Honduras’ Power Brokers Tighten Grip on Public Life

Congress removed the attorney general and four electoral officials in 2026, while doctors pressed the government for unpaid wages and the return of dismissed colleagues. Honduras has plenty of offices at the top. The disputes below show who still waits for decisions to reach them.

Votes, Seats and Appointments

Nasry Asfura took office on Jan. 27 for a four-year term after the National Electoral Council declared him the winner of the Nov. 30, 2025, election. With 97.86% of tally sheets counted, Asfura received 40.27%, or about 1,479,822 votes. Salvador Nasralla received 39.53%, a gap of 0.74 percentage points, or about 27,000 votes on the counted tally sheets. Rixi Moncada received 19.19%. The Liberal Party and Libre said they’d challenge the process. President Donald Trump had endorsed Asfura before the vote, and then-Congress president Luis Redondo called the declaration legally worthless.

Congress holds 128 seats and selects top judges, the attorney general and electoral officials. The National Party has 49 seats, the Liberal Party 41, Libre 35, PINU two and the Christian Democrats one. A simple majority is 65 votes, so the National Party can’t pass legislation alone. José Tomás Zambrano of the National Party became Congress president for the 2026-2030 term after a vote reported as 86 in favor by the Congress news site and 87 by La Prensa. The board has 28 positions, including 14 National Party and 12 Liberal Party positions; the published list includes no Libre deputy.

The constitution establishes a presidential republic. The president and three designados, who stand in when the president is absent, are elected together for four years. Asfura’s designados are María Antonieta Mejía, Carlos Alberto Flores Guifarro and Diana Herrera Portillo. The armed forces are constitutionally described as professional, apolitical and obedient.

The Institutions Under Dispute

Prosecutors filed charges on Oct. 15 against Redondo and other members of the Permanent Commission, which acts for Congress during recesses. Prosecutors say it formed irregularly on Oct. 31, 2025. A judge ordered Redondo’s arrest, but the deputy security minister said on Oct. 23 that officials hadn’t carried out the order. The allegations include usurpation of functions, unlawful disturbance of the functioning of institutions and two counts of breach of official duties; they haven’t been tested in court. Zambrano called the case a consequence of actions outside the law, while Libre leaders called it political persecution. A hearing was set for Oct. 29.

The electoral authority remains in interim hands after Congress failed to agree on a permanent structure. Congress removed electoral councilor Marlon Ochoa and three Electoral Justice Tribunal magistrates on April 16, with 88 of 128 votes; Libre’s 35 deputies didn’t vote. Aixa Zelaya, a lawyer representing the Liberal Party, leads the interim council. It remained in place after a Sept. 11 deadline passed without an agreement to amend or extend the decree.

Wagner Vallecillo became interim president of the Supreme Court after Rebeca Ráquel Obando resigned in March; the full court ratified him on March 26. El Heraldo described his selection as part of an agreement sharing posts between the National and Liberal parties. Pablo Emilio Reyes Theodore became attorney general on March 25 after Congress removed Johel Zelaya with 93 votes. El Heraldo described it as the first impeachment trial of a senior official in Honduran history.

Care, Security and the Cost Below

Doctors’ assemblies disrupted routine hospital care. The Honduran Medical Association sought immediate payment of back pay to contract and interim doctors and reinstatement of dismissed staff. The government said it had paid 97% of doctors and that fewer than 200 remained unpaid; the association counted about 560. Vice president Héctor Carranza said more than 500 doctors hadn’t been paid. The Health Secretariat estimated the dispute affected about 30,000 outpatient consultations and 3,000 to 4,000 elective surgeries.

The government and the association agreed on Oct. 23 to suspend the assemblies. The association confirmed the suspension on Oct. 25, and consultations and surgeries were due to resume Oct. 26, alongside an expanded technical roundtable involving government bodies and the association. Deputy health secretary José Miguel Castillo blamed administrative damage from the previous administration.

Meanwhile, Zambrano’s October agenda included penal-code reforms targeting gangs and consideration of a maximum-security facility at the abandoned La Acequia prison site. Security Secretary Gerzon Velásquez said the constitution and criminal procedure code allow detention to be extended from 24 to 48 hours, a claim La Prensa Verifica rated a half-truth because the extension applies only to complex investigations. General Héctor Benjamín Valerio Ardón asked Congress for laws, personnel and equipment to strengthen the armed forces. In the same hierarchy, doctors were negotiating for wages already owed, and patients faced disrupted care.