TEGUCIGALPA,
Honduras’s outgoing president called for a meeting with US counterpart Donald Trump on Saturday to discuss November’s election saying his public backing of winner Nasry Asfura “negatively influenced” the democratic process.
Asfura, a conservative businessman, was declared winner of the presidential election on December 24, weeks after a tight race marred by delays and allegations of fraud.
Trump’s support of Asfura fuelled allegations of US interference in the election in one of Latin America’s poorest countries.
Xiomara Castro, who finishes her term on January 27, addressed Trump in a post to X inviting her US counterpart to “hold direct and frank dialogue on the electoral process in Honduras.”
Castro pointed to Trump’s “public statements” in favour of Asfura which she deemed “negatively influenced the development of the democratic process and affected” her party’s candidate.
Asfura, a 67-year-old son of Palestinian immigrants, narrowly defeated fellow conservative TV personality Salvador Nasralla, 40.1 per cent to 39.5 per cent.
Rixi Moncada, a lawyer from the leftist Libre Party, which currently runs the government, trailed behind in third with 19.2 per cent.
Castro, in her lengthy post on X, also said she had signed a decree passed by the Central American country’s legislature demanding a recount of the November 30 presidential election.
That legislative effort prompted a rebuke by the US State Department on Saturday, with the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs warning on X that “attempts to illegally overturn Honduras’s election will have serious consequences.”
It was not immediately clear what impact Castro’s decree would have, given the independent status of the National Electoral Council.
“In the face of the false information circulating and the recent message from the State Department, I consider it indispensable to formally invite” Trump to “an audience or direct call, to address with responsibility, mutual respect and transparency the electoral situation in Honduras,” she added in her post.
Shortly before the election, Trump publicly called for Hondurans to vote for Asfura and threatened cuts to US funding if others won, prompting allegations of foreign interference.
