(AFP) – Conservative businessman Nasry “Tito” Asfura will be sworn in Tuesday as president of Honduras, two months after being helped to election victory by US President Donald Trump. Asfura was declared the winner of November’s election by a razor-thin margin after Trump threatened to cut aid to Central America’s poorest country if his “friend” was defeated. His win gave the Republican leader another ally in Latin America after conservatives replaced leftists in Chile, Bolivia, Peru, and Argentina.
A 67-year-old construction magnate of Palestinian descent, Asfura defeated TV star Salvador Nasralla in an election marred by allegations of fraud and a three-week wait for the results. After his win, Asfura traveled to the United States to meet with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and also visited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Following his meeting with Rubio, the United States and Honduras announced plans to negotiate a free trade deal.
Tegucigalpa’s ties with Beijing — the outgoing left-wing government switched its support from Taiwan to China in 2023 — were at the heart of the election. Trump has been pressuring countries in Washington’s backyard to choose between close ties with Washington or Beijing. The US ouster of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, an ally of China, was widely seen as a warning to other Latin American countries to pick their camp. Asfura has said he is considering switching ties back from China to the self-ruled island of Taiwan.
– Fate of migrants – The fate of around two million Hondurans living in the United States, many without legal status, hangs in the balance. Asfura has urged Trump to reinstate their Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a program that protected some 60,000 Hondurans from deportation. Remittances from migrants represent a third of Honduras’s GDP. Rubio, however, has said Washington is looking forward to working with him to “end illegal immigration to the United States,” among other issues.
Asfura has also promised to crack down on drug trafficking, entrenched in the highest spheres of power in Honduras, and go after powerful gangs such as Barrio 18 and MS-13. “Extortion is what’s holding back anyone who owns a business or works independently, and if you don’t pay, they kill you,” Daniel Santos, a 64-year-old taxi driver, told AFP, calling on Asfura to tackle the scourge “head on.” On the eve of the election, Trump in a surprise move pardoned former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez, from Asfura’s party, who was serving a 45-year prison sentence in the United States for drug trafficking. Asfura has distanced himself from Hernandez.
– Joan SUAZO
© 2024 AFP
