Trump-backed candidate of Palestinian origin wins Honduras presidential election Submitted by Yasmine El-Sabawi on Thu, 12/25/2025 - 17:03 Both Nasry Asfura and his opponent Salvador Nasralla come from Palestinian Christian families Honduran President-elect Nasry Asfura speaks at a press conference in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on 30 November 2025 (Leonel Estrada/Reuters) Off After a month of ballot-counting because of technical issues, allegations of fraud and foreign interference, the winner of Honduras's hotly contested presidential election was announced on Christmas Eve: Nasry "Tito" Asfura, who also happens to be Washington's choice for the job. A conservative former mayor of the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, and a longtime businessman who campaigned on driving up foreign investment in the country, the 67-year-old Asfura's profile was significantly elevated by US President Donald Trump, who took the unprecedented step earlier this month of threatening to cut off all aid to Honduras if Asfura didn't win. The electoral council had said Asfura and his opponent, centrist Salvador Nasralla, were effectively tied after the 30 November election. Some 15 percent of the vote ultimately had to be counted by hand, Reuters reported. The final result was a 0.74 percent difference between the candidates, with Asfura netting just over 40 percent of the vote. "We look forward to working with his incoming administration to advance our bilateral and regional security cooperation, end illegal immigration to the United States, and strengthen the economic ties between our two countries," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement on Wednesday. "The United States urges all parties to respect the confirmed results." Both Nasralla and the president of the Honduran Congress have rejected the results, claiming ballots that should have been counted were thrown out. Trump leans on Latin America Now that a winner has been announced and congratulated by the US, it's unlikely there will be any moves to change the result. The Trump administration has shifted much of US foreign policy to a focus on its own hemisphere, in a bid to defeat leftist movements and governments up and down the Americas. One of its earliest moves was to back the self-proclaimed "coolest dictator", Nayib Bukele, in El Salvador, whose notorious prison system now locks up immigrants who are forcibly deported from the US. Earlier this month, conservative candidate Jose Antonio Kast won Chile's election, succeeding a left-wing and openly pro-Palestine president. Rubio called Kast personally to congratulate him. How the Nobel 'Peace Prize' helped propel Washington's war drive in Venezuela Read More » The Trump administration also threw its support behind the far-right Argentinian president Javier Milei, whose party won the legislative elections in October. Now, Asfura in Honduras will succeed left-wing president Xiomara Castro, as he pledges to stand against Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, whom the US is trying to topple, and push back against China's expanding footprint in the region. Conservative lawmakers in the Americas have long been more friendly to Israeli interests as well, given that it would earn Washington's approval, and by extension, investments, loans and aid. This is despite a number of these politicians hailing from Palestinian families who immigrated to Central and South America in the first part of the 20th century. Asfura comes from a Palestinian Christian family, as does his opponent Nasralla. Carlos Facusse, a liberal who led Honduras from 1998 to 2002, is also Palestinian. Bukele in El Salvador traces his roots to Bethlehem and Jerusalem. Mario Abdo Benitez, who served as Paraguay's conservative-leaning president from 2018 to 2023, is of Lebanese origin. And neoliberal Carlos Menem, whose family comes from Syria, famously led Argentina in the 1990s. US Politics News Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19 Update Date Override 0