Hondurans voted to elect a new president inlate November, but they didnt officially have one for nearly three weeks. Although the election was about a month ago,
thousands of protesters have been in the streets refusing to accept the results, claiming corruption
and fraud. At least 24 people have died during the violent
clashes. The country was split by a razor-thin margin
in a contest between two completely different candidates: an incumbent President, allied
to the U.S and a TV-host and first time candidate.
So what do we know about the current political
chaos going on in one of the most important countries of the Northern triangle? And how
can Honduras move forward amid this tension? Politically, Honduras hasnt been shaken
this bad since their 2009 coup. The people in the streets are mostly the supporters
of the opposition celebrity-like candidate Salvador Nasralla, who lost. Although in his
Twitter bio, hes declared himself as the winner and President until 2022. The officially
winning candidate was President Juan Orlando Hernandez.
Except...Thats being contested.
Suspecting fraud, the Organization of American States has called for a re-do election.
And the results were so close that international experts say its impossible to actually
know which candidate won. Nasralla from the Opposition Alliance Against
Dictatorship has gained a lot of support. In between his celebrity status and extroverted
personality, he knows how to gather and work big crowds, but has really no political background.
Sound familiar? Nasralla has someone powerful in his corner,
though: Mel Zelaya. Hes a former president of Honduras who had alliances with leaders
like Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro.
Zelaya was overthrown in 2009 when he tried to change
the constitution in order to get himself re-elected. Now, the declared winner, President Juan Orlando
Hernandez has been president of Honduras since 2009. He is the first president ever to run
for a second term. I spoke to the former Latin America advisor
for Vice President Biden in hopes he could break it down for us.
Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez
is actually the leader of what's called the National Party. Since he assumed office, he
was originally the speaker of the house and then was elected following the ouster of President
Mel Zelaya. Juan Orlando Hernandez advanced changes that
would allow for his re-election. So thats something where I think the process first
begins to break down because there was a lot of debate of whether or not that change should
have happened, and actually the process by which that change was made, so thats the
first issue of the election.
This is one of the reasons Nasralla supporters
are so pissed off with the election results. Now remember, Nasralla supporters are also
Zelaya supporters. And Zelaya was overthrown in 2009 because he sought re-election. But
that just wasnt the way things were done in Honduras.
Running for a second term was
against the law. Until Juan Hernandez came along and changed the Constitution in 2015
so that he could run again. So Hernandez has flaws. But on the other hand,
his accomplishments have been praised by the U.S.
In terms of security and the economy. It's actually because of his leadership that
the Alliance for Prosperity in the Northern Triangle was begun which is this broad scale
initiative where the United States provided 750 million dollars in 2017 to support those
efforts including not just addressing the security issue but also supporting economic
role. So he's been actually an ally of the United States.
Although hes gotten a lot of of criticism from the human right community, there has
been violence against human rights advocates for example that was murder of a a very recognized
environmental activists Berta Caceres and there are allegations and rumors that the
security forces may have had something to do with it. So on Election Day, the results showed Hernandez
had won with 42.95% Of the votes, while Nasralla lost with 41.42%.
Thats a margin of just
1.53%. Supporters of Nasralla believed the election
had been stolen, and demonstrated their anger in nationwide protests. "We don't accept the official results because
we won, Salvador (Nasralla) won, and the people won. We do not accept the results so we're
gonna be here in the streets." Then there was a recount in December, where
Hernandez was officially pronounced the winner.
Protests continued.
And now, the Organization of American States are calling for a re-do of the whole election,
suspecting widespread irregularities in how the vote was conducted. Well I think the reason Hondurans are protesting
largely is because you have a very divided society in Honduras, and many Hondurans do
not support reelection. But I think a lot of it is also because it's such a polarized
societ you'll have to have individuals aligned across party lines.
Nasrralla is somebody who has national recognition. He's a celebrity.
He has that appeal and a
very popular very popular show. He's being consistent in what he actually offers as an
alternative. But he is also run like many populists in the region have run on an anti-corruption
campaign that will address some of the the lack of opportunity and the concentration
of wealth in the country. Soon after the election, the U.S.
State department
declared Hernandez as the winner, and urged opposition protesters to resolve their differences
peacefully. Ignoring the democratic concerns of fraud and corruption of some Honduran people. The steps that the United States and the Honduran
government should take is essentially open the door be totally transparent and find some
sort of resolution here. Otherwise you may have continued protests and you may actually
have a situation where Honduras loses the support of the U.S.
Congress. So far, the U.S., Mexico, Guatemala, and Colombia
have all recognized Hernandez as the president-elect. And hes scheduled to be sworn in in late
January 2018. With only half of the population on his side.
Why does the U.S.S voice in the Honduran
election matter so much? Well, it may be the worlds only superpower. Check out this
video to the right to learn what defines a country as a superpower. Thanks for watching NowThis World, dont
forget to like and subscribe for more videos like this every week!.
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