MANUEL ZELAYA

Xiomara Castro has been sworn in as Honduras’ first female president amid a sea of waving flags in the national stadium.

Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Honduras next week to attend the inauguration of President-elect Xiomara Castro.

If Xiomara Castro’s wide lead in Honduras’ presidential election holds, her leftist government could present opportunities for a Biden administration.

Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, the wife of ousted former president Mel Zelaya, has taken a commanding lead in Honduras' elections, capping a 12-year effort.

Leftist opposition candidate Xiomara Castro is holding a commanding lead as Hondurans appear poised to remove the conservative National Party after 12 years of continuous rule.

For many Hondurans, Sunday’s election will be about removing a party whose successive administrations are widely seen as deepening the country’s corruption over the past 12 years, driving tens of thousands to flee the country.

(AP Photo/Moises Castillo, File)TEGUCIGALPA – Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández’s name keeps popping up in the New York trial of an alleged drug trafficker. And one of the candidates running to replace him in Sunday’s primary elections has been convicted in the same court of laundering money for the same cartel. Polls closed at 5 p.m. and the vote count had begun, but there was no immediate word on when results would be available. Political analyst and three-time former presidential candidate Olban Valladares said the elections are an opportunity for Hondurans to begin to free themselves of failed leaders. But voters will also choose the candidates who will compete for the 128 seats of the National Congress in November, as well as 298 local governments and other positions.

FILE - In this Jan. 14, 2020, file photo, Honduras' President Juan Orlando Hernandez arrives for the swearing-in ceremony for Guatemala's new President Alejandro Giammattei at the National Theater in Guatemala City. AdThe accusation came in the third day of testimony in the trial of alleged drug trafficker Geovanny Fuentes Ramírez. U.S. prosecutors have made it clear that allegations against President Hernández would arise during the trial, though he has not been charged. During that trial, the president was accused of accepting more than $1 million from Mexican drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. Alvarez said that he had never taken money from Rivera Maradiaga, who called the politicians he allegedly bribed “narco-politicians.”Ad“I don’t have anything to hide,” Alvarez wrote.