I spent most of February 2018 in Honduras after one of the most contentious presidential elections held there in recent years. I traveled around within and between cities and all over the country via ordinary buses and cabs. Although my main mission involved providing medical assistance, I was able to talk with a variety of Hondurans about the recent contested election, including health care workers, cab drivers, fellow bus passengers, and just plain folks. Based on those conversations, I concluded that the Honduran electorate is as fiercely divided as our own right here in the United States.
Honduras is a Central American country slightly larger than Tennessee. With eastern jungles, mountains, and both Caribbean and Pacific coasts, it has a varied geography and an ethnically diverse and fast growing population of 9 million. The UK Telegraph once called it “the most dangerous country on the planet” (Nov. 11, 2013) because of its high murder rate. I had been a Peace Corps health volunteer in Honduras for 3½ years (2000-2003), but the corps pulled out of the country several years ago because of the risk, though I’ve continued to return on my own annually as a medical brigade volunteer.
The November 2017 election was the first held after the Honduran constitution had been amended to allow a second presidential term. This was a controversial move by National Party incumbent Juan Orlando Hernández, since the mere possibility of trying to change the constitution to allow for re-election was a primary justification for ousting repeat presidential candidate Manuel Zelaya in 2009, then a Liberal Party incumbent. Numerous irregularities occurred this time around, including polls closing one hour early at 4 pm and periodic suspensions of vote count totals. Presidential challenger Salvador Nasralla of the fledgling Libre Party was leading initially, but Nationalist incumbent Hernández was declared the winner in the end. The Liberal Party candidate, Luis Zelaya (not affiliated with Manuel or Libre, the names get confusing), the traditional rival to Hernández’s more conservative National Party, had been eclipsed by the upstart Libre Party, started by former president Manuel Zelaya, now a member of the legislature for Libre.
The U.S. recognized Hernández as president and Canada and Mexico also recognized Hernández as the victor. (Incidentally, Honduras is one of few countries backing the U.S. Embassy in Israel’s move to Jerusalem.)
Nasralla, a 65-year-old TV sports personality denounced the results as fraud, urging his supporters to take to the streets, which they did all across the country. Thousands participated in cacerolazos, banging on pots and pans in protest. Nasralla, whose family is originally from the Middle East and who has boasted publicly of his sexual prowess, has continued his political crusade through his popular TV show.
In mid-December, Nasralla supporter, legislator, and controversial former president Manuel Zelaya announced a national strike. The country's two major cities --Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula- - saw streets blockaded, their main exits blocked. Over 30 people were killed. Even one of my former Peace Corps sites, La Esperanza, saw roadblocks. Nasralla then traveled to Washington, DC, to denounce election fraud at the OAS. Because of irregularities, the OAS called for a new election. Meanwhile, the UN sent a mission to Honduras to foster reconciliation. By the time I arrived there in early February, political street skirmishes were continuing, but most of the violent unrest had abated after Hernández had been sworn in under heavy security.
Because of my long Peace Corps tenure and my frequent return humanitarian visits to Honduras, I am a somewhat recognizable personality there. Walking along the dark, cavernous halls of Tegucigalpa’s century-old San Felipe public hospital, both waiting patients and staff often greet me excitedly shouting out “¡Doña Bárbara!” or even “¡Doctora Bárbara!” although I am not a doctor. In my post-election conversations this February with fellow bus passengers, taxi drivers, and street-side vegetable sellers, I was not immediately identified as a gringa, though not as Honduran either. Some even speculated that I might be from another Latin American country, which was flattering.
So, what were people saying? At least half told me they hadn’t even bothered to vote, finding neither candidate particularly desirable, not worth waiting in line for at a polling station. Some were registered only in their home villages and didn’t feel inspired to return there to cast their ballot. Still others were outspoken in expressing their preferences. A small-town handyman who had always voted the straight National (Hernández’s) Party ticket felt that seeking a second-term was just beyond the pale, so he voted Nasralla at the top of the ticket and straight National Party down ballot. Another voter was a high-powered city attorney who also voted Nasralla at the top of the ticket, saying, “It’s high time we broke the stranglehold of the conventional political elite around here, especially on the poorest citizens of this country.” Another voter said, “I voted JOH [Hernández’s initials] because we don’t want to end up like Venezuela,” referring to the Venezuelan ties of Manuel Zelaya, Nasralla’s patron. In fact, the tie between Nasaralla and Manuel Zelaya was so transparent that several voters told me, “I voted for Mel,” using Zelaya’s nickname. Given that Manuel Zelaya is still obviously quite popular, why did he fail to run himself instead of promoting Nasralla? A Nasaralla supporter explained that Manuel Zelaya had made a big deal about Hernández’s illegitimate second term, so he could hardly have mounted a second term himself. Even Hernández voters acknowledged the second term was a problem. Hernández has claimed a 25% reduction in the murder rate in 2017, which some applauded, though his critics argued this resulted from using excessive force. But for Hernández’s supporters, security was a major factor in their vote for him.
One cab driver told me to my surprise, “I really admire your great leader, Presidente Donald Trump, such a big strong man, very rich, very outspoken, attractive to women, not a phony, just says exactly what’s on his mind, not like our own weasely politicians. But he shouldn’t be deporting so many Hondurans.” Through that man’s eyes, I was able to get a glimpse of what has attracted many of Trump’s American supporters, something I had failed to understand before.
An economist told me that Nasralla and his patron Manuel Zelaya are “like oil and water” and don’t belong together. He didn’t vote. “Neither candidate was better; it’s a matter of the less worse [menos peor],” said an engineer who had voted for Hernández. Others faulted Nasralla for his alliance with Manuel Zelaya and the latter’s alliance with Venezuela and Cuba.
Some people in La Esperanza, one of my former Peace Corps sites, supported Hernández and his National Party, surprisingly, because of opposition to the daughter and namesake of murdered environmental activist Bertha Cáceres, who had opposed a local dam project. They considered the daughter an opportunist cashing in on her mother’s name by running under Libre for a legislative seat, which she won. “She’s a single mother who has held no previous job, running only on her martyred mother’s fame.” The daughter led demonstrations and road blockages around La Esperanza, earning her even more local opprobrium as a disruptor and publicity hound. However, the daughter has been elevated by Amnesty International, an organization for which I volunteer, though spelling the first name of both women as “Berta” (in Spanish, of course, “h” is silent) and touting the mother as “an indigenous leader”—yes, she led an indigenous crusade against the dam, but was not indigenous herself. The younger Bertha may be viewed differently in her native habitat in contrast with her current national and international reputation. Her mother’s killers should certainly be brought to justice, just as should the perpetrators of other murders in Honduras and elsewhere. An arrest reportedly has now been made of David Castillo, general manager of the company building the dam that mother Bertha had opposed. He is said to be the “intellectual author” of the murder plot in which eight other people have already been arrested. No doubt, international pressure helped achieve all those arrests and may have helped controversially re-elected President Hernández counter criticism that he was protecting the murderers. The dam Bertha Cáceres opposed was never built.
So, faced with the recent electoral choice in Honduras, how would you have voted? As for myself, like many Hondurans, I might have chosen to sit this one out in a perhaps cowardly abdication of duty. From a distance, political differences may seem starkly black and white, but, up close, they tend to blur, making it hard to take sides.