As Hondurans prepare for Sunday’s presidential election, officials and analysts are condemning what they describe as Washington’s interference threatening the country’s sovereign democratic process.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s endorsement of right-wing candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura has triggered alarm, with Trump warning that aid could be withheld if Asfura loses and declaring that “a wrong Leader can only bring catastrophic results.”

The controversy deepened when Trump pledged to pardon former president Juan Orlando Hernández, serving 45 years for drug trafficking—a move critics call political because it seeks to reassure conservative allies and directly entangles U.S. judicial power with Honduras’s election, distorting legitimacy in an already tense race.

Honduran officials responded sharply. Outgoing President Xiomara Castro warned that foreign dictates undermine Honduran sovereignty and risk destabilizing the democratic process.

National Electoral Council president Ana Paola Hall rejected military requests for ballot records as “interference,” while Libre party official Enrique Reina dismissed Trump’s characterization of the party as “communist,” insisting, “We have our own vision of democratic socialism.”

Rixi Moncada, candidate of the ruling LIBRE party, vows to extend President Xiomara Castro’s leftist agenda. Asfura, from the conservative National Party, campaigns on what has been described as “business-friendly policies,” while Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party positions himself as a centrist appealing to moderates.

Analysts warn that foreign involvement compounds existing strains: preemptive fraud claims, military interest in ballot materials, and fears of unrest after the vote.

Violence has already marred the campaign, including a fatal attack on a Libre march that killed a five-year-old, intensifying public anxiety about security.

Yet the asymmetrical relationship with Washington looms large.

Remittances account for roughly a quarter of Honduras’s GDP, and U.S. migration and deportation policies directly affect tens of thousands of Honduran families, magnifying external leverage.

Trump’s intervention is seen as exploiting Honduras’s vulnerabilities, using transactional diplomacy that shields allies accused of corruption, undermines the vote’s credibility, and heightens the risk of unrest if results are disputed.