Maduro’s Allies Set the Stage for Election Steal in Honduras

The Trump administration must make it clear that the Honduran people deserve a choice.

President Donald Trump’s aggressive foreign policy in Latin America has been a major shift from the type of Republican interventionism commonplace during the neoconservative era. Instead of setting the untenable goal of “promoting democracy” to backwards third-world Islamic cavedwellers, MAGA has set its sights on the laudable goal of eliminating communism in the hemisphere.

President Trump’s decisive actions in Venezuela, under the leadership of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, has put communist dictator Nicolas Maduro on notice. Maduro recruits partners throughout Latin America to facilitate his narco-trafficking empire, which he relies upon to remain afloat as the socialist policies in Venezuela have predictably led to widespread destitution. Making matters worse for Maduro – his top ally in Honduras, the LIBRE Party of Honduras, is set to lose their grip on power in this month’s national election.

Polling from the Instituto de Justicia shows LIBRE Party presidential candidate Rixi Moncada in a distant third place behind National Party presidential candidate Nasry Asfura and Liberal Party presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla. The LIBRE Party has been exposed by Attorney General Pam Bondi for allowing Venezuela to use Honduras as a key passthrough zone for the narco trade. This and news of direct ties of LIBRE Party leaders to drug cartel kingpins have caused public support for the communists to dissipate.

The LIBRE Party has only one play left to keep its power: election fraud. The LIBRE Party fraud blueprint is already developing as Electoral Commissioner Cosette López recently went on national television where she explained vulnerabilities with the upcoming election, including currently awarding no contracts for connectivity systems needed to sustain crucial electoral infrastructure. In response, the LIBRE Party’s electoral commissioner Marlon Ochoa produced alleged audio of López colluding with National Party’s congressional leader Tommy Zambrano conspiring to commit election fraud.

Attorney General Johel Zelaya of the LIBRE Party publicly broadcast the alleged audio between López and Zambrano despite not validating its legitimacy or investigating whether it had been obtained unlawfully through an illegal wiretap. López and Zambrano stated they never had any conversations of the sort and the audio was doctored, which was confirmed by independent research by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. AI and deep fake technology are rapidly being banned or severely restricted for use in electoral politics across the U.S. and Europe, but no such prohibitions exist in Honduras.

Additionally, the Electoral Justice Tribunal has been under constant harassment from LIBRE Party officials. Stone Cold Truth also reported on the widespread electoral fraud that occurred during the presidential primary elections. During the Honduran national primary elections on Mar. 9, the Associated Press reported that polling centers were forcibly closed on election day because they conveniently “lacked electoral materials.” According to a report from El Heraldo, only 10 of 152 voting centers received the electoral material they needed to conduct the vote by election day in the well-populated industrial center of San Pedro Sula.

Mainstream news reports in Honduras implicated officials with the ruling LIBRE Party for arriving at polling locations with suitcases full of illegal ballots that were already filled out. The AP admitted that voter disenfranchisement was occurring on a wide scale during the Honduran primary election, interviewing angry voters dismayed by the humiliating process. The LIBRE Party primed the public for anomalies and irregularities to occur within the voting process during the primary election, and they appear to be plodding forward at maximum speed toward a full-blown vote steal on Nov. 30.

Outgoing President Xiomara Castro took to gaslighting her people, accusing her opposition of plotting exactly what the LIBRE Party is doing in an X post: “I strongly condemn this criminal conspiracy aimed at provoking an Electoral Coup, as expressed by the Attorney General of the Republic. I have instructed the Armed Forces to immediately investigate the involvement of any active military personnel, and the Chancellor of the Republic to report these events to the international community, because this constitutes a direct threat against Honduran democracy.”

The Trump administration’s goals, centered around ending communism rather than promoting the lofty goal of “democracy,” can take root in Latin America with ongoing examples as indicators. Nayib Bukele of El Salvador has become the most popular leader in the region for flouting his country’s corrupt justice system and initiating an unprecedented crackdown on gang activity. The Trump administration’s $40 billion investment recently paid off as Argentinians rallied around libertarian President Javier Milei with an overwhelming election victory bolstering his mandate to take a chainsaw to bureaucracy. These are the movements that American foreign policy is encouraging, supporting leaders who will bring a more independent, prosperous and dignified way of life to Latin America.

In Honduras, it is looking as if the people are not going to be able to make that choice. They are under the yoke of a communist LIBRE Party that tricked them, exploiting their legitimate grievances about poverty and inequality to enact a dictatorship. They have shown a propensity to cheat and have crafted a basis in which they can steal the upcoming election. The U.S. should not allow this to take place. The Trump administration must make it clear that the Honduran people deserve a choice, on the election of their President all the way down to the local levels of government, and the authenticity of the elections must be independently verified, otherwise the LIBRE Party gets the Maduro treatment and is put out of commission permanently.