LA Times Op-Ed: Honduras elections: A chance to get it right this time [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Honduras elections: A chance to get it right this time

Sunday's voting could bolster democracy and human rights — and the United States has a role to play.

By Alexander Main
November 24, 2013

In June 2009, democracy, human rights and the rule of law were shattered in Honduras. Democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya was flown out of the country at gunpoint, and, in the days and months that followed, pro-democracy demonstrations were violently repressed and critical media outlets shut down. Elections organized a few months later under the coup regime did nothing to remedy the situation. Held in a climate of repression and boycotted by opposition groups, these elections were widely seen as illegitimate by many Hondurans and most governments in the hemisphere — with the notable exception of the United States.



On Nov. 24, new presidential and legislative elections will offer Honduras an opportunity to finally move forward. This time, a score of political parties are participating, including a new party — LIBRE — whose presidential candidate, Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, wife of the deposed president, has had a narrow lead in the polls. But will these elections be truly free, fair and transparent?

The country's dire human rights situation has had a chilling effect on the election campaign and could affect voter turnout. Violence has soared over the last four years, and Honduras now has the highest per-capita homicide rate in the world. Since the 2009 coup there has been a troubling pattern of attacks and intimidation targeting opposition activists, journalists, indigenous community leaders, campesinos and other sectors that take on the powerful, be they the government, landowners or organized crime networks. More recently, opposition candidates and activists and their families have been violently attacked in increasing numbers and even assassinated, according to human rights groups.

Amnesty International recently noted, "A key concern is that the police and army are actually contributing to the violence instead of combating it, something which is exacerbated by an almost total lack of accountability for the abuses they have committed." Rather than reining in the country's out-of-control security forces, the ruling National Party has unleashed military troops in urban areas.

Juan Orlando Hernandez, the National Party's presidential candidate and head of the National Congress, announced the deployment in October of 1,000 "military police" agents, promising to put "soldiers in every neighborhood." These soldiers are supposedly tasked with civilian policing and focused on gang activity. But already they have raided the homes of trade unionists, LIBRE campaigners and others in what many fear could be the start of a new wave of political intimidation.

More:
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commentary/la-oe-main-honduras-election-20131124,0,5067021.story#ixzz2lVh9HssH