President Xiomara Castro Condemns “Brazen” Interference by Trump in Honduras

Honduran President Xiomara Castro condemned what she described as the “brazen” interference of U.S. President Donald Trump in the general elections held on November 30 in the Central American nation.

“The brazen foreign interference of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, in our elections—his threats prevented free suffrage and kept the people from expressing their will freely,” the president declared during a ceremony in Tegucigalpa marking the bicentennial of the Honduran Armed Forces.

In addition to interference by the northern power, Castro stated that the electoral process was marred by intimidation from “maras and gangs” targeting voters of the ruling Liberty and Refoundation Party (Libre) in different parts of the country.

According to various analysts, this situation—combined with the actions of the criminal groups—led more than 50 percent of eligible Hondurans (over 6.5 million people) to stay away from the polls for fear of reprisals.

Castro called on the National Police and the Armed Forces to investigate the threats allegedly issued by organized crime against supporters of Libre’s presidential candidate, Rixi Moncada, who, according to preliminary results, fell to third place behind two right-wing contenders.

Despite these circumstances, the president praised the armed forces for acting “with prudence but with firmness,” helping to ensure “peace, order, and security” during a moment she described as marked by intense political and social tension.

In her view, Trump’s intervention in the elections—openly urging support for right-wing candidate Nasry Asfura—contributed to Moncada’s decline, despite her strong standing in most polls leading up to the vote.

Elsewhere in her speech, Castro denounced what she called fraud in the system used to transmit preliminary election results.

She stressed that this alleged scheme deprived the candidate who should have continued “dismantling the injustices of the ruling class and the narco-dictatorship”—a reference to a potential Moncada victory and the continuation of the socioeconomic reforms initiated by Castro’s administration in 2022.

Castro also criticized Trump’s decision to grant clemency to former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández (2014–2022), who had been sentenced by U.S. courts to 45 years in prison for drug trafficking.

She reiterated that her administration will file complaints over what she termed an “electoral coup” with the United Nations, the Organization of American States, the European Union, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, and other international bodies.