Honduras Politics Explained, Who Holds Power in 2026

HONDURAS · POLITICS

Honduras politics in October 2026 is built around President Nasry Asfura of the conservative National Party, who took office on 27 January 2026 after a disputed election. Around him sit a Congress his party leads, a Supreme Court and attorney general installed in March, and armed forces that he commands as commander general.

The main opposition is the left-wing Libre party of former president Xiomara Castro and her husband, Manuel Zelaya, while the Liberal Party, whose 2025 candidate Salvador Nasralla finished second, holds 41 of the 128 seats in Congress. This guide names who holds each office as of 26 October 2026 and says where a case or a name is still moving.

How Power Is Shared in Honduras

The constitution of 1982 makes Honduras a presidential republic in which the president and three designados, who stand in for him when he is absent, are elected together by simple majority for four years. Each term begins on 27 January after the November vote, which is why Asfura took office on that date in 2026.

Congress has 128 deputies and chooses the top judges, the attorney general and the electoral officials, so a majority in that chamber reaches into every other institution. In 2026 it removed the attorney general and four electoral officials and then swore in new people to several of the posts, as the sections below show.

The constitution describes the armed forces as professional, apolitical and obedient, and it forms the Central District from the old towns of Tegucigalpa and Comayagüela as a single municipality. Municipalities are autonomous under it, which is why the capital and San Pedro Sula count as power centres of their own.

President Asfura, His Designados and the Cabinet

Nasry Asfura, a businessman and former mayor of the capital who held that post for eight years until 2022, Criterio reported, was declared the winner of the 30 November 2025 election by the National Electoral Council (CNE) on 24 December 2025 and was sworn in on 27 January 2026. His designados are María Antonieta Mejía, a National Party deputy when chosen, Carlos Alberto Flores Guifarro, a plastic surgeon, and Diana Herrera Portillo, a businesswoman from Choluteca.

Asfura was on an official trip to Italy in late October 2026, where on 22 October he signed a bilateral treaty with the Holy See alongside Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Infobae reported. Foreign Secretary Mireya Agüero and Minister of the Presidency Juan Carlos García accompanied him, the same outlet said on 25 October.

Economic policy runs through Finance Minister Emilio Hernández, who also coordinates the economic cabinet, and he said on 19 October 2026 that a mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would spend two weeks in Tegucigalpa reviewing the 2023 agreement. A successful review would give access to US$120 million, La Prensa reported, adding that the agreement gave access to about US$823 million and expired in September.

The National Congress and Its President

José Tomás Zambrano of the National Party was elected president of Congress on 23 January 2026 for the 2026 to 2030 term, with 86 votes in favour, the chamber’s own news site says, while La Prensa counted 87. The board has 28 posts split 14 National, 12 Liberal, 1 Christian Democrat and 1 PINU, La Prensa reported on 23 January 2026, and the published list names no Libre deputy.

Security dominates Zambrano’s agenda in October 2026, starting with penal code reforms against gangs that Congress took up on 12 October. On 23 October he inspected the abandoned La Acequia prison site in Santa Bárbara to judge whether it could host a maximum-security jail, La Prensa reported.

Jorge Cálix, who heads the Liberal bench, proposed on 29 September 2026 to suspend for six months a fuel levy that funds social programmes and road upkeep, La Prensa reported. He also moved the motion that made Wagner Vallecillo interim president of the Supreme Court on 25 March 2026, El Heraldo reported.

Courts, Prosecutors and Electoral Bodies

Wagner Vallecillo presides over the Supreme Court of Justice, the top court, after Rebeca Ráquel Obando resigned in March 2026 and the full court ratified him on 26 March. His term runs to February 2030, and El Heraldo described the choice as part of a deal that shared posts between the National and Liberal parties.

Pablo Emilio Reyes Theodore has been attorney general since 25 March 2026, when Congress removed Johel Zelaya with 93 votes in what El Heraldo called the first impeachment trial of a senior official in Honduran history. On 19 October 2026 Reyes announced a new special prosecutor’s office against money laundering, terrorism financing and asset recovery, Infobae reported.

Prosecutors filed charges on 15 October 2026 against Luis Redondo, the former Congress president, and other members of the 2025 Permanent Commission, the committee that acts for Congress during recesses and that they say was formed irregularly on 31 October 2025. A judge ordered Redondo’s arrest, but the deputy security minister said on 23 October that the order had not yet been carried out, Infobae reported.

Infobae and La Prensa both list the charges against Redondo as usurpation of functions, unlawful disturbance of the functioning of institutions and two counts of breach of official duties, and La Prensa adds a forgery of public documents count against a former Congress secretary, all of them allegations that no court has tested. Zambrano called the case a consequence of actions outside the law, while Libre leaders call it political persecution, La Prensa reported on 23 October 2026.

The CNE’s declaration of the 2025 result was signed by councillors Ana Paola Hall and Cossette López, while Libre’s councillor Marlon Ochoa refused to sign, El Heraldo reported. On 16 April 2026 Congress removed Ochoa and three Electoral Justice Tribunal (TJE) magistrates with 88 of 128 votes, and Libre’s 35 deputies did not vote, La Prensa reported.

Hall and López went on leave from 1 July 2026, and Aixa Zelaya, a lawyer who represents the Liberal Party, took the presidency of the interim council, with Eduardo Fuentes as councillor and Carlos Cardona as alternate. The interim council stayed in place after an 11 September deadline passed without an agreement to amend or extend the decree, Infobae reported.

The Parties, National, Liberal, Libre and the Small Ones

The National Party won the 2025 presidential race with 40.27% of the vote, or about 1,479,822 votes, in the electoral council’s declaration of 24 December 2025, issued with 97.86% of tally sheets counted. Former president Juan Orlando Hernández, who led the country from 2014 to 2022, was sentenced to 45 years in a US court in 2024 and freed after a pardon from President Donald Trump in December 2025, La Prensa reported on 17 October 2026.

The Liberal Party has two faces in 2026. Its 2025 candidate Salvador Nasralla finished second with 39.53% and rejected the official result, yet Liberal deputies hold 12 of the 28 posts on Congress’s board and a Liberal lawyer presides over the interim electoral council.

Roberto Contreras, the mayor of San Pedro Sula, was named president of the Liberal Party’s executive council in April 2025, La Prensa reported, and Hondudiario still quoted him in that role on 17 September 2026. Iroshka Elvir, Nasralla’s wife, sits in Congress as a deputy, La Prensa reported on 29 September 2026.

Libre, the left-wing Liberty and Refoundation party, is the main opposition with 35 deputies, and former president Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in the 2009 coup, is its general coordinator. After about a month in a Mexican hospital, Zelaya returned to Honduras on 15 October 2026 and told the broadcaster HCH that Libre must prepare to win power back in 2029, La Prensa reported.

Two small parties complete Congress, with PINU holding 2 seats and the Christian Democrats 1. The National Party’s 49 seats are 16 short of a majority of 65, so it needs the Liberal bench, or Libre, to pass laws.

Two Pivots, the 2025 Election and the Doctors’ Dispute

The election of 30 November 2025 shaped almost everything above, and the electoral council declared Asfura the winner on 24 December 2025 with 40.27% against 39.53% for Nasralla, a gap of 0.74 percentage points, or about 27,000 votes on the counted tally sheets. Libre’s candidate, Rixi Moncada, took 19.19%, and both the Liberal Party and Libre said they would challenge the process, CNN Español reported.

President Donald Trump had endorsed Asfura days before the vote, and Luis Redondo, then Congress president and a Libre member, called the declaration legally worthless, the same report said. An extraordinary session on 8 January 2026 later approved a decree ordering a recount of polling-station counts, which prosecutors cite in their case against Redondo and the Permanent Commission, La Prensa reported on 24 October 2026.

The Health Secretariat estimated that the dispute affected about 30,000 outpatient consultations and between 3,000 and 4,000 elective surgeries, El Heraldo reported on 25 October 2026. The CMH’s demands were immediate payment of back pay to contract and interim doctors and the reinstatement of dismissed staff.

CMH vice president Héctor Carranza said after the agreement that more than 500 doctors had not been paid, Infobae reported, while deputy health secretary José Miguel Castillo blamed administrative damage from the previous administration. Zambrano had warned on 16 October that Congress would have to intervene if the assemblies persisted and said some leaders were tied to Libre, La Prensa reported.

The Military and the Police

The president is the commander general of the armed forces, and the defence ministry’s news page of 1 June 2026 shows Enrique Rodríguez Burchard as defence secretary and Rafael Cano Martínez as deputy secretary, while Hondudiario still quoted Rodríguez Burchard as defence minister on 16 September 2026. General Héctor Benjamín Valerio Ardón heads the Joint Staff, the top military post, and he attended the same command meeting, which Asfura chaired.

On 25 October 2026 Valerio Ardón asked Congress for new laws to strengthen the forces, adding that they also need staff and equipment, and he named the Public Order Military Police as a unit that needs more people and supplies, HCH reported. He said the planned National Agency against Crime would work as part of a team with the other security bodies.

Security Secretary Gerzon Velásquez, a career National Police officer with more than 26 years of service, was sworn in by Asfura on 5 February 2026. La Prensa reported on 3 August 2026, citing the presidency, that he said about 30 municipalities hold roughly 70% of the country’s violence and that 117 criminal structures were dismantled in the first 180 days.

Defence Secretary Rodríguez Burchard signed a defence and security memorandum with Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz, Infobae reported on 18 August 2026, and the memorandum is a framework only, with specific programmes still to be agreed. Velásquez and Valerio Ardón also took part in the meeting, and Honduras Geopolitics Explained 2026 covers the wider picture of its foreign ties.

Mayors, Local Power and Rising Figures

Honduras has 298 municipalities, each run by a mayor and a municipal corporation, and the two biggest prizes are the Central District and San Pedro Sula. SEPOL, the police statistics site, lists the Central District first and San Pedro Sula second among the 25 municipalities with the most homicides in 2026, updated to 9 October.

Juan Diego Zelaya is mayor of the Central District, a city La Prensa describes as home to two million people, and on 25 September 2026 he warned of a critical water shortage tied to El Niño while reactivating 41 wells. His predecessor Jorge Aldana spent 57 days in protest after the 2025 vote, saying his victory had been stolen, Hondudiario reported on 27 January 2026.

San Pedro Sula, the industrial capital of the north, is run by Roberto Contreras, who said on 6 January 2026 that he had been re-elected, and the city’s own website names him as mayor on 26 October 2026. La Prensa reported on 23 October that bids were opened for the El Barón bridge in the city, which it called the first work the national government will carry out there.

What It Means for US Readers

The US State Department’s Honduras advisory, dated 10 December 2024, sets Level 3, reconsider travel, because of crime, with the eastern department of Gracias a Dios at Level 4, do not travel. It lists violent crime, widespread gang activity and frequent, unpredictable protests and roadblocks, so travellers should check the current advisory before booking.

Washington refused Asfura’s request for a grace period for Hondurans losing Temporary Protected Status, Foreign Secretary Mireya Agüero said on 3 September 2026, and La Prensa put the number covered at more than 72,000 when the Department of Homeland Security announced the programme’s end in July 2025. Agüero added that Honduras has no official, updated count of how many people the programme covered.

For investors, the near-term signals are the IMF review that began on 19 October 2026 and the electricity-sector reform, on which the private-sector council Cohep welcomed the IMF’s position on 24 October, Infobae reported. Further guides on who runs the Honduran economy and on investing in Honduras as a foreigner cover the money side in more detail.

What Is Not Known

It is not known whether Luis Redondo will be arrested or will appear voluntarily, because the order had not been carried out as of 23 October 2026 and the file stays sealed at the prosecutors’ request, Infobae reported. La Prensa reported on 24 October that a hearing for members of the former commission was set for 29 October 2026, and Infobae said it covers those who had named lawyers.

Who will sit permanently on the electoral council is open, because Congress let an 11 September 2026 deadline pass without agreeing to amend or extend the decree and the interim councillors stayed on, Infobae reported on 14 September. Electoral reforms were among the topics Congress said it would take up when it resumed sessions on 12 October 2026, El Heraldo reported.

It is not known whether the doctors’ agreement will hold, because the CMH counted about 560 unpaid doctors and the government fewer than 200 on 19 October 2026. The expanded technical roundtable that starts on 26 October is meant to settle that count.

Criterio.hn reported on 28 January 2026 that Asfura took office with a judicial case open against him, filed in 2024 by the anti-corruption prosecution unit Uferco, which accused him and other former city officials of running a money-laundering network that diverted city hall funds in 2017 and 2018. The status of that case in October 2026 is not clear from public reporting, and the accusations are unproven.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is the president of Honduras in 2026?

Nasry Asfura of the National Party has been president since 27 January 2026, after the electoral council declared him the winner of the 30 November 2025 vote. His three designados are María Antonieta Mejía, Carlos Alberto Flores Guifarro and Diana Herrera Portillo.

Who controls the Honduran Congress?

José Tomás Zambrano of the National Party presides over it, and the seats are 49 National, 41 Liberal, 35 Libre, 2 PINU and 1 Christian Democrat. No party reaches the 65 votes of a simple majority alone.

Who leads the opposition in Honduras?

Libre, coordinated by former president Manuel Zelaya, is the main opposition with 35 deputies. The Liberal Party, whose 2025 candidate was Salvador Nasralla, holds 41 seats.

Who heads the Honduran Supreme Court and prosecution service?

Wagner Vallecillo presides over the Supreme Court of Justice, and Pablo Emilio Reyes Theodore is attorney general, both since March 2026. Congress removed the previous attorney general, Johel Zelaya, on 25 March 2026.

Who commands the army and police in Honduras?

President Asfura is commander general of the armed forces, with Defence Secretary Enrique Rodríguez Burchard and Joint Staff chief Héctor Benjamín Valerio Ardón. Security Secretary Gerzon Velásquez, a career police officer, steers the National Police’s deployment.

When is the next presidential election in Honduras?

Asfura’s four-year term began on 27 January 2026, so the next regular presidential election is due in 2029, the year Libre’s Manuel Zelaya named on 15 October 2026. Each term starts on 27 January after the vote.

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