The Latin American Report # 662
Honduras
With over 80% of polling stations counted, Salvador Nasralla continues to lead Nasry Asfura in their tight battle for the presidency of Honduras (+13,927 votes, +0.55%), in an electoral process marked by ideological biases and a lack of institutional integrity from the very start. The gap in favor of Nasralla has fluctuated between 14,000 and 16,000 votes in the past 24 hours, but the latest transmitted tally sheets reflect that Asfura still has a chance, something I didn't see as clearly yesterday. In fact, the political force of Donald Trump's favored candidate, the National Party, claims that "the Liberal Party has already run out of votes in its favor, and what will come in will be in favor of [us]."
Let's remember that 72 hours have already passed since the polls closed last Sunday. In this regard, and in the heart of the 21st century, it seems quite improper to me that, at this stage of the game, we still do not have a definitive result. Thus, transparency has been highly debated, as the website intended for disseminating preliminary results has remained unavailable to public access since Monday itself, prompting the National Electoral Council to enable an exclusive link for media and political parties. This is to prevent a complete breakdown of the information flow and further erosion of trust in the process.
The first problem I identified on this point, already addressed in my reports about Honduras this week, is the hiring of a company to provide a service that should be the exclusive responsibility of the electoral authority. Indeed, the company has committed the absurdity of undertaking maintenance on the results' dissemination system, in the midst of the electoral drama, without the approval of the full National Electoral Council, as denounced today by the head of the also-disputed body. The ruling party is disputing the results and denouncing an ongoing electoral coup, emphasizing alleged inconsistencies in the much-discussed results transmission system.
SourceCuba
In the early hours of this Wednesday, another large-scale blackout occurred in the national power system, although more focused on the western region, which includes Havana, the capital. It is, so to speak, the penultimate one. People here continue to experience prolonged and daily blackouts due to the battered, impoverished generation infrastructure, the lack of foreign currency to import fuel, and the persecution of the country's finances and international trade by the U.S. Treasury Department, which, furthermore, since 2019, has designated the companies responsible for importing fuel.
Beyond the energy crisis, Cuba continues to search for the bottom of an ocean of pervasive hardships and structural socioeconomic problems. Authorities are trying to address the latter with a new program currently being discussed with workers and students. The initiative is laudable, but has methodological deficits and practical constraints. In this sense, the main difficulty I see for achieving its goals lies in the lack of sound external support, as the actors most capable of filling the Island's coffers and markets are not inclined to engage at the level we need.
SourceVenezuela
New about the Hegseth affair 👇
ABC’s Martha Raddatz on Wednesday’s ‘World News Tonight’ about drug boat-gate: “And tonight, new information: According to a source familiar with the incident, the two survivors climbed back on to the boat after the initial strike. They were believed to be potentially in… pic.twitter.com/R5eHFzzDql
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) December 4, 2025
USG has a new explanation on why they (now admittedly) intentionally killed 2 shipwrecked men. It does not pass the laws-of-war smell test
— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) December 4, 2025
Worse for Hegseth, NYT: "Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth approved contingency plans for what to do if an initial strike left survivors."
🧵 pic.twitter.com/lHLYO0Iiue
This is all for today’s report.
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