All Eyes on Honduras
The sweeping attack on democratic institutions that we are experiencing in the United States since Donald Trump returned to power is not confined to our borders.
Hondurans – who go to the polls on November 30 to choose a new President, Congress, and municipal authorities – are acutely aware that the authoritarian winds blowing from Washington are stirring their political climate – and not for the better. Over the past week, former U.S. President Donald Trump has dramatically escalated direct intervention from afar: publicly endorsing National Party candidate Tito Asfura, reviving long-debunked narratives used by the Honduran right, and signaling a return to the era of U.S.-backed strongman politics.
Global Exchange’s Honduran partner, the Center for the Study of Democracy (CESPAD), was born in the enduring spirit of democratic struggle forged in a country that spent most of the 20th century under a series of U.S.-supported oligarchic dictatorships. CESPAD itself was founded to oppose the shocking 2009 military coup that was shamefully whitewashed by the Obama White House.
Four years ago, CESPAD invited Global Exchange to help organize the international aspect of their civic observation of a critical “return to democracy” election in which President Juan Orlando Hernández (the last in a series of “golpista” presidents) saw his party resoundingly defeated. Soon afterward, Orlando Hernández was charged with narco-trafficking and extradited to the United States.
This year Global Exchange is again organizing observations with CESPAD in alliance with the Honduras Solidarity Network (HSN) and several partners in Central America, Mexico, and Colombia, many of whom gathered with us at the pro-democracy strategy meeting recently co-convened with our partners in Guatemala.
We have a multi-national team on the ground conducting a pre-election assessment that will help us analyze and design our observation and communications strategies during the election itself. In the four years since the last elections, Honduras has grappled with instability.
Now, conservative factions inside Honduras are echoing the rhetoric of key members of the U.S. Congress, particularly within the House Foreign Affairs Committee, by raising concerns about external influence – especially from China, a country with which the government of President Xiomara Castro has developed close political and economic ties.
And while some U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, insist that the United States will not interfere, Trump’s high-profile endorsement and fear-mongering statements have triggered deep alarm among Honduran social movements, analysts, and international allies. Many see this as a dangerous attempt to shape outcomes, undermine confidence in the electoral process, and reassert U.S. dominance at a pivotal moment.
As always, Global Exchange will maintain strict non-partisan neutrality, but also remain strong advocates for a fair, peaceful process and genuine democratic choice.
