Honduras: Castro Calls For Popular Mobilisation to Face US-Backed Coup Plot

After a five-day hiatus and more than two weeks since the elections, the Honduran National Electoral Council (CNE) has resumed counting votes in an electoral process that has been widely questioned by various political forces on the left and right in Honduras. According to the CNE, several technical problems are hindering the count.

According to official data, the candidate of the National Party of Honduras (PNH), right-wing Nasry Asfura (backed, among others, by US President Donald Trump) maintains a slight but sustained lead (40.53%) over television presenter Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party of Honduras (PLH) (39.21%).

Thus, Asfura would have 1,302,264 votes in his favor, while Nasralla would have 1,258,580. For her part, the ruling party’s candidate, leftist Rixi Moncada of the Liberty and Refoundation Party (LIBRE), obtained 19.3%.

Moncada and LIBRE denounced that the electoral process was marred by foreign interference (pressure from Trump) and irregularities in the process. But it is not only the ruling party that has severely questioned the elections.

Nasralla denounces “fraud”

Candidate Nasralla said in an interview with CNN that “fraud in the vote count” had been committed: “Today they are stealing from the place where the ballot boxes with the votes are located. Representatives of the National Party turned off the cameras and prevented representatives of the Liberal Party from entering.”

He also directly accused the PNH, which governed Honduras between 2010 and 2022, of being behind a possible fraud plot: “[The CNE] must review vote by vote the ballot boxes that we have claimed from the Liberal Party of Honduras, which are more than 14,000 (2,773 in a special count that begins today at 7 a.m.) of the 19,167 in which they cheated. If they do not, voters in Honduras and around the world will know that the Honduran elections are not decided by the people with their votes, but by the organized crime that ruled from 2010 to 2022.”

Likewise, a congressional commission has severely questioned the way in which the vote count has been conducted and announced that if the irregularities are proven, they will not validate the November 30 election: “We denounce the existence of an ongoing electoral coup… We absolutely condemn the interference of US President Donald Trump.”

Defense of the results

For its part, the observer mission of the Organization of American States called for the recount to resume immediately. “The mission urgently calls on the electoral authorities to immediately begin the special recount and to seek all possible means to obtain the official results in the shortest time possible… The current delay in processing and publishing the results is unjustifiable,” said Eladio Loizaga, head of the mission, during a special session of the OAS Permanent Council.

The President of the CNE, Ana Hall, defends the actions of the institution she presides over and affirms that the highest electoral body is being intimidated: “Today, I have ratified that I reject the intimidation tactics that are being used and that I will stand in the way of those who seek to prevent the declaration of the General Elections.”

The specter of fraud

Candidate Asfura, who currently holds a slight lead, has requested that the review of the records be made public and televised: “Let there be no doubt about the results, [so that the new government] can work in peace and tranquility.”

Asfura knows that the delay in officially announcing the results, in addition to allegations of fraud by his two main opponents, undermines the legitimacy of his possible victory. It is one thing for one of Honduras’ three major political parties to reject the results. It is quite another for two parties, which together account for almost 60% of the votes cast, to do so.

It has not been many years since a large part of the political spectrum denounced alleged electoral fraud in 2017 that gave victory to Juan Orlando Hernández (2014-2022) of the PNH, the same party that today supports Asfura. After the elections, there were major demonstrations that left dozens injured and several dead. Despite this, Hernández took office as president and completed his term after a series of questions about the persecution of left-wing leaders.

After his term, Hernández was investigated, charged, and sentenced to more than 40 years in prison in the United States for being part of a drug trafficking network that allegedly trafficked several tons of drugs into the country. Despite this, Trump pardoned Hernández, who is currently out of prison in the United States.

President Castro denounces attempted coup

According to Honduran President Xiomara Castro, Juan Orlando Hernández’s release could have more serious implications. As she stated in X, Hernández’s upcoming entry into the Central American country is intended to launch a “coup d’état”: “I report with historical responsibility that, based on verified intelligence information, Juan Orlando Hernández, pardoned in the US, is planning his entry into the country to proclaim the winner of the elections while an attack is underway aimed at breaking the constitutional and democratic order through a coup against my government.”

She also called on the Honduran people to defend the Republic and the constitutional order: “In light of this grave situation, I urgently request the conscious and peaceful support of the Honduran people. I call on the people, social movements, collectives, grassroots organizations, activists, and citizens to gather urgently and peacefully in Tegucigalpa to defend the popular mandate, reject any coup attempt, and make it clear to the world that a new coup is brewing here.”

Several demonstrations by LIBRE activists and other social movements have taken place. In response, the police have deployed heavy-handed repression, which was condemned by Castro, who has requested an investigation and the dismissal of the law enforcement officers who participated in the repression.

Courtesy: Peoples Dispatch