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

[Judi Lynn]

1. Poverty, coup legacy in play as Honduras picks new president

Poverty, coup legacy in play as Honduras picks new president
AFP November 24, 2013, 9:03 pm

Tegucigalpa (AFP) - Some 5.4 million Hondurans cast votes Sunday in a presidential election with a new chance of breaking the century-old dominance of right-wing parties.

Four years after her husband was ousted in a coup, leftist Xiomara Castro, 54, is running neck-and-neck with ruling party candidate Juan Orlando Hernandez, 45.

If she pulls off a win, Castro could also make history by becoming the first woman president of Honduras, one of the poorest nations in Latin America after Haiti, Bolivia and Nicaragua.

"We are going to win this, and get our country back," she said, rallying supporters in jeans and a green shirt hours before polling stations opened.

And shrugging off some critics' suggestions that she might be taking orders from her husband in this male-dominated nation, Castro said Manuel Zelaya would be her top adviser, not the president.

More:
http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/19996376/poverty-coup-legacy-in-play-as-honduras-picks-new-president/