Ruling party candidate Rixi Moncada says Trump’s endorsement and pardon pledge for ex-president Hernandez constitute intervention in Honduras election
TEGUCIGALPA: The ruling party candidate in Honduras’ presidential election has accused US President Donald Trump of “interventionist” meddling.
Leftist candidate Rixi Moncada of incumbent Xiomara Castro’s Libre Party made the accusation following Trump’s endorsement of her right-wing opponent.
“There is no doubt that these are two concrete actions, three days before the elections, that are totally interventionist,” Moncada told a press conference on Saturday.
Trump endorsed right-wing candidate Nasry Asfura on Wednesday, saying the two could work together against the region’s “narcocommunists.”
On Friday, he threatened to cut US support if his preferred candidate loses the election.
Trump also announced he would pardon former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez, who is serving a 45-year US prison sentence for drug trafficking.
Hernandez, who led Honduras from 2014 to 2022, was convicted last year of facilitating the import of 400 tons of cocaine into the United States.
The former president was extradited to the US just weeks after leaving office.
Trump’s pardon pledge drew criticism from his US political opponents and Colombia’s president.
The announcement comes amid a controversial US anti-drug trafficking operation in Latin America.
That campaign has seen over 80 people killed in strikes in international waters, which experts have criticized as extrajudicial killings.
Trump said Hernandez “has been, according to many people that I greatly respect, treated very harshly and unfairly” in a social media post. – AFP
