IRTF News

Honduras heads into its November 30 elections after a turbulent decade marked by the post-coup era and the COVID-19 crisis. Under President Xiomara Castro and her LIBRE party, some economic and social indicators have begun to recover: poverty has fallen from its pandemic peak, inequality continues a slow decline, underemployment is at a decade low, and both public and private investment have grown. External public debt has stabilized, and the country remains fiscally sound under an IMF program. Still, Honduras remains Central America’s poorest country, with low per-capita growth and persistent structural vulnerability. Voters will choose among LIBRE’s Rixi Moncada, opposition candidate Salvador Nasralla, and National Party contender Nasry Asfura as the country seeks to consolidate fragile gains and confront ongoing poverty, inequality, and economic exposure.

Honduras holds presidential and legislative elections on November 30, with Libre Party candidate Rixi Moncada—former finance and defense minister—running to succeed outgoing president Xiomara Castro. The country’s entrenched economic elites and traditional parties, long resistant to leftist governments, are accused of plotting to manipulate the vote. Leaked recordings suggest a plan by National Party figures and a military officer to disrupt vote transmission, declare conservative candidate Salvador Nasralla the winner, and push the U.S. Embassy not to recognize a Libre victory. Libre warns of an “electoral coup” and mobilizes supporters to safeguard results. The stakes are heightened by U.S. geopolitical interests, Castro’s break with U.S. positions, and Libre’s social gains since 2022. Polls show a close race, and observers expect intense pressure and foreign interference to shape the outcome.

U.S. Catholic bishops have launched “You Are Not Alone,” a nationwide migrant-accompaniment initiative aimed at supporting people facing deportation amid rising fears under Trump’s mass-deportation policies. Announced by Bishop Mark Seitz, the effort expands pastoral care, emergency support, and public witness while reaffirming the Church’s stance on the dignity and protection of migrants.

A new Human Rights First report exposes record-breaking ICE deportation and detention-transfer flights under the Trump administration—reaching 77 countries and often carried out with harsh, dehumanizing practices. The data reveals a vast, largely hidden global deportation system, made visible only through painstaking investigative tracking.

A new Human Rights Watch and Cristosal report confirms that 252 Venezuelans deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador in early 2025 were systematically tortured inside the CECOT mega-prison. Nearly half had no criminal record, and many were asylum seekers with pending cases. Former detainees described daily beatings, torture in punishment cells, sexual violence, psychological abuse, and months of enforced disappearance, as both U.S. and Salvadoran authorities concealed their whereabouts. Conditions violated multiple international human rights standards, and the U.S. government paid El Salvador to detain them despite knowing the risks. The findings underscore severe violations of non-refoulement obligations and highlight U.S. complicity in torture.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ vote and new national campaign to support migrants are the group’s first responses to the Trump administration’s crackdown.

In a rare group statement, America’s Catholic bishops voted nearly unanimously Wednesday to condemn the Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants as an attack on “God-given human dignity,” and advocated for “meaningful reform of our nation’s immigration laws.”

“We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people. We pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement,” read the message from the U.S.

Conference of Catholic Bishops. After the vote (216-5, with three abstentions), the bishops stood and applauded. The last such “Special Message” was delivered 12 years ago.

The new message listed the types of suffering the church leaders say many undocumented migrants experience, including “arbitrarily” losing their legal status, being subject to poor detention conditions, and being afraid to take children to school or go to church. “We feel compelled now in this environment to raise our voices in defense of God-given human dignity,” the bishops wrote.

A federal judge has ordered the release of hundreds swept up in Chicago’s recent immigration raids, sharply rebuking Trump’s “Operation Midway Blitz.” The ruling blocks officials from pressuring detainees into voluntary deportation and could free more than 600 people as courts review claims that federal agents carried out illegal, warrantless arrests.