TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – The Honduran military vowed Wednesday (Thursday Manila time) to ensure a peaceful transfer of power regardless of who wins a Nov. 30 presidential election in which votes are still being counted amid interference claims.
The armed forces of the Central American country have intervened in politics in the past and carried out several coups d’etat, most recently in 2009 when they ousted then-president Manuel Zelaya — husband of incumbent leftist leader Xiomara Castro.
“We have been clear,” armed forces chief Roosevelt Hernandez insisted Wednesday. “We have said we will support and recognize the results” that emerge from the count underway by the CNE electoral council, with two right-wing candidates neck-and-neck.
In Washington, DC, meanwhile, the recently freed former president of Honduras praised US President Donald Trump Wednesday for opening “a lot of people’s eyes in Honduras” by supporting conservative presidential candidate Nasry Asfura.
Juan Orlando Hernandez was freed from serving a 45-year sentence in a US prison after receiving a presidential pardon from Trump, and he is presumed to be staying at an unknown location.
“The Honduran people sent a clear message.
Overwhelmingly, they rejected the failed ideology of the radical left, the socialism coming from Venezuela,” Hernandez said in an interview with far-right broadcaster One America News.
Hernandez, who is close to the outgoing government, told Televicentro the military would “ensure…the transfer of the presidency of the republic.”
Businessman Nasry Asfura, backed by US President Donald Trump, has a razor-thin lead in the count over TV personality Salvador Nasralla.
Suspicions of fraud have been fueled by successive computer failures that have stalled tallying, which the CNE legally has a month to complete.
A review of apparent “inconsistencies” in some 2,700 tally sheets will start Thursday at the counting center in Tegucigalpa, which has been under police and military guard since protesters started gathering earlier this week to press for a fair tally.
Nasralla has claimed fraud in the process, backed by outgoing Castro and the trailing leftist candidate Rixi Moncada, who has called for an election annulment.
Human Rights Watch Americas director Juanita Goebertus said Wednesday on X that “given the growing climate of tension, it is essential to guarantee the security of electoral personnel (and) the integrity of voting materials.”
The rights group urged “all actors to refrain from exerting pressure that puts the democratic process at risk.”
Trump himself has come under fire over his backing for Asfura and his threat that if his chosen candidate doesn’t win, “the United States will not be throwing good money after bad.”
Last week, the US leader also issued a surprise pardon for former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez of Asfura’s National Party.
Hernandez was serving a 45-year prison sentence in the United States, where a jury found him guilty of belonging to one of “the largest and most violent drug trafficking conspiracies in the world.”
In what many saw as an attempt at political interference, Hernandez was released despite Trump’s stated commitment to eradicating Latin American drug trafficking
Trump-backed businessman Asfura has a razor-thin lead in the presidential election over TV personality Salvador Nasralla — also a conservative — but votes are still being counted amid claims of interference.
Suspicions of fraud have been fueled by successive computer failures that have stalled tallying.
The ruling party in Honduras, led by leftist president Xiomara Castro, has rejected the provisional results giving Asfura a slim lead.
The left maintains Trump’s support of Asfura and his pardon of Hernandez amounted to electoral interference.
Extradited by Honduras to face charges in the United States and convicted of drug trafficking, the former leader insists it was all a setup carried out by the previous presidential administration of Joe Biden because his policies were too conservative.
Hernandez did not reveal his plans or whether he plans to seek asylum in the United States.
“My priority right now is how I can reunite with my family. I haven’t seen them in four years,” he said.
Asked whether he would be willing to seek asylum in Israel, where he forged strong ties by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital, Hernandez said it would be “a very complicated move, and I don’t have any financial support to do that.”
In Honduras, the current government’s prosecutor’s office has reopened the arrest warrant facing Hernandez.
“Isn’t that a clear example of political persecution? What I’m going to do right now, I’m working with my lawyers,” he said.
Hernandez added that if he returns to Honduras he will not only face the “political charges, but also there are some documents from the FBI and other US agencies that say there are people who want to target my life and my family.”
