The Japan Times - Trump ally Nasry Asfura sworn in as Honduras president

The 67-year-old construction magnate was declared the winner of November's vote by a razor-thin margin after Trump threatened to cut aid to Central America's poorest country if his "friend" was defeated.

Taking his oath before Congress in the capital Tegucigalpa, Asfura repeated his campaign slogan.

"Honduras, we are here to serve you," the former Tegucigalpa mayor said.

Asfura's win gives Trump another ally in Latin America after conservatives replaced leftists in Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Argentina.

The new Honduran president, who is of Palestinian descent, defeated TV star Salvador Nasralla in an election marked by allegations of fraud by his opponents, and a three-week wait for the results.

After his win, he traveled to the United States to meet with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and also visited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Tegucigalpa's ties with Beijing -- the outgoing left-wing government switched its support from Taiwan to China in 2023 -- were at the heart of the election.

Trump has been pressuring countries in Washington's backyard to choose between close ties with Washington or Beijing.

The US ouster of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, an ally of China, was widely seen as a warning to other Latin American countries to pick their camp.

Asfura has said he is considering switching ties back from China to the self-ruled island of Taiwan.

The fate of around two million Hondurans living in the United States, many without legal status, also hangs in the balance.

Asfura has urged Trump to reinstate their Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a program that protected some 60,000 Hondurans from deportation.

- Saving remittances -

Remittances from migrants represent a third of Honduras's GDP.

Rubio, however, said Washington was looking forward to working with Asfura to "end illegal immigration to the United States."

Asfura has promised to crack down on drug trafficking and to go after powerful transnational gangs such as Barrio 18 and MS-13, who extort businesses big and small.

"Extortion is what's holding back anyone who owns a business or works independently, and if you don't pay, they kill you," Daniel Santos, a 64-year-old taxi driver, told AFP, calling on the new president to tackle the scourge "head on."

Asfura has however ruled out extending a state of emergency imposed by his left-wing predecessor Xiomara Castro, which was modelled on the brutal anti-gang war of neighboring El Salvador.

K.Okada--JT