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

[Judi Lynn]

2. Honduras presidential campaign shakes up the status quo

Honduras presidential campaign shakes up the status quo
By Tracy Wilkinson
November 23, 2013, 6:00 a.m.

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — A new party is challenging the business and political establishment that has ruled Honduras since civilian government took charge a generation ago.

And its candidate is the wife of a former president deposed by those interests in a 2009 coup, a dramatic throwback to years past. One of her opponents is the military general who overthrew her husband.

Such are politics in Honduras, a longtime U.S. ally that has emerged as the prime symbol of an increasingly violent, dysfunctional Central America and now stands as the main transshipment point for Colombian cocaine headed for the United States.

The presidential election on Sunday comes amid a wave of violence in which candidates, judges and journalists have been slain. The bloodshed, combined with the nation's economic crisis, has propelled more and more Hondurans to flee northward to the United States. Honduran human rights activists have been threatened, especially after testifying in Washington, and the country is badly polarized. U.S. diplomats fear more bloodletting after the vote, which is expected to be close.

More:
http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-honduras-election-20131123,0,7839031.story#ixzz2lctv2e1O