If you’re looking at Honduras today, things are—to put it mildly—a bit of a mess. Honestly, if you just Google "who is the leader of Honduras," you’re going to get two different names depending on which day of the week it is and who you ask in Tegucigalpa.
As of right now, Xiomara Castro is still the President of Honduras. She’s the first woman to ever hold the job. But here is the catch: her time is almost up. In fact, she’s currently in the middle of a very tense, very loud, and very controversial hand-off.
On January 27, 2022, she took the oath of office. Fast forward exactly four years, and she’s supposed to hand the keys to the presidential palace to the next person. That next person? Nasry "Tito" Asfura.
The Current Leader of Honduras: A Transition on the Edge
Xiomara Castro didn't just lose an election; her party, Libre, basically got sidelined in a three-way race that felt more like a soap opera than a democratic process. The November 30, 2025, election was a wild ride. While Castro herself couldn't run again (Honduras has strict one-term limits, despite what former presidents have tried to do), her hand-picked successor, Rixi Moncada, came in a distant third.
It wasn't even close for them.
The real battle was between Nasry Asfura, a construction magnate and former mayor of the capital, and Salvador Nasralla, a sports journalist turned politician who has been trying to win this job for a decade.
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Asfura, who everyone calls "Papi a la Orden" (basically "Daddy at your service"), was declared the winner on December 24, 2025. Yeah, Christmas Eve. Talk about a holiday surprise. He won by a razor-thin margin—only about 28,000 votes.
Why things are kind of chaotic
Even though the National Electoral Council (CNE) called it for Asfura, the runner-up, Nasralla, isn't going away quietly. He’s been screaming fraud from the rooftops. He says the count was rigged. He says the 20-day delay in announcing the results was a "betrayal."
So, who is the leader of Honduras at this exact second?
Technically, Castro is still in the chair. But her power is basically "lame duck" status. Just a few days ago, on January 16, she actually ordered her team to start the transition to Asfura. It was a "reluctant" move, to say the least. She’s spent most of her term fighting the right-wing National Party that Asfura represents, and now she has to hand them back the remote control.
Who is Nasry Asfura? The President-Elect Explained
If you’ve never heard of the guy, think of him as a pragmatic, "pothole and pavement" kind of politician. He made his name as the Mayor of Tegucigalpa by building bridges and tunnels everywhere. People loved the infrastructure, even if his critics pointed to corruption scandals linked to his party.
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He’s 67. He’s of Palestinian descent. And he is very, very close with the current U.S. administration.
Donald Trump actually endorsed Asfura right before the election. That was a massive deal. It basically changed the entire momentum of the race. Trump even pardoned the former president, Juan Orlando Hernández, right before the vote. If you remember, Hernández was the guy the U.S. threw in jail for 45 years for drug trafficking.
A Shift in the Winds
With Asfura coming in, Honduras is doing a complete 180 on foreign policy.
- Israel: Asfura is already in Jerusalem meeting with Netanyahu. He wants to move the embassy back and restart the "brotherhood" between the two countries.
- China vs. Taiwan: Castro switched recognition to China. Asfura? He’s looking back toward the West.
- United States: Expect much tighter cooperation on border security and migration, mostly because Trump basically said he'd only work with Asfura.
The "Two Leaders" Problem
Right now, you’ve basically got a "shadow government" situation.
Castro is still signing decrees, but Asfura is the one meeting with world leaders. On January 18, 2026, while Castro was still officially the head of state, Asfura was in Israel acting like the guy already in charge. It’s awkward. It’s confusing for the people living there.
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There was even a moment in early January where the Honduran Congress approved a partial recount. For a second, it looked like the whole election might be overturned. But that seems to have fizzled out as the military and international observers (well, some of them) have started signaling that Asfura is the guy.
What This Means for You
If you’re traveling to Honduras or doing business there, the "leader of Honduras" is going to change officially on January 27, 2026. Until then, expect protests. Nasralla’s supporters are still in the streets in some parts of Tegucigalpa.
The vibe is tense.
Honduras has a history of messy transfers of power. Remember 2009? The military literally flew the president out of the country in his pajamas. Compared to that, this is "normal," but it’s still a high-stakes transition.
Actionable Insights for Following Honduran Politics:
- Watch January 27: This is the inauguration date. If Asfura takes the sash without a riot, the country will likely stabilize under a very conservative, pro-U.S. agenda.
- Monitor the "Recount" Rhetoric: If the Liberal Party (Nasralla) manages to get a court to freeze the transition, things will get ugly.
- Check Foreign Policy Shifts: If you have interests in the region, keep an eye on how quickly Asfura moves to reverse Castro's deals with China and Venezuela. It’s going to happen fast.
The leader of Honduras is Xiomara Castro for a few more days, but for all intents and purposes, the Nasry Asfura era has already begun.
Next steps: Keep an eye on the official CNE (National Electoral Council) feeds on the morning of the 27th to see if the inauguration proceeds at the National Stadium as planned.