Caribbean & Central America - February 2026

Nasry Asfura of the right-wing Partido Nacional (PN) has been sworn in as Honduras’ new president following an electoral process mired in controversy, and now has the task of dealing with complex issues around security and international relations.

Asfura, 67, is a businessman of Palestinian descent who built a fortune in the construction sector before moving into politics. He held administrative and management roles in the Tegucigalpa municipal government during the 1990s, before serving as a national legislator for the PN (2010-2014), and as mayor of Tegucigalpa for two terms, from 2014-2022. Known as ‘Tito’ and ‘Papi a la Orden (Daddy at your service)’, in his campaign he sought to spin himself as someone who delivers on his promises, with an emphasis on his track record of delivering infrastructure projects such as road improvements.

He made an unsuccessful run at the presidency in 2021, when he was defeated by Xiomara Castro (2022-2026) of the leftist Partido Libertad y Refundación (Libre), before returning to the fray in the November 2025 elections. His victory marks the return to office of the PN, which ruled Honduras under former president Juan Orlando Hernández from 2014-2022 and prior to that under Porfirio Lobo (2010-2014). After leaving office Hernández was extradited to the US and ultimately imprisoned on drugs and weapons charges, but he has since been released from his 45-year sentence following a pardon announced by US President Donald Trump two days before the 30 November vote. Asfura has sought to distance himself from Hernández and any suggestion that he would be influenced by the former president. “At no point will anyone else be involved in any of my actions,” Asfura told Bloomberg in an interview published 14 January.

Asfura has packaged his manifesto in what he calls a ‘Visión 5 Estrellas (Five-Star Vision)’. In terms of security policies, he will review existing security measures, with the controversial state of exception introduced by the Castro government in December 2022 to address extortion, and repeatedly extended, expiring on 26 January, the day before his inauguration. While Castro maintained it reduced crime, think tanks such as US-based non-profit Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (Acled) have remained sceptical [SSR-26-01]. Asfura has also promised to improve the technical capacity of the police and take back public spaces from criminal gangs. At an event at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras in October he said that “the problem [with public security] won’t be resolved with more prisons or repression,” but rather with job opportunities and more widely available basic services.

As regards the economy – the chief voter concern [WR-25-47] – Asfura’s campaign focused on infrastructure development, specifically the welcoming of private investment to achieve this, and the need to create a positive business climate. He also promised to shrink government and cut public spending and has talked up the possibility of using public-private partnerships, particularly with US private capital, repeatedly emphasising the importance of the country’s relationship with Washington. “I am your partner. I am your friend. We are a team working to achieve investment in Honduras,” Asfura said of his intended relationship with the US in his interview with Bloomberg. “It is very important to be a facilitator,” he added.

This is something of a departure from Castro, who had a rocky relationship with the US, including threatening to withdraw from the country’s extradition treaty with Washington [SSR-24-10]. Although Castro eventually abandoned the process to do so, Asfura has made clear his intention to uphold the agreement and others like it. Indeed, Asfura appears well-placed to benefit from ties with Washington, with Trump providing his backing during the election campaign. On 26 November Trump endorsed Asfura, describing him as “the man who is standing up for democracy” in a social media post. “Tito and I can work together to fight the narcocommunists,” added Trump. Trump’s former campaign manager Brad Parscale advised Nasfura’s election campaign through Numen, a Buenos Aires-based political consulting firm that he runs alongside political operative Fernando Cerimedo according to local and international media reports. According to reporting by the New York Times, Parscale advised Numen operatives on how best to use data to target voters to Asfura’s benefit.

Since then, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio congratulated Asfura for his election win in a social media post in December and met with him in Washington on 12 January when Asfura also met US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. And on 14 January Asfura met with the US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who released a statement the following day announcing that the two nations planned to start negotiations over a reciprocal trade agreement.

This close relationship is hardly a surprise, given the previous Trump administration (2017-2021) had close ties with Asfura’s PN under Hernández, and Honduras could benefit from Trump’s transactional foreign policy. For instance, cordial relations with Washington could encourage greater use of the US Soto Cano Air Base in Comayagua department, particularly given Trump’s increasing focus on security in the Western Hemisphere. In return, Asfura may aim to extract economic benefits such as investment from US firms or technical support for planned infrastructure projects, such as modernisation work at ports and railways to connect them.

Strong relations between Asfura and the Trump administration are also linked to Asfura’s campaign trail promise to review Castro’s 2023 decision to end diplomatic relations with Taiwan in favour of China. Asfura has previously said that Honduras was “100 times better off” in terms of aid and trade when it maintained relations with Taiwan. Nonetheless, in his interview with Bloomberg he rowed back slightly, saying that he was evaluating the move and had not spoken to Chinese officials, nor did he offer a public message to Beijing. In a further sign of his geopolitical alignment, Asfura told Bloomberg that he wants to also develop relations with Israel. “I have a clear triangle in mind: the United States, Israel, and Taiwan,” Asfura said. “With that triangle of friendly countries, we can build a great team that will create solutions for the country.”

Looking ahead, Asfura inherits a complex security situation. Although the Castro government oversaw a marked reduction in the homicide rate [SSR-26-01], shifting criminal dynamics and tactics will present challenges. Corruption also remains a serious concern for the Honduran public, but Asfura may have difficulty proving his legitimacy in this area given the multiple scandals linked to the PN’s previous time in office as well as corruption allegations that he has faced himself  He may also struggle to pass legislation, with the PN holding only 49 out of 128 seats in the legislature. This is short of the 65 votes needed to pass general legislation, and far below the two-thirds qualified majority required to appoint judges or enact constitutional reforms.

Allegations

In October 2020, the attorney general’s office requested the removal of Asfura’s immunity from prosecution so that he could be investigated for alleged crimes including abuse of authority, fraud, embezzlement of public funds, and money laundering. The charges were in connection with the alleged diversion of over L28m (US$1.06m) from municipal coffers for “personal benefits” and to “benefit third parties” [WR-20-43]. The following year he was forced on the defensive after his name appeared in the Pandora Papers [WR-21-41], an exposé by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).