On November 26th, 2017 Honduras held elections, some very peculiar elections:
Even though millions of people were called on to vote that day, only one vote really
counted in the end:
that of President Juan Orlando Hernández, who decided to stay for another four years,
no matter what the polls said.
Yes, President Hernandez very probably just told himself: “Hey, if I like being President
so much...
why leave?!”
Since then protests, due to what has obviously been a rigged election, an assault on democracy,
have occurred quite frequently.
Honduras is a country that already suffers from the tragic consequences of a social and
political model full of corruption and violence.
A model, dear viewer, that is so disastrous and dysfunctional that it led Honduras to
be the poorest country in Latin America, and the third most dangerous country in the world
(which is not at war).
See, Honduras is a small tropical country, with just over 9 million inhabitants, located
on a narrow strip of land that separates the Caribbean Sea from the Pacific Ocean.
Indeed, Honduras is one of those places where we can find some of the most incredible beaches
in the world...
White sandy, crystal clear waters, and lots of coconut trees.
Sounds rather nice, doesn’t it?
Unfortunately though, drug trafficking, gangs and a political and economic elite have prioritized,
above all, plundering the nations resources.
They have muddied and stained the reality of a country that could otherwise be safe,
and possibly even considered a true paradise here on earth.
But hold on, you may be thinking... a small, remote, poor country…
Just another drop in the ocean of problems, right?
Well, wait a minutes because there’s a lot more at work here...
What would you think if I told you we might be facing the first coup d'état supported
by the Trump Administration?
Well, check this out.
(THE FRAUD)
On Sunday, November 26th, 2017, general elections were held in Honduras.
There were two major contenders for the Presidency, which is the most important political position
in the country:
On the one hand, President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was widely supported by the country’s
economic leadership and the international community, aspired to be re-elected.
A reelection that, by the way, was very controversial, because, in principle, the country’s Constitution
prevents it under article 239; an article that was declared inapplicable in 2015 by
a surprising and a very controversial decision from the Supreme Court.
But do bear in mind here, that the supreme court in actuality is “controlled” by
the President.
So that might have had something to do with it.
This is what article 239 said:
( “If a citizen has held the ownership of the Executive Power, he or she cannot be the
president or designee.”
Article 239 of the Honduran Constitution.)
Now, on the other hand, Salvador Nasralla, a popular television presenter, ran as candidate
for the center-left parties’ coalition, the Opposition Alliance.
Well, the fact is that in the initial vote count, everything pointed to Salvador Nasralla’s
victory.
See, with almost 60% of the votes counted for, he had a 5-point lead over the President...
The advantage was so overwhelming that the magistrates who form the Honduras Supreme
Electoral Tribunal qualified this lead as irreversible and insurmountable.
However, suddenly, counting stopped, there was no additional information...
computer systems collapsed, new ballots appeared and in the end… several days later…
the Electoral Tribunal awarded a surprising victory to President Juan Orlando Hernandez
There were so many irregularities that the Organization of American States itself rejected
the recount and called for new elections.
But that’s not all.
One day before the elections, The Economist published on its website that it had a recording
that proved that the government was preparing to distort the results of the election.
Anyway, was there a rigged election?
Well, that’s hard to say, but the chances are really high.
All this without mentioning the government’s authoritarian behavior.
Of course, once the possibility of an electoral fraud was on the table, the opposition mobilized
and organized protest rallies.
They were peaceful at first, but the police didn’t seem to care, they still used as
much force as they wanted...
For example, on the evening of Wednesday 29th, state forces fired tear gas at a rally of
about 1,000 people who were peacefully awaiting the results.
Indeed in this group was the opposition candidate Salvador Nasralla.
The police didn’t care that it was a peaceful concentration or that there were children
and elderly people present.
The government even decreed a curfew, and since
then, rallies have been put down with 30 people being killed and more than 800 detainees.
In other words, evidence points to a clearly rigged election, followed by forceful repression…
all to reinforce
the victory.
Now, having said that, we have several questions that need an answer.
And clearly, one of them is, who exactly is the President?
Who is Juan Orlando Hernández?
(THE PRESIDENT)
There are two versions, two very different interpretations of President Hernández.
The first is that of a leader with a strong hand but who can rescue his country from becoming
a failed state.
The second is that of an authoritarian leader, involved in corruption and crime, a leader
who has taken control of the country's institutions and who manages them based on his own interests....
As we saw in the case of the Supreme Court and re-election….
However, the President, and we will see this in more detail in a moment, has the support
of the United States, among others.
And to be fair, we must say that his mandate has had many dark times, but also some good
ones.
Let's start with these, the good times.
See, when Juan Orlando Hernández came to power in 2013, Honduras had the highest homicide
rate of a country not at war.
It is true that nowadays the country still has a serious problem, it is still ranked
third as the country with most homicides in relation to its population - further, 90%
of these crimes remain unpunished.
But things have improved.
In fact, this is the President’s main pride and joy.
With help from the United States, the government of Honduras has created a new special police
force, financed, equipped and trained by the DEA and the FBI, among others.
At the same time, it has expelled and replaced thousands of corrupt agents; it has dismantled
several drug cartels and extradited dozens of drug traffickers to the United States.
It even created parks throughout the country, which are guarded by the military police,
so that children and families can enjoy their leisure time safely.
So far so good, right?
Unfortunately, dear viewer, the story doesn’t end there with rainbows and butterflies...
There is clear evidence of the President's corruption.
In fact, the 2013 election campaign that brought him to power was financed by money stolen
from the Honduran Institute of Social Security.
And there are even well-founded suspicions that President Orlando has had connections
with drug-trafficking groups.
( “The illegal drug trade in Honduras not only infected much of its civil society, including
the highest levels of government and its financial sector, but also brought frightening levels
of violence on its people,” Joon H. Kim, the acting UnVited States attorney in Manhattan.)
In any case, whether these accusations are true or not, repression, deception and controlling
institutions can neither be justified nor contribute to Honduras being able to overcome
the problems that impede its development.
The president has clear support from the international community, he has received money, police aid,
military and political support.
And, the truth is, the people expected something different.
Of course, dear viewer, all this isn’t strange in this country.
(A COCKTAIL OF CORRUPTION AND VIOLENCE)
Honduras is facing a difficult problem…
There is a triangle of interrelated powers that make being an optimist in Honduras very
difficult: political power, the economic oligarchy and drug traffickers.
Perhaps the most representative case of all is that of Fabio Lobo, the son of Porfirio
Lobo, the former President of the Republic, who has just been sentenced in the United
States to 24 years in prison for his involvement and activities as a drug trafficker.
He actually did this when his father was President of the Republic.
And no, we’re not talking about a rebellious son or anything like that…
Drug trafficking, by the way, is currently the country's main economic activity.
Another example, as the New York Times reported, is parliament:
It’s an under-equipped building from the 50s, that lacks the minimum necessary conditions,
which contrast with the deputies’ parking lot, a parking lot that is full of off-road
vehicles, all the latest and most expensive models.
And this affects practically everyone, the government and opposition.
The police and security forces aren’t removed from this either.
Extortion and bribery is common, and it is widely known that police members have ties
with gangs and drug-traffickers.
( “Mara Salvatrucha gangsters in Rivera Hernández say they receive warnings from
the police of impending sweeps and are handed captured rivals to execute, for anything from
$440 to $2,200 a head.
- Sonia Nazario, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist)
Politicians, security forces, gangs, drug-traffickers... and lastly the economic oligarchy.
Ten families control practically every economic resource and have had no problems paying bribes
and placing trustworthy people in the powerful positions to generate something that is not
a market model, but a model that is entirely controlled by the institutions.
Well, all of this dear viewer, makes up a highly extractive resource network, and is
ultimately responsible for Honduras not being that paradise we discussed at the beginning
of the video.
But we also mentioned the US government, specifically the Trump Administration, as possibly being
responsible for what happened with Honduras’ elections.
So, let’s get to it...
(WASHINGTON’S IMPORTANCE)
You could be forgiven for initially thinking that Honduras is not that important to Washington,
right?
Well... not exactly.
The truth is that Honduras has a certain importance in the United States, for three main reasons:
first because a lot of the flights suspected of transporting drugs from South America have
their first stop in this country.
Secondly, because two years ago, faced with the country’s enormous crisis, 18,000 Honduran
children travelled alone to the United States border.
And nobody in Washington wants that to happen again.
Thirdly, because Honduras has traditionally been an allied country, in fact, the United
States has had a military base there for decades.
Due to all this, the US has spent billions of dollars in Honduras in recent years, to
try to reverse the country's problems.
Well, the Trump Administration knows this, and supports Juan Orlando Hernández.
Indeed this is what a prominent Republican adviser said about the matter:
(“Washington has invested significant money in Central America to help turn the security
and economic situation around.
if Hernández loses the election, the United States will have no effective partners in
the region, the effectiveness of our billions of dollars would be at risk, and more people
might be tempted to come to the United States.”
Daniel Runde, a Republican foreign policy adviser and former official in the George
W. Bush administration)
Yes, Washington's support is clear.
In fact, the police, which were trained and financed by the United States, participated
in the post-electoral events, without any complaint from the US embassy...
And this is because the US government fears the ties that Salvador Nasralla’scandidacy
could have with the Cuban regime or even with Nicolás Maduro’s Venezuela, something that
incidentally, the candidate denies.
(“They are wrong because my model is based in Uruguay or Chile’s moderate left, or
Costa Rica’s moderate right.
One thing is the friendship that my ideological partner, Manuel Zelaya, has with Maduro or
Morales and something very different is what I think, me who would be the president.”
Salvador Nasralla.)
Anyway, for everyone watching from Honduras, we should state that things can change and
do tend to change.
There’s the case of Colombia, for example.
And now it’s your turn.
Do you think we’re facing the first coup d'état backed by the Trump Administration?
Well, leave your answer in the comments as well as in the survey.
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Also, don’t forget to check out our friends at the Reconsider Media Podcast - they provided
the vocals in this episode that were not mine!
And as always, thanks for watching!