Another Coupe to Democracy in Honduras

By Jose Trinidad Sanchez and Ricardo A. Bueso, members of the International Human Rights Commission of the International Honduran Solidarity Network, La Voz de los de Abajo and the Chicago Religious Leadership Network

International observers taking notes in Jesus de Otoro, Intibuc.

On November 24, 2013, Hondurans -- filled with hope and desire for change came out in large numbers to voting centers -- set up in schools across the country. 5.35 million Hondurans, including 1.2 million living in the United States, were called to elect president, congressmen, and mayors. After 88 percent of the ballots were counted, it is estimated that around 3 million Hondurans -- or 56 percent of the population -voted.

The Honduran Solidarity Network, with headquarters in the United States, sent a group of electoral observers as well as human rights observers. The Human Rights Commission designed its program to visit different areas and peoples historically excluded from development by the State, such as indigenous peoples, small-scale farmers, women, and relatives of prisoners in western and central Honduras. When we arrived in the town of Jesus de Otoro, Intibuc, we were immediately surrounded by citizens desperate to have someone listen to their denunciations of fraud. Members of the commission, especially civil rights attorney, Peter Gilbert from North Carolina, took notes of violations made by the Supreme Electoral Council and the National Party. These violations consisted of breaking election regulations as well as violations of civil rights and the Constitution of Honduras. The complaints made can be classified as the following: 1. Use of large sums of money by the National Party to bribe voters and buy credentials from representatives of other political parties at the voting tables. 2. Members of the National Party were allowed to vote, using the identity card of deceased individuals. 3. Members of political parties, other than the governing party, were not allowed to vote because their names appeared as deceased on the electoral database. 4. Database did not include all individuals with identity cards who should have been able to vote but were consequently denied that right. 5. Changing registration and voting places impeded many people from voting, although they had expected to be able to vote in their home town. 6. Death Threats: The candidate for mayor from the Libertad y Refundacin Party (LIBRE) in Jesus de Otoro, complained to the Human Rights Comission that he had received several death threats.

Another Coupe to Democracy in Honduras

Monitoring Local News In addition to receiving these direct complaints from Honduran citizens, the Commission monitored news from the local press. Electoral offenses, which have not been investigated or punished by the Honduran authorities, included the discovery of 2500 identities cards (the document required to vote) at the work site of Jose Maria Martinez, candidate for Congress for the National Party in Comayagua. Authorities from Comayagua had confiscated 20,000 identities cards from Mr. Martinez in the past.

Honduran citizens in Comayagua make their complaints to the commission.

Local radio stations reported of the existence of "home factories" for counterfeit ballots and the falsification of electoral records. The most shocking allegations have been made by presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla from the Anticorruption Party (PAC), who says that the Supreme Electoral Council (SEC) is accepting and recording falsified records. These records are being sent and recorded in the SEC to increase the number of votes of the National Party. Nasralla assures that some of these records may have been prepared in the headquarters of the National Police Academy (ANAPO). Primaries elections of the National Party were marred by allegations of collusion between the National Party leaders, voter registration officials, and members of the judicial system. Abuses at the community level We received several denunciations via telephone from several communities in the municipality of El Paraso, in the department of Copan, asserting that armed men sent by the current mayor of El Paraso, Amilcar Alexander Ardon, violently controlled the voting process in that region The mayor prevented the participation of the LIBRE party members in the electoral booths. Armed men flattened the tires of a vehicle which was transporting a group of young people representatives of Electoral Tables. Other representatives did not travel to their assigned rural communities due to threats. Another complainant said that all votes for small parties were added to the tally for the National Party. Two other persons, who asked to remain anonymous due to fear of reprisals, stated that in the polling booths in the rural communities of El Mango, and Manacales in the municipality of El Paraiso, Copan, representatives of the National Party nullified votes granted to the LIBRE party and obliged voters to mark their vote for National Party candidates for president, mayor, and Congress. Notes from the electoral history of Honduras Honduran political history has been marked with civil wars, military dictatorships, coup dtats, and fraudulent elections. The traditional political parties, National and Liberal Party, with close ties to transnational business and the United States Embassy, are the main players in Honduran politics. The recurring story of Honduran politics has been power in the hands of a minority which, as part of their political power, controls national industry and owns major media outlets, challenged only recently by emerging radio stations. The history of democracy in Honduras is a short one. Since the coup dtat in 1963, which promised to create a new constitution and start a new modern age of elections, there has been five other coups. As signatory to the Esquipulas Peace Agreement, a groundbreaking peace agreement among Central

Another Coupe to Democracy in Honduras

American nations in the early 1990s, Honduras moved toward less military influences in the nations politics. However, the 2009 coup dtat, was a turning point in which the military demonstrated its power in making strategic decisions in the country. In 2011, the Supreme Electoral Council approved presidential nominations for the General Romeo Vasquez Velasquez, the military commander of the 2009 coup. Juan Jose Rendn, a Venezuelan campaign strategist for President Porfirio Lobo in 2009, and now campaign strategist from Juan Orlando Hernndez, has stated that fighting dictatorships now is similar to fighting the wars in the 1970s in Central America, with a goal of destroying and controlling (La Prensa, November 28th 2013). Before the elections, the National Partys campaign focused on generating fear about what they called Chavismo, and the fight against it. Chavismo alluded to the socialist ideas derived from the late Hugo Chavez from Venezuela. The media, which is controlled by the current power, assured that LIBRE was linked to Chavismo and to communism in Cuba. National Party presidential candidate Hernandez promised to efface violence in the nation by increasing the number of the military. This was criticized by the new political parties, LIBRE and PAC, who do not believe the solution to violence is greater investment in the military. Billy Joya, candidate for Congressmen from the newly emerged right-wing Alianza Patriotica Party and former head of the notorious Death Squad 3-16, responsible for the disappearance of 300 popular leaders in the early 80's, recognized that the data system of the Supreme Electoral Council of Honduras is being "injected" with illegal votes. (Diario Tiempo, November 30, 2013). Baltazar Garzn, former Spanish Judge, an observer of the electoral process in Honduras, member of the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), presented an extensive report on the lack of transparency and violation of Human Rights. Furthermore, he affirms "The electoral process in Honduras has been very worrying: it has led us to say that there was electoral fraud by different mechanisms credentials were bought, bribing for votes... (Diario Tiempo, November 30th, 2013). Garzn adds that "considering that the financing of political campaigns in this country is completely secretive, not transparent, and limitless and that's very dangerous." (See attached report.) At the time of closing this report, alternative radio and TV reveals differences between the Supreme Electoral Councils results and the political parties results. Evidence of fraud are shown, such as manipulated records, falsification of electoral documents and proof of crimes committed during the electoral period. Meanwhile, the LIBRE party and the Resistance Movement, a broad-based social movement that protested the 2009 coup, have called to protest against the fraud on Sunday, December 1st in Tegucigalpa. Recommendations 1. To restore the trust of Hondurans in the electoral process, an international impartial audit must examine the quality and accuracy of the results handled by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal. 2. It is important to determine the sources of the huge amounts of money spent by political parties in this process. 3. The justice system must prosecute violators of electoral law and thus set an important precedent for basic fairness and rule of law.