As the Honduran leadership election changes, will Trump fail?

With a little over two-thirds of the ballots in the Honduran election up, the lead is changing hands.

The former Vice-President, Salvador Nasralla, has a small but potentially significant edge over his opponent, the conservative former mayor of Tegucigalpa, Nasry Asfura. However the National Party of Asfura continued to brief reporters that they had the numbers for a victory in the end.

The race remains at a knife edge.

In Washington, President Donald Trump filled his hopes without a direct victory in Asfura and tried to directly influence the race with the support of his preferred candidate.

Fear that funds may be withheld from the unwieldy Central American Nation or make unproven allegations of electoral fraud in the US in this election.

For Honduran political analyst, Josue Murillo, this smacks of the kind of treatment Honduras expected from Washington during the Cold War.

“No government will come here and treat us as a banana republic. That’s a lack of respect,” he said at a Tegucigalpa coffee shop.

“Donald Trump saying who we should elect violates our autonomy as a country, and it also affects our election.”

Regardless of If the National Party continues to winone of their important figures is already celebrating.

On Monday, ex-President Juan Orlando Hernández walked out of a Virginia prison a free man after serving a year of a 45-year sentence for a 45-year sentence for a 45-year sentence for a 45-year sentence for a 45-year sentence for a 45-year sentence for a 45-year sentence for a 45-year sentence for a 45-year sentence for a 45-year sentence for a 45-year sentence for a 45-year sentence for a 45-year sentence for a 45-year sentence for a 45-year sentence for a year of drug and arms smuggling.

His release came after Trump urged Honduran voters to cast their ballots for Asfura.

Hernández was unexpectedly pardoned by Trump, despite being found guilty last year in a New York court of running a cocaine-containing drug in the United States.

His time in office has also been fueled by allegations of serious human rights violations by the police and security forces, particularly against government critics.

So, when Hernández was arrested in 2022, then taken to the United States and finally imprisoned, most Hondurans celebrated it as a rare moment of justice in a country destroyed by political purists.

Trump admitted the opposite, telling Air Force one reporters that “the people of Honduras really think (Juan Orlano Hernández) is being set up and it’s a terrible thing”.

Honduran journalists who have covered the rise of Hernández – from the time he rose to national prominence following a coup – struggle to recognize a phase recognition of the former president.

However, he still has supporters, especially in the national party. And no one has been more vocal in maintaining his innocence or calling for his forgiveness than his wife, Ana García Carías.

I sat down with the former first lady, who described the release of Mr. Hernández as “like a dream, a dream made reality”.

“We spoke to him this morning (Tuesday) and he is in a safe place. We were so happy, we got all the children onto the phone together with my mother-in-law, and shared a moment of happiness, laughter and prayer together.”

In terms of the future, the question now arises as to when Mr. Hernández will try to return to Honduras. Ms García Carías says that her potential return does not depend on the outcome of the election and even more if the authorities guarantee her safety.

“It depends on the security guarantees they gave him in this country”, he said.

“Every day, this government – thank God – uses a discourse of hatred about my husband that they talk about a place they target a place they target a place they target a place they target a place they target a place they target a place they target a place they talk about a place he captured from a place they pointed to a place he led from a place they pointed to a place they pointed to a place they pointed to a place he led from a place where they moved a place they captured a place they mentioned from a place they pointed to a place they pointed to a place they pointed to a place they pointed to a place they pointed to a place that he seized against him.

Ms García Carías admits Mr. Hernández is a victim of “Law of the Law I put it to him that the case against her husband that was mostly attracted by the Drug Enforcement Agency and the US Department of Justice in the first term of Trump.

It was a point he quickly dismissed.

“That’s what the prosecutors claim but I don’t think it’s justified,” he argued. “Who would have thought to bring someone who they say was a co-conspirator into meetings with the CIA, the DEA, to give classified information to National Security?”

“There was a political campaign (against him) involving figures in the Biden Administration,” he said, “and I think there was manipulation of the facts after the event.”

Ms García Carías publicly recognized the role of two key figures in her husband’s pardon claim: her own Florida Congressman, Matt Gaetz.

“They are both involved in the case”, he said. “I know and thank them for their contribution. In fact, I spoke to Mr Stone on his radio program on Sunday and he said he apologized to ALANG PROVERO.”

Meanwhile, the vote count in Honduras took another night.

As the polls continue to tally, it should become clear if Trump goes to Honduras and sees a new ally elected in the country as he pardons an old one.