After lengthy delays and accusations of fraud, the results of Honduras’ primary elections were confirmed earlier this week.
Three candidates are in the running: Rixi Moncada of the governing left-wing Liberty and Refoundation Party (LIBRE), Salvador Nasralla of the centrist Liberal Party, and Nasry Asfura of the right-wing National Party.
Despite current President Xiomara Castro agreeing to extend the extradition agreement with the United States after threatening to suspend it, the relationship between the U.S. and Honduras has chilled in recent years.
According to Ana María Méndez Dardón, Central America Director for the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), many Trump Republicans see Honduras’ current government as too cozy with China, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
With general elections set for November 30, here is a closer look at the three candidates who emerged after the March 9 primaries:
Rixi Moncada – LIBRE
Moncada (born 1965) is a lawyer and notary with a degree in Legal and Social Sciences, specializing in criminal law. Between 1999 and 2003, she was an advisor to the Public Prosecutor’s Office and Attorney General. In 2006, she became the Minister of Labor under President Manuel Zelaya who was ousted by a coup in June 2009. Zelaya, who was originally elected as a centrist candidate but became increasingly left-wing during his tenure, and Moncada both went into exile.
Moncada, upon returning to Honduras, then helped to oversee primary, internal, and general elections in 2012, 2013, 2016, and 2017. In 2019, she became the president of the National Electoral Council (CNE): a post which she left in 2021 in order to serve as Finance Minister under current President Xiamara Castro. In September 2024, Moncada became the country’s first female Minister of Defense.
One of Moncada’s goals is to ensure that “people enjoy better conditions, not only economic and social, but also conditions of happiness.” She has pledged to protect “natural wealth” from “21st-century filibusters who want to privatize everything,” entities she describes as “enemies of the public and the sovereign.”
Promising to adhere to the “values of Christianity” and the “values of humanism”, she has also expressed her commitment to combating corruption “in all its forms” and “in every public and private space where we operate.”
Her manifesto declares: “LIBRE is a national sentiment. LIBRE is revolution, it is hope. LIBRE also has a woman’s face.”
Salvador Nasralla – Liberal Party
Nasralla (born 1953) is nicknamed “The Lord of Television”, having worked as a sports journalist, beauty pageant host, and games show presenter. He first entered the political arena when he co-founded the Anti-Corruption Party in 2011, which he represented as a presidential candidate in the 2013 general elections. His candidacy was unsuccessful.
In 2017, he ran again, this time representing the Opposition Alliance Against the Dictatorship, which also comprised Moncada’s Liberty and Refoundation Party. He came second to National Party candidate Juan Orlando Hernández in an election that was marked by accusations of fraud.
In October 2021, Nasralla joined an alliance with current president Xiomara Castro of LIBRE. Following Castro’s success, Nasralla became the country’s Vice President until he resigned in 2024.
Nasralla has expressed his commitment to “generation of employment”, pledging to “implement fiscal policies aimed at stimulating investment.” Were he to be elected, his government’s “central focus” would be “an open economy”, according to his campaign website.
Nasralla has also promised that his government would operate with “transparency”, which would involve the creation of a “transparency portal” containing information “in real time”, though the campaign page does not clarify what the nature of this information would be.
Last week, Nasralla accused Moncada of being the “culprit” behind the delays in the primaries, and alleged she had done “everything to delay the process.”
Nasry Asfura – National Party
Asfura (born 1958) began a career in the construction industry after dropping out of his civil engineering course in college. He was the mayor of the capital, Tegucigalpa, from 2014 until 2022, during which time he oversaw the construction of various infrastructure projects in order to improve traffic flow.
Towards the end of 2020, Asfura was indicted by the Honduran authorities as part of an investigation into the embezzlement of over USD $1 million. At the start of 2021, nine of his properties and three of his companies were seized by the Specialized Prosecutor’s Unit Against Corruption Networks, and Asfura was accused of embezzling public funds, money laundering, using false documents, and violating the duties of public officials.
Ultimately, all charges against him were dropped.
In 2021, he ran unsuccessfully as presidential candidate for the National Party and became known amongst his supporters as “Papi a la orden” (“Papa at your service”) and “Tito” (“Uncle”).
Asfura is now tasked with the challenge of repairing the reputation of a party whose previous leader was sentenced last year by a U.S. court for drug crimes, accused by prosecutors of running Honduras like a “narco-state”.
Asfura expressed in recent social media posts a commitment to “[bringing] development and opportunities for everyone”, in addition to pledging that he will “facilitate foreign and domestic investment into the country” and “generate employment for all.”
Following the news that he had been elected as his party’s presidential candidate, Asfura posted: “We haven’t won anything yet. The real struggle lies ahead, and we must keep working harder than ever.”
