Trump's Influence in the Tight Race for Honduras Presidency: A Pivotal Moment
ReutersWith a little over two-thirds of the ballots in the Honduras election tallied, the lead has changed hands.
The former vice-president, Salvador Nasralla, has a small but potentially significant lead over his rival, the conservative former mayor of Tegucigalpa, Nasry Asfura. Yet Asfura's National Party continues to brief journalists that they have the numbers for an eventual win.
The race remains on a knife-edge.
In Washington, President Donald Trump has staked his hopes on an outright Asfura victory and has tried to directly influence the race in support of his favoured candidate.
Whether it's been intimating that funds could be withheld from the impoverished Central American nation or making unsubstantiated allegations of electoral fraud, many in Honduras see the US president's fingerprints all over this election.
To Honduran political analyst, Josue Murillo, it smacks of the kind of treatment Honduras expected from Washington during the Cold War.
No government should come here and treat us as a banana republic. That is a lack of respect, he says.
Donald Trump saying who we should elect violates our autonomy as a nation, and it affects our elections as well.
Irrespective of whether the National Party goes on to victory, one of their key figures is already celebrating.
On Monday, ex-President Juan Orlando Hernandez walked out of jail in Virginia a free man having served just one year of a 45-year sentence for drug-smuggling and weapons charges.
His release came after Trump urged Honduran voters to cast their ballots for Asfura.
Trump has claimed the opposite, telling journalists on Air Force One that the people of Honduras really thought (Juan Orlando Hernandez) was set up and it was a terrible thing.
Journalists in Honduras who have covered Hernandez's rise and fall struggle to recognize that description of a roundly detested former president.
Ms Garcia Carias publicly recognized the role of two key MAGA figures in securing her husband's pardon: the influential political advisor Roger Stone and former Florida Congressman, Matt Gaetz.
They both got involved with the case, she says. I recognize and thank them for their contribution.
Meanwhile, the vote count in Honduras carries on into another night. As the ballots continue to be tallied, it should soon become clear whether Trump will get his way in Honduras and see a new ally elected in the country just as he pardons an old one.
