In Honduras, it is joked that important internal decisions are made in Washington. The joke became more relevant on Friday, after Donald Trump promised to pardon former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, known as JOH, who is serving time in a US prison after being sentenced to 45 years in prison for his ties to drug trafficking. The first to actually react was former President Manuel Zelaya, who accused the US president of “protecting the thief of the state”, referring to Hernandez. Trump’s announcement aims to influence very close elections taking place in a context of great polarization.
Zelaya, who has maintained a cautious silence on social media, exploded on Friday afternoon, minutes after learning of Trump’s announcement. Regarding Trump’s position, he said: “We were always right.” “By acquitting JOH, he is protecting the plunderers of the state and now orders a vote for Asfoura: the direct heir to the drug regime,” he added, referring to the conservative candidate. Titus Asfoura, who was supported by Trump on Wednesday in a series of statements on his network Social truth. He added, “It is the corrupt two-party coup regime and its two candidates. It is the same one that overthrew me and they are one body, the same mafia.” Zelaya was overthrown in a military coup in 2009.
Condemnation of Trump’s decision also came from official candidate Rexy Moncada. In the same network
Salvador Nasrallah, from the Liberal Party, who some opinion polls show as the preferred candidate, albeit by a very small margin, posted a picture on his Asfoura account and did not immediately interact with it.
Trump’s message about Honduras, the second after his support for Asfoura, aims to move the electoral scenario two days before Honduran citizens go to the polls. “There is a strong vote that faithfully follows their political party, and their vote will certainly not change because of Trump’s statements,” explains Cristian Nolasco, social audit specialist at the National Anti-Corruption Council in Tegucigalpa. “Where you can see a shift in voting intention is the undecideds,” he says. “The balance could get a little lopsided and Lieber could benefit, because statements of this magnitude divide that vote, especially among people who are fed up with corruption, and that division favors the official candidate. Any statement of that level from the United States has an impact on our elections.”