I live in Honduras, am an actual honduran, an upper-middle class one as a matter of fact (hence my speaking english...which also means I'm supposed to be a 'golpista' or coup-backer) and even I'll tell you, most of the people in my social circle (college students/healthcare workers) professed extreme hatred towards 'Juan Orlando', the US backed (US ambassador Lisa Kubinske had a 'hands-on' approach towards the process, even going so far as to announce to the local media that the total vote tally was close to completion) 'candidate', seeing him as the authoritarian, dishonest, thieving c... he is. Even his primary election opponents wouldn't recognize the legitimacy of his candidacy...until they were routinely bought out of course. He has even done all the things that Mel Zelaya was supposedly going to do unless he was ousted, yet none of the 'golpistas' raised an eyebrow, obviously 'cause he is the new face of the establishment. Me thinks Hernandez has got 'big plans' for the nation (this is a man who tried to pass a bill that enabled the selling off of pieces of the country's territory wholesale to foreign interests), 'big plans' who just so happen to coincide with the worldwide neoliberal agenda...and that's the real source of his 'legitimacy'.
I mean, most of the people I know were shocked/horrified at JOH's supposed win...people from all over the political spectrum, left/right. Well, not shocked, 'cause we all saw the fraud coming (that thing about elections in poor countries being rigged is totally true), but still, it has left a lot of people with a feeling of powerlesness. If there aren't massive protests it's probably because JOH's ONLY new electoral proposal (he's been president of congress for the last 4 years) was the creation of a 'military police' to supposedly combat crime in the streets...their first (official) mission? The repression of the anti-fraud student protesters, even going so far as to break into the UNAH (biggest, state-funded college) campus to beat their asses. JOH is basically holding a gun to the country's temple, and pretty much 99% of the media outlets in here make FOX News seem like a pinko agitprop zine...which means that they love him.
This is a country which has followed the neoliberal/US line to a T since nearly the 19th century..we even house the US base the contras used to launch from back in the 80s...how do you know Milton Friedman's full of s...? Just take a look at Honduras, the second poorest and yet most unequal (I think) country in Latin America.
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