Hondurans called to vote to elect their next president

Published on : 11/28/2021 – 8:32 AM

Nearly 5.2 million Hondurans are called to the polls on Sunday to elect the president of a country victim of widespread violence and powerful gangs of drug traffickers who have extended their corruption to the highest levels of the State.

The ballot promises to be close and the day after the vote under tension.

Xiomara Castro, wife of ex-president Zelaya overthrown by a coup in 2009, and leader of the left-wing party LIBRE, is given the favorite by several polls.

The National Party (right) of outgoing president Juan Orlando Hernandez, in power since 2010, represented by the mayor of the capital Tegucigalpa, Nasry Asfura, has not, however, said its last word.

The authorities mobilized 42,000 soldiers and police to deliver electoral materials to 5,755 polling stations across the country and avoid any “confrontation”, four years after the violent protests that followed the last general elections.

“We guarantee (…) that tomorrow the security measures will be (deployed) throughout the national territory”, announced the day before the election the head of the Armed Forces of Honduras, General Tito Livio Moreno. “We have been deployed for several days to guarantee the people of Honduras security and peace,” he added.

In addition to their president, voters must choose 128 deputies and 596 mayors and deputy mayors as well as municipal councilors and around 20 members of the Central American regional parliament.

Since the coup that overthrew left-wing President Manuel Zelaya in 2009, Honduras has been ruled by the National Party under the rule of outgoing President Juan Orlando Hernandez, suspected by the United States of being involved in trafficking. drug.

“After a dozen years in power for the National Party, marked by widespread corruption and criminal violence, the majority of Hondurans have had enough and seem to want a change,” said Michael Shifter, president of Inter-American Dialogue.

“But the National Party machine should not be underestimated and powerful interests should do everything in their power to prevent (Xiomara) Castro from taking the reins of the country,” he warns.

Sensing the tide, the PN hardened the tone of its campaign, accusing the leader of LIBRE as a “communist” and vilifying its proposals to legalize abortion and same-sex marriage, particularly controversial themes in this small conservative country where the population shares its beliefs between the Catholic Church and evangelical obediences.

The right-wing party is also known not to shy away from fraud to win elections.

Doubtful re-election

In 2013, Hernandez beat Xiomara Castro by a short head, and then broke the Constitution to be able to run for a second term in 2017.

His questionable re-election on the wire against the television star Salvador Nasralla had unleashed violent protests.

New riots would not do the business of Washington which “wants to avoid a repeat of (the election) of 2017 and an increase in migratory pressure,” says Shifter.

Tens of thousands of Hondurans try to join the millions of their compatriots each year who have fled violence and misery abroad, the overwhelming majority in the United States.

More than half of the 10 million inhabitants live below the poverty line and the coronavirus pandemic has only accentuated the misery.

Unemployment has almost doubled in one year, from 5.7% in 2019 to 10.9% in 2020.

With a homicide rate of 37.6 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2020, Honduras is also one of the most dangerous countries in the world (excluding conflict zones).

“The policies promise and promise, but I do not see anything coming”, summarizes for many Hondurans Jose Velasquez, 50 years old.

In the past two years, Parliament has dissolved an anti-corruption commission backed by the Organization of American States (OAS) and passed a new penal code with lower penalties for corruption or drug trafficking.

It is true that many parliamentarians were targeted by investigations by this commission.

Drug traffickers detained in the United States have implicated President Hernandez, while Tony Hernandez, his brother, was sentenced by a US federal court to life in prison for his involvement in the trafficking of 185 tons of cocaine.

Honduras “is a state in the process of decomposition, partially invested by organized crime”, asserts Victor Meza, director of a pro-democracy NGO in Honduras, and former Minister of the Interior and Justice of President Zelaya.

With AFP