats, Libre with 35, Innovation and Social Democratic Unity with two, and the Christian Democracy party with one. In municipal races, the National Party won 151 mayoralties, the Liberal Party 76, Libre 69, Innovation and Social Democratic Unity one, along with one independent candidate.
Zelaya said the judicial actions would set “a precedent in the country’s history” in an electoral process he said had been marked by fraud and US interference. He stressed their importance “so that shameful practices that harm democracy and the rule of law are not repeated.”
https://www.telesurenglish.net/honduras ... elections/
Tegucigalpa Mayor Rejects CNE Declaration and Demands Full Recount
Jorge Aldana: that he will not recognize any election results until all the outstanding ballots have been counted
Jorge Aldana Bardales, mayor of the Central District of Tegucigalpa and Comayagüela. Photo: @JorgeAldanaB.
December 30, 2025 Hour: 10:43 pm
The mayor of Tegucigalpa, Jorge Aldana, rejected the declaration of results issued by the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Honduras on Tuesday and announced that he will not recognize any election results until all outstanding ballots are counted, which he claims represent more than 56,000 votes. During a press conference, Aldana referred to statements made by council member Cosette López, whom he cited to support his position.
Aldana recalled that his candidacy was presented with “a positive list with a day-to-day project full of proposals” and asserted that throughout the campaign and on election day, “the polls and exit polls showed us winning.” He stated that the CNE itself, at various points in the count, also gave him the advantage, but that “the ballots still needed to be recounted. And they refused to do it.”
Their rejection is based on the statement made by Councilor López herself, who indicated that the declaration in 66 municipalities—including the Central District—”has no certainty or reversibility, neither mathematically nor legally.” Aldana quoted López verbatim: “Any controversy or dispute at either electoral level can be resolved in the Electoral Court, which, according to the Organic and Procedural Electoral Law, is responsible for hearing and resolving electoral appeals arising from electoral processes.”
“That’s the crux of the matter! Oh, God! Neither mathematically nor legally, is the result for the Central District in the declaration presented by the National Electoral Council (CNE) today, as stated by the councilors themselves. What does that mean? That we do not recognize any result,” Aldana emphasized. Furthermore, she reiterated that her team “spent 30 days” waiting for the completion of the vote count and now demands a full tally before any transfer of power.
The mayor-elect emphasized that “we will not hand over the mayor’s office to anyone from this place” until the pending tally sheets are processed. His stance aligns with the existence of narrow margins in 66 municipalities—according to the National Electoral Council (CNE) itself—where the data available on the dissemination platform “does not allow for guarantees of irreversibility, mathematically, statistically, or legally.”
The Honduran Organic and Procedural Electoral Law establishes that the Electoral Court is the competent body to resolve challenges arising from electoral processes. Aldana did not formally announce a challenge, but made it clear that his acceptance of the result is conditional upon a full recount of the votes.
In the Central District, according to the National Electoral Council (CNE), the number of votes exceeds 56,000, a figure that could alter the official outcome. Meanwhile, electoral authorities are maintaining their declaration, despite acknowledging technical and legal limitations.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/4FNRPJp8roM[/youtbe]
https://www.telesurenglish.net/teguciga ... l-recount/
Despite being declared the winner, the other candidates do not recognize Asfura, the candidate supported by Trump, as the legitimate winner of the elections.
December 30, 2025 by Pablo Meriguet
Nasry Asfura of the National Party of Honduras at a campaign rally in November 2025. Photo: PNH / X
Almost a month after the elections were held, the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Honduras proclaimed the candidate of the far-right National Party of Honduras (PNH), businessman and former mayor of Tegucigalpa Nasry Asfura, as president-elect.
Asfura was personally endorsed by Donald Trump on the eve of the elections, who said that if his preferred candidate did not win, there would be negative consequences for Honduras, which analysts, movements, and political leaders from across the political spectrum have interpreted as foreign interference in the internal affairs of the Central American country.
According to the highest electoral authority, Asfura obtained 40.27% (1,479,822 votes), closely followed by former television presenter and former vice president Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party of Honduras (PLH), who obtained 39.53% (1,452,796 votes). In third place is former minister and candidate for the leftist Liberty and Refoundation Party (LIBRE), Rixi Moncada, with 19.19%.
The President of the CNE, Ana Paola Hall, defended the actions of the institution she heads, despite the multiple accusations and criticisms it has received due to the delay in announcing the results and recorded irregularities in the counting process. Several politicians have stated unequivocally that electoral fraud has taken place.
Accusations of fraud
Among the critics are members of the CNE itself, such as Marlo Ochoa, who serves as senior advisor: “Continuing their tradition of illegalities, the representatives of the two-party system, Councilors Ana Paola Hall and Cossette López, have rushed to impose, from an embassy, the final declaration of the presidential election without having completed the vote count and without even having resolved the complaints and demands for a recount. Of course, I understand that the United States and the elites allied with organized crime want a president who responds to their interests, regardless of whether he emerges from an electoral coup.”
In addition, Ochoa stated: “Honduras will only be free, sovereign, and independent when Hondurans are the masters of their own destiny. I ask that it be recorded in the national memory that today, December 24, 2025, the date on which we celebrate the birth of the redeemer crucified by the Roman Empire, was the day that in Honduras, the will of the people was murdered and supplanted by that of the empire. They cannot crucify the truth!”
For his part, Nasralla, who at one point claimed he was sure of victory, said that electoral fraud had been committed and that he would not recognize Asfura as the winner: “The will of the sovereign is worth less than a penny. The people vote for the candidate of their choice, and the corrupt members of all parties decide who will govern in a pact of impunity in which they forgive each other’s crimes.”
The Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) wrote in a statement on December 24, that it rejected CNE’s “illegal declaration” of Asfura as the president-elect, “along with the irregularities of the process, foreign interference, and the lack of a full vote count, prevents the legitimacy of the 2025 General Elections.”
Former presidential candidate Moncada added to these criticisms, stating that an electoral coup has been staged to the detriment of Honduran democracy, which in recent years has survived a coup d’état by the army and several allegations of electoral fraud, such as when Juan Orlando Hernández was accused of being a president who won the election fraudulently.
On her X account, Moncada denounced US interference in the elections and the alleged complicity of the economic elites in committing the crime: “In Honduras, the CNE, following the instructions of the empire, assassinated our fledgling democracy, but our people are not naive: the proclamation of the ‘president-elect’ is a fraud and a foreign imposition. They betrayed the homeland. The civilized peoples of the world should know that the president-elect is one of the businessmen who asked for Donald Trump’s intervention. In the electoral silence, they paid for massive threatening messages against voters who receive remittances, with the sole intention of twisting the will of the people.”
Adding to the list of growing accusations, a report was published in early December by the outlet The Intercept, which revealed that residents in working class neighborhoods faced threats by members of the notorious gang MS-13 to vote for Asfura. Residents reportedly received voice notes warning that those who voted for left-wing LIBRE “have three days to leave the area” and “If you don’t follow the order, we’re going to kill your families, even your dogs. We don’t want absolutely anyone to vote for LIBRE. We’re going to be sending people to monitor who is going to vote and who followed the order. Whoever tries to challenge the order, you know what will happen.”
For his part, Asfura, the winning candidate, said: “Honduras, I am ready to govern. I will not let you down.” In addition, the right-wing candidate thanked the CNE for its work after the controversial announcement of the results: “I recognize the great work done by the (CNE) councilors and the entire team that carried out the elections.”
However, Asfura will now have to bear the weight of accusations of electoral fraud. If the votes for Nasralla and Moncada are added together, more than half the country not only did not vote for the president-elect, but a large proportion of those voters claim, following their candidates, that a terrible electoral fraud was committed in Honduras. Thus, Asfura will begin his term with enormous wear and tear, delegitimization, and accusations of crimes before he even takes office.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/12/30/ ... ral-fraud/
*****
Honduras Prosecutor Announces Legal Action Over Disputed Elections
Honduras’ attorney general announced judicial actions to clarify the November 30 elections after disputed results favored National Party candidate Nasry Asfura.
Honduras Attorney General Johel Zelaya during a public appearance amid controversy surrounding the country’s general elections. Photo: @Canal8_hn
December 31, 2025 Hour: 4:32 am
Honduras’ Attorney General Johel Zelaya announced on Tuesday that judicial actions will be launched to clarify what occurred during the general elections held on November 30, following the release of the final declaration by the National Electoral Council (CNE).
In a post on his X account, Zelaya said that “the Public Prosecutor’s Office, acting with constitutional responsibility and absolute respect for the democratic order, did not intervene in or interrupt any stage of the general elections process.” He added that “no act that undermines the popular will and, therefore, sovereignty will remain in impunity,” reaffirming the institution’s commitment to the Honduran people.
The announcement followed the virtual release of election results by CNE councilors Ana Paola Hall and Cossette López, together with alternate councilor Carlos Cardona, six hours before the legal deadline. The results favored National Party candidate Nasry Asfura, who received public support from former US President Donald Trump during the campaign, including promises of increased assistance to Honduras if Asfura won.
El fiscal general de #Honduras
, Johel Zelaya, anunció que se van a emprender “acciones judiciales” para esclarecer lo sucedido en las elecciones generales del 30 de noviembre, al darse a conocer la declaración final por parte del CNE.https://t.co/M0hg0Ux35Z— teleSUR TV (@teleSURtv) December 31, 2025
Asfura’s victory was made public on December 24 and has been described by various sectors as an institutional fraud, citing an incomplete vote count. Opposition voices rejected the outcome and called for a process they argue should be fair and fully transparent. CNE councilor Marlon Ochoa stated that he would not accept the results without the completion of the vote tally for all polling records.
According to official figures released by the CNE, the National Party secured 49 of the 128 seats in the National Congress, followed by the Liberal Party with 41 seats, Libre with 35, Innovation and Social Democratic Unity with two, and the Christian Democracy party with one. In municipal races, the National Party won 151 mayoralties, the Liberal Party 76, Libre 69, Innovation and Social Democratic Unity one, along with one independent candidate.
Zelaya said the judicial actions would set “a precedent in the country’s history” in an electoral process he said had been marked by fraud and US interference. He stressed their importance “so that shameful practices that harm democracy and the rule of law are not repeated.”
https://www.telesurenglish.net/honduras ... elections/
Tegucigalpa Mayor Rejects CNE Declaration and Demands Full Recount
Jorge Aldana: that he will not recognize any election results until all the outstanding ballots have been counted
Jorge Aldana Bardales, mayor of the Central District of Tegucigalpa and Comayagüela. Photo: @JorgeAldanaB.
December 30, 2025 Hour: 10:43 pm
The mayor of Tegucigalpa, Jorge Aldana, rejected the declaration of results issued by the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Honduras on Tuesday and announced that he will not recognize any election results until all outstanding ballots are counted, which he claims represent more than 56,000 votes. During a press conference, Aldana referred to statements made by council member Cosette López, whom he cited to support his position.
Aldana recalled that his candidacy was presented with “a positive list with a day-to-day project full of proposals” and asserted that throughout the campaign and on election day, “the polls and exit polls showed us winning.” He stated that the CNE itself, at various points in the count, also gave him the advantage, but that “the ballots still needed to be recounted. And they refused to do it.”
Their rejection is based on the statement made by Councilor López herself, who indicated that the declaration in 66 municipalities—including the Central District—”has no certainty or reversibility, neither mathematically nor legally.” Aldana quoted López verbatim: “Any controversy or dispute at either electoral level can be resolved in the Electoral Court, which, according to the Organic and Procedural Electoral Law, is responsible for hearing and resolving electoral appeals arising from electoral processes.”
“That’s the crux of the matter! Oh, God! Neither mathematically nor legally, is the result for the Central District in the declaration presented by the National Electoral Council (CNE) today, as stated by the councilors themselves. What does that mean? That we do not recognize any result,” Aldana emphasized. Furthermore, she reiterated that her team “spent 30 days” waiting for the completion of the vote count and now demands a full tally before any transfer of power.
The mayor-elect emphasized that “we will not hand over the mayor’s office to anyone from this place” until the pending tally sheets are processed. His stance aligns with the existence of narrow margins in 66 municipalities—according to the National Electoral Council (CNE) itself—where the data available on the dissemination platform “does not allow for guarantees of irreversibility, mathematically, statistically, or legally.”
The Honduran Organic and Procedural Electoral Law establishes that the Electoral Court is the competent body to resolve challenges arising from electoral processes. Aldana did not formally announce a challenge, but made it clear that his acceptance of the result is conditional upon a full recount of the votes.
In the Central District, according to the National Electoral Council (CNE), the number of votes exceeds 56,000, a figure that could alter the official outcome. Meanwhile, electoral authorities are maintaining their declaration, despite acknowledging technical and legal limitations.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/4FNRPJp8roM[/youtbe]
https://www.telesurenglish.net/teguciga ... l-recount/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
Re: Hondouras
Honduran Court Blocks Vote Recount in Tegucigalpa
Tegucigapla mayor Jorge Aldana. Photo: X/@JorgeAldanaB
January 10, 2026 Hour: 6:49 am
Honduras’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal has definitively rejected all appeals from Tegucigalpa Mayor Jorge Aldana, closing the legal path to challenge what he calls a “theft of votes” in the capital’s disputed November election.
Honduras’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE, in Spanish) has rejected all appeals from Tegucigalpa mayor Jorge Aldana, closing the legal avenue to challenge the results of the November 30 general elections.
The electoral authorities, whose leadership is aligned with the same National Party (PN, in Spanish) and Liberal Party coalition that controls the National Electoral Council, offered no detailed public rationale beyond its dismissal.
Following the Supreme Electoral Tribunal’s verdict, Aldana dennounced a “theft of votes”, accusing the National Party of applying pressure to block a transparent judicial review.
He had petitioned the court to order a full recount of 435 polling station tally sheets, which he contends contain over 100,000 votes plagued by irregularities. Cossette Lopez, a PN councilor within the National Electoral Council (CNE, in Spanish), who admitted on December 30 that results in 66 municipalities—including the capital—lacked “statistical or legal certainty of irreversibility.”
He asserts these votes would grant him a narrow victory over Juan Diego Zelaya, the candidate from the right-wing National Party, who was declared the winner by the National Electoral Council.
Text reads: “We thank the National Anti-Corruption Council, and all sectors of Civil Society that join this cry for justice in the capital. We continue in this struggle of thousands of Honduran citizens who demand the truth and want the result of the elections and those who govern the capital, to be legitimate and with the support of the people. The only way to provide certainty and transparency to this election is for the ICJ to count the 435 minutes with more than 100,000 votes that are pending. Let’s count the minutes, let’s count the votes! There is the truth. What is the fear?”
“The appeal to the highest electoral court seeks justice in a process that is tainted and flawed”, Aldana stated to reporters, echoing widespread fraud condemnation that have surrounded the elections.
The unresolved dispute leaves the administration of Honduras’s most populous and politically significant district in limbo, delaying the transition of power and fostering deep skepticism about the electoral process among segments of the capital.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/honduras ... e-recount/
Tegucigapla mayor Jorge Aldana. Photo: X/@JorgeAldanaB
January 10, 2026 Hour: 6:49 am
Honduras’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal has definitively rejected all appeals from Tegucigalpa Mayor Jorge Aldana, closing the legal path to challenge what he calls a “theft of votes” in the capital’s disputed November election.
Honduras’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE, in Spanish) has rejected all appeals from Tegucigalpa mayor Jorge Aldana, closing the legal avenue to challenge the results of the November 30 general elections.
The electoral authorities, whose leadership is aligned with the same National Party (PN, in Spanish) and Liberal Party coalition that controls the National Electoral Council, offered no detailed public rationale beyond its dismissal.
Following the Supreme Electoral Tribunal’s verdict, Aldana dennounced a “theft of votes”, accusing the National Party of applying pressure to block a transparent judicial review.
He had petitioned the court to order a full recount of 435 polling station tally sheets, which he contends contain over 100,000 votes plagued by irregularities. Cossette Lopez, a PN councilor within the National Electoral Council (CNE, in Spanish), who admitted on December 30 that results in 66 municipalities—including the capital—lacked “statistical or legal certainty of irreversibility.”
He asserts these votes would grant him a narrow victory over Juan Diego Zelaya, the candidate from the right-wing National Party, who was declared the winner by the National Electoral Council.
Text reads: “We thank the National Anti-Corruption Council, and all sectors of Civil Society that join this cry for justice in the capital. We continue in this struggle of thousands of Honduran citizens who demand the truth and want the result of the elections and those who govern the capital, to be legitimate and with the support of the people. The only way to provide certainty and transparency to this election is for the ICJ to count the 435 minutes with more than 100,000 votes that are pending. Let’s count the minutes, let’s count the votes! There is the truth. What is the fear?”
“The appeal to the highest electoral court seeks justice in a process that is tainted and flawed”, Aldana stated to reporters, echoing widespread fraud condemnation that have surrounded the elections.
The unresolved dispute leaves the administration of Honduras’s most populous and politically significant district in limbo, delaying the transition of power and fostering deep skepticism about the electoral process among segments of the capital.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/honduras ... e-recount/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
Re: Hondouras
Who Governs Honduras?
January 14, 2026
A polling station member tears up unused ballots after the end of voting in Honduras, November 30, 2025. Photo: EFE/Gustavo Amador.
By John Perry – Jan 13, 2025
Donald Trump’s attack on Venezuela and the kidnapping of its head of state have overshadowed his less brazen but possibly more effective regime-change operation in Honduras. No one can be sure if the National Party’s Nasry ‘Tito’ Asfura really won the presidential election on 30 November, but he was Trump’s endorsed candidate and will almost certainly assume office on 27 January.
Since 2021, Honduras has had a left-wing government, headed by the Libre party’s Xiomara Castro. She revitalised a neglected public health service, reduced poverty and curbed gang violence. But presidential power in Honduras is heavily constrained. There is a local story of child being asked who governs the country and replying: ‘The president, the head of the army and the US ambassador.’ Castro’s husband, Manuel Zelaya, elected president in 2005, was ousted in a coup in 2009, led by an army general and with the US embassy’s tacit support.
The left was fraudulently denied power in elections in 2013 and 2017, allowing Juan Orlando Hernández, endorsed by the US, to run Honduras as a narco-state. In 2021, however, Castro’s majority was overwhelming. Unlike Hernández, she has respected the constitutional limit of one term in office.
The Libre candidate, former minister Rixi Moncada, led several opinion polls earlier in the year. When Trump’s ‘armada’ entered the Caribbean in late August, however, Moncada’s two right-wing opponents, Asfura and the Liberal Party’s Salvador Nasralla, claimed that ‘Honduras would be next’ if Moncada, whom they falsely portrayed as a ‘communist,’ became president.
Hondurans’ limited faith in their electoral system was further damaged in late October, with the disclosure of a possible plot to repeat what happened in 2017, when a premature announcement of the US-backed candidate’s victory was immediately endorsed by the US embassy. On 9 November, a trial run of the new electronic voting system partially failed.
For most of November, polls indicated that Moncada’s main challenger was Nasralla, with Asfura trailing a poor third. Four days before the vote, however, Trump denounced not only Moncada but also Nasralla (whom he called a ‘borderline communist’), warning that ‘narcoterrorists’ would run Honduras if either was elected. He then suggested that the US would continue to supply aid to Honduras only if Asfura won. Unverified reports appeared on social media threatening the 1.3 million households which rely on remittances from relatives in the US that their December payments would be blocked if Asfura lost.
Two days before the polls, Trump pardoned Hernández, who had been extradited when his term ended and was serving a 45-year prison sentence for trafficking cocaine to the US while publicly presenting himself as an ally in the ‘war on drugs.’ The pardon could have backfired but instead proved to be an astute boost to Asfura’s campaign, since many of his supporters still idolise Hernández.
By election night, Moncada was trailing in the polls behind both right-wingers. In early voting returns, Nasralla had the advantage over Asfura. There was a break in announcing the results. When the count resumed, Asfura had taken the lead. Trump stepped in again, accusing officials of trying to change the outcome and warning of ‘hell to pay’ if the numbers changed in Nasralla’s favour.
Interruptions and delays in the count stretched over days and then weeks. When Libre claimed that an ‘electoral coup’ was taking place, its representative on the electoral council was sidelined by the other two parties and then personally sanctioned by Washington. The election result was eventually declared more than three weeks later, on 24 December, as Hondurans were celebrating Christmas. Asfura was declared the winner by fewer than 27,000 votes. The army gave its backing to the electoral council’s decision.
Up to 130,000 votes, however, were still to be counted: enough to change the outcome of the election. The Honduran Congress met a few days ago and instructed the electoral council to carry out a complete recount, threatening to do the job itself if necessary. Before it met, a homemade bomb was thrown at a National Party lawmaker, injuring her as she entered the congressional building. The US embassy has threatened ‘grave consequences’ if Asfura’s victory is overturned.
Electoral observers from the Organisation of American States and the European Union disapproved of the delays but found no evidence of fraud. On Trump’s interference they were silent. Xiomara Castro has written to the US president requesting a meeting to discuss what happened. It seems unlikely that she will get one.
https://orinocotribune.com/who-governs-honduras/
January 14, 2026
A polling station member tears up unused ballots after the end of voting in Honduras, November 30, 2025. Photo: EFE/Gustavo Amador.
By John Perry – Jan 13, 2025
Donald Trump’s attack on Venezuela and the kidnapping of its head of state have overshadowed his less brazen but possibly more effective regime-change operation in Honduras. No one can be sure if the National Party’s Nasry ‘Tito’ Asfura really won the presidential election on 30 November, but he was Trump’s endorsed candidate and will almost certainly assume office on 27 January.
Since 2021, Honduras has had a left-wing government, headed by the Libre party’s Xiomara Castro. She revitalised a neglected public health service, reduced poverty and curbed gang violence. But presidential power in Honduras is heavily constrained. There is a local story of child being asked who governs the country and replying: ‘The president, the head of the army and the US ambassador.’ Castro’s husband, Manuel Zelaya, elected president in 2005, was ousted in a coup in 2009, led by an army general and with the US embassy’s tacit support.
The left was fraudulently denied power in elections in 2013 and 2017, allowing Juan Orlando Hernández, endorsed by the US, to run Honduras as a narco-state. In 2021, however, Castro’s majority was overwhelming. Unlike Hernández, she has respected the constitutional limit of one term in office.
The Libre candidate, former minister Rixi Moncada, led several opinion polls earlier in the year. When Trump’s ‘armada’ entered the Caribbean in late August, however, Moncada’s two right-wing opponents, Asfura and the Liberal Party’s Salvador Nasralla, claimed that ‘Honduras would be next’ if Moncada, whom they falsely portrayed as a ‘communist,’ became president.
Hondurans’ limited faith in their electoral system was further damaged in late October, with the disclosure of a possible plot to repeat what happened in 2017, when a premature announcement of the US-backed candidate’s victory was immediately endorsed by the US embassy. On 9 November, a trial run of the new electronic voting system partially failed.
For most of November, polls indicated that Moncada’s main challenger was Nasralla, with Asfura trailing a poor third. Four days before the vote, however, Trump denounced not only Moncada but also Nasralla (whom he called a ‘borderline communist’), warning that ‘narcoterrorists’ would run Honduras if either was elected. He then suggested that the US would continue to supply aid to Honduras only if Asfura won. Unverified reports appeared on social media threatening the 1.3 million households which rely on remittances from relatives in the US that their December payments would be blocked if Asfura lost.
Two days before the polls, Trump pardoned Hernández, who had been extradited when his term ended and was serving a 45-year prison sentence for trafficking cocaine to the US while publicly presenting himself as an ally in the ‘war on drugs.’ The pardon could have backfired but instead proved to be an astute boost to Asfura’s campaign, since many of his supporters still idolise Hernández.
By election night, Moncada was trailing in the polls behind both right-wingers. In early voting returns, Nasralla had the advantage over Asfura. There was a break in announcing the results. When the count resumed, Asfura had taken the lead. Trump stepped in again, accusing officials of trying to change the outcome and warning of ‘hell to pay’ if the numbers changed in Nasralla’s favour.
Interruptions and delays in the count stretched over days and then weeks. When Libre claimed that an ‘electoral coup’ was taking place, its representative on the electoral council was sidelined by the other two parties and then personally sanctioned by Washington. The election result was eventually declared more than three weeks later, on 24 December, as Hondurans were celebrating Christmas. Asfura was declared the winner by fewer than 27,000 votes. The army gave its backing to the electoral council’s decision.
Up to 130,000 votes, however, were still to be counted: enough to change the outcome of the election. The Honduran Congress met a few days ago and instructed the electoral council to carry out a complete recount, threatening to do the job itself if necessary. Before it met, a homemade bomb was thrown at a National Party lawmaker, injuring her as she entered the congressional building. The US embassy has threatened ‘grave consequences’ if Asfura’s victory is overturned.
Electoral observers from the Organisation of American States and the European Union disapproved of the delays but found no evidence of fraud. On Trump’s interference they were silent. Xiomara Castro has written to the US president requesting a meeting to discuss what happened. It seems unlikely that she will get one.
https://orinocotribune.com/who-governs-honduras/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
Re: Hondouras
New report finds that murder of Berta Cáceres was a corporate, financial, and political crime
A recent report produced by a committee of experts presented new findings on the murder of social and environmental activist Berta Cáceres.
January 20, 2026 by Pablo Meriguet
Berta Cáceres at the banks of the Gualcarque River in the Rio Blanco region of western Honduras. Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize
Cáceres was murdered on the night of March 2, 2016, at her home in La Esperanza, Honduras. Several hitmen entered her home and killed her. Cáceres, founder of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), had been a tireless fighter for the rights of the Honduran people. Before her murder, she had led a fight against a hydroelectric project called Agua Zarca, developed by the company Desarrollos Energéticos SA (DESA), which faced strong opposition from the Indigenous Lenca people.
After a lengthy trial, the head of DESA, David Castillo, was convicted as a co-perpetrator of the murder. Shortly thereafter, seven people, including former military personnel (among them a major in the Honduran Army), were also convicted as perpetrators of the crime against the environmental leader.
However, several questions remained unanswered, so the investigation carried out by the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) sought to gather more information and make sense of a criminal plot that apparently goes beyond a simple act of political violence.
Some of the GIEI’s findings
In addition to reconfirming that Cáceres’ murder was not an accidental or spontaneous act, but rather premeditated through an organized criminal operation linked to the Agua Zarca project, the GIEI demonstrated through reports that included communications, money transfers, geolocators, and other evidence that the crime is directly related not only to the executives of the DESA company, but also to members of the Atala family.
The GIEI also showed how the funds to guarantee the company’s “security” came from abroad, were then triangulated to offshore accounts, and later deposited into accounts in Honduras. In December 2015, a deposit of USD 2.6 million was made to the CONCASA account, money that would later be distributed to different companies linked to the project’s security measures. This part of the investigation shows that the money that financed Cáceres’ murder may have come from abroad.
How were the hitmen paid?
What is certain is that just 48 hours after the murder, approximately 549,892 lempiras (around USD 24,000) were paid out in the form of three checks to low-ranking DESA employees, who, according to testimony, handed the money over to intermediaries. One of the convicted men, Mariano Díaz, confirmed that these checks were the hitmen’s payment.
The GIEI states that this modus operandi, in which low-ranking employees were instructed to cash checks and then hand over the money to other individuals, was a common practice. This is how other types of dishonest, corrupt, and criminal practices were covered up. The GIEI has also drawn attention to how these attitudes contravene anti-money laundering regulations.
More than 200 communications analyzed
Concerning the technical analysis of Cáceres’ murder, the GIEI created a timeline before and after the murder of Cáceres between the coordinators of the crime (Douglas Bustillo, Henry Hernández) and the perpetrators, as well as the connections between them and the financial and business operators (Castillo, Atala). Nearly 200 communications (phone calls, chats, antenna records) were studied to create the communications diagram.
Before her murder, Cáceres had requested and been offered security due to the high risk to her life. The GIEI demonstrated that the death threat was present before March 2. There had been previous attempts to assassinate her using the same financial scheme explained above. On February 2, 2016, a payment of 50,000 lempiras was detected by a CONCASA employee, after which there were several communications similar to those on the day of the murder, one month later. This shows that the practice of economically powerful groups assassinating social and environmental leaders in Honduras is not new.
The enormous political and media influence of the powerful
To this end, the GIEI demonstrates in its report that there are networks of informants who are paid to share information with the DESA company, including police officers who allegedly received money in exchange for providing a police presence in certain locations. It also revealed the shameful payment of journalists and media outlets to shape the public narrative regarding various social phenomena. This reveals a complex and comprehensive strategy to maintain control of information and weaken social groups that opposed the project.
But the report also documents the enormous influence that companies such as DESA have over the police. According to the GIEI, there is clear evidence of infiltration and conflicts of interest in the initial stage of the investigation: police officers with clear links to DESA participated in the analysis of the crime scene; evidence was planted, phones were tapped, and a protected witness was impersonated; harassment of a key witness to the crime, as well as several members of COPINH, was documented.
In this way, several media outlets attempted to construct a narrative according to which the aim was to criminalize Cáceres’s circle rather than investigate the business, criminal, and financial networks that were actually behind the murder.
Bertha Zúniga and Laura Zúniga, daughters of Berta Cáceres and members of COPINH. Photo: COPINH
Responsibility of financial institutions
However, the GIEI also criticizes and considers financial institutions that do not effectively control money triangulations used to finance illegal activities to be indirectly responsible. The report states that these institutions did not activate the necessary control mechanisms that could help prevent crimes such as that committed against Cáceres.
Thus, the GIEI report has revealed a complex criminal network associated with the DESA company, which bases its power not only on the use of hitmen and brute force (as many media outlets still want to establish), but also on its penetration of various public institutions (police, justice, etc., acting directly or by omission) and private institutions (media, journalists, etc., which use their influence to redirect narratives, and financial institutions that failed to identify and stop these criminal schemes).
The report concludes that the murder of Berta Cáceres was a corporate, financial, and political crime, whose implications transcend an individual murder, as it affects human rights defenders and the regulation of megaprojects in indigenous territories. Furthermore, it empirically demonstrated how the resources of “development projects” can be used for social repression and political assassination, as well as to infiltrate private interests into institutions clearly and forcefully.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/01/20/ ... cal-crime/
A recent report produced by a committee of experts presented new findings on the murder of social and environmental activist Berta Cáceres.
January 20, 2026 by Pablo Meriguet
Berta Cáceres at the banks of the Gualcarque River in the Rio Blanco region of western Honduras. Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize
Cáceres was murdered on the night of March 2, 2016, at her home in La Esperanza, Honduras. Several hitmen entered her home and killed her. Cáceres, founder of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), had been a tireless fighter for the rights of the Honduran people. Before her murder, she had led a fight against a hydroelectric project called Agua Zarca, developed by the company Desarrollos Energéticos SA (DESA), which faced strong opposition from the Indigenous Lenca people.
After a lengthy trial, the head of DESA, David Castillo, was convicted as a co-perpetrator of the murder. Shortly thereafter, seven people, including former military personnel (among them a major in the Honduran Army), were also convicted as perpetrators of the crime against the environmental leader.
However, several questions remained unanswered, so the investigation carried out by the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) sought to gather more information and make sense of a criminal plot that apparently goes beyond a simple act of political violence.
Some of the GIEI’s findings
In addition to reconfirming that Cáceres’ murder was not an accidental or spontaneous act, but rather premeditated through an organized criminal operation linked to the Agua Zarca project, the GIEI demonstrated through reports that included communications, money transfers, geolocators, and other evidence that the crime is directly related not only to the executives of the DESA company, but also to members of the Atala family.
The GIEI also showed how the funds to guarantee the company’s “security” came from abroad, were then triangulated to offshore accounts, and later deposited into accounts in Honduras. In December 2015, a deposit of USD 2.6 million was made to the CONCASA account, money that would later be distributed to different companies linked to the project’s security measures. This part of the investigation shows that the money that financed Cáceres’ murder may have come from abroad.
How were the hitmen paid?
What is certain is that just 48 hours after the murder, approximately 549,892 lempiras (around USD 24,000) were paid out in the form of three checks to low-ranking DESA employees, who, according to testimony, handed the money over to intermediaries. One of the convicted men, Mariano Díaz, confirmed that these checks were the hitmen’s payment.
The GIEI states that this modus operandi, in which low-ranking employees were instructed to cash checks and then hand over the money to other individuals, was a common practice. This is how other types of dishonest, corrupt, and criminal practices were covered up. The GIEI has also drawn attention to how these attitudes contravene anti-money laundering regulations.
More than 200 communications analyzed
Concerning the technical analysis of Cáceres’ murder, the GIEI created a timeline before and after the murder of Cáceres between the coordinators of the crime (Douglas Bustillo, Henry Hernández) and the perpetrators, as well as the connections between them and the financial and business operators (Castillo, Atala). Nearly 200 communications (phone calls, chats, antenna records) were studied to create the communications diagram.
Before her murder, Cáceres had requested and been offered security due to the high risk to her life. The GIEI demonstrated that the death threat was present before March 2. There had been previous attempts to assassinate her using the same financial scheme explained above. On February 2, 2016, a payment of 50,000 lempiras was detected by a CONCASA employee, after which there were several communications similar to those on the day of the murder, one month later. This shows that the practice of economically powerful groups assassinating social and environmental leaders in Honduras is not new.
The enormous political and media influence of the powerful
To this end, the GIEI demonstrates in its report that there are networks of informants who are paid to share information with the DESA company, including police officers who allegedly received money in exchange for providing a police presence in certain locations. It also revealed the shameful payment of journalists and media outlets to shape the public narrative regarding various social phenomena. This reveals a complex and comprehensive strategy to maintain control of information and weaken social groups that opposed the project.
But the report also documents the enormous influence that companies such as DESA have over the police. According to the GIEI, there is clear evidence of infiltration and conflicts of interest in the initial stage of the investigation: police officers with clear links to DESA participated in the analysis of the crime scene; evidence was planted, phones were tapped, and a protected witness was impersonated; harassment of a key witness to the crime, as well as several members of COPINH, was documented.
In this way, several media outlets attempted to construct a narrative according to which the aim was to criminalize Cáceres’s circle rather than investigate the business, criminal, and financial networks that were actually behind the murder.
Bertha Zúniga and Laura Zúniga, daughters of Berta Cáceres and members of COPINH. Photo: COPINH
Responsibility of financial institutions
However, the GIEI also criticizes and considers financial institutions that do not effectively control money triangulations used to finance illegal activities to be indirectly responsible. The report states that these institutions did not activate the necessary control mechanisms that could help prevent crimes such as that committed against Cáceres.
Thus, the GIEI report has revealed a complex criminal network associated with the DESA company, which bases its power not only on the use of hitmen and brute force (as many media outlets still want to establish), but also on its penetration of various public institutions (police, justice, etc., acting directly or by omission) and private institutions (media, journalists, etc., which use their influence to redirect narratives, and financial institutions that failed to identify and stop these criminal schemes).
The report concludes that the murder of Berta Cáceres was a corporate, financial, and political crime, whose implications transcend an individual murder, as it affects human rights defenders and the regulation of megaprojects in indigenous territories. Furthermore, it empirically demonstrated how the resources of “development projects” can be used for social repression and political assassination, as well as to infiltrate private interests into institutions clearly and forcefully.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/01/20/ ... cal-crime/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."