January 28, 2026
Conservative Nasry Asfura, an ally of Donald Trump, took office as president of Honduras on Tuesday with a promise to “tackle head-on” insecurity in the most violent and impoverished country in Central America.
His arrival in power turns the page on four years of left-wing government and secures the US president another ally in Latin America following the advance of the right in Chile, Bolivia, Peru, and Argentina.
“Security, fighting insecurity head-on, have no doubt about that,” said Asfura, 67, as he was sworn in at an austere ceremony in Congress. The president plans to reinforce police presence in conflictive areas to achieve territorial control and implement an anti-extortion plan.
Honduras is plagued by the Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18 gangs, which Trump has declared terrorist organizations and which also have a presence in the United States, El Salvador, and Guatemala.
Asfura said he would end a state of emergency declared by his predecessor, Xiomara Castro, similar to the one that underpins the anti-gang war of his Salvadoran counterpart, Nayib Bukele, and criticized by human rights NGOs. With the main legislative bloc, but insufficient for a majority, the president asked for support for his agenda, without detailing the projects.
“New chapter” with the US
Trump threatened to cut aid to Honduras if his protégé did not win, who on Tuesday said he has to “discuss several issues” with his US counterpart, evading a question from the press about whether he will ask him to stop deporting migrants.
His arrival in power marks “the beginning of a new chapter in the bilateral relationship,” said Colleen Hoey, chargé d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa.
In Honduras, where poverty affects 60 percent of its 11 million inhabitants, remittances from the two million migrants living in the United States, most of them undocumented, represent a third of its GDP. “Tito” Asfura, or “Papi a la orden” (Daddy at your service), as he is popularly known, wants the United States to restore the temporary protected status (TPS) that benefits some 60,000 Hondurans in that country.
Of Palestinian descent, the president met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington two weeks ago and then visited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. At the meeting with Rubio, they discussed greater cooperation on security, one of Trump’s obsessions with regard to Latin America, along with the fight against illegal immigration.
The United States is the destination for 60 percent of Honduras’ exports, and following the meeting with Rubio, it was announced that both countries plan to negotiate a free trade agreement. Amid the standoff between Washington and Beijing, Asfura will evaluate resuming ties with Taiwan. Honduras established relations with China in 2023 under the previous leftist government of Xiomara Castro.
Source: El Nuevo Cambio