Trying to Revive democracy in Honduras by Neil O’Donnell

Trying to Revive democracy in Honduras

Honduras has been a Democracy that has been struggling for a very long time with multiple aspects of society and Government. We have seen time and time again Latin American countries struggle to maintain political stability and hence, Honduras is a perfect example of this. With the recent election and newly elected President Xiomara Castro, she is looking to strengthen and move forward to promote Democracy.

           

            The 2021 election was a turning point for Honduras, as the people there had been going through hard struggles and living in tough conditions in everyday life. According to Lopez, there are many issues facing why many Hondurans are fleeing the country, but he says that mainly crime and poverty are the two attributing factors to it. The concept of Democracy in Honduras was no where to be found under President Hernandez administration. The fact that people were fleeing, just shows that Democracy wasn’t taken seriously in that time and people’s living conditions were not as good. It also shows lack of Governmental structure and strength.

Election security and violence has also been haunting Honduras and its Democratic form of Government. Many of those in Honduras were skeptical about the results about the 2017 election which led to protests and demonstrations. In the 2021 election, people were preparing by shutting down businesses and preparing for protests. According to Lopez, many of the businesses were in preparation to shut down due to the fact of further polarization and instability that would occur right after the results of the 2017 election. Shutting down businesses and in anticipation of post-election violence show political instability, while small pieces of Democracy are falling apart at the same time. Violence is a huge issue and a very anti-democratic. The polarization that also took place at the time in the 2017 direction showed that Democracy was headed in the wrong direction. Since many people in Honduras had huge distrust in Government and were very turmoiled.  It also didn’t help that President Hernandez was very corrupt and controlled the electoral commission that said there wasn’t any fraud.  “As president, the conservative Mr. Hernández, 49, had established control over all the branches of government, including the electoral commission (Malkin, 2017).”

President Hernandez centralized power in Honduras and ignore fundamental rights in Democracy. Ranging from things such as voting to people being in poverty to corruption and finally, to violence. Let us not blame this all on him though, Honduras has had it’s bumps in the road when dealing with corruption and violence, while being a democracy. To move on from this we need to note one important thing is that Human rights in Honduras is a cause for concern. “The UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders called Honduras one of the most dangerous countries for human rights defenders in Latin America (Human Rights Watch, 2021).” Under President Hernandez no one felt safe, and many people fled because their quality of life was poor and in a key basic part of Democracy, people’s quality of life and sense of security and safeness need to be recognized. Even the violence toward minority groups such as the LGBTQ were impacted under his leadership. “Violence against LGBT individuals forces many to leave their homes, fleeing internally or leaving the country to seek asylum (Human Rights Watch, 2021).”

Now, let’s look at current day with the recent and newly elected President Xiomara Castro, who is trying to build democracy to the fullest in Honduras. She does have upcoming challenges to deal with as she is over a year into her Presidency, especially with problems in Congress. According to Kurmanaev, President Xiomara has been facing a conflict within her party, which is affecting her ways to pass her legislation and push forward her agenda. Dealing with instability will be a huge challenge in dealing with Congress, but her goals are set no matter what and that is to restore and promote democracy in Honduras after winning a big election in 2021. She is also giving more freedoms to women when it comes to reproductive rights. “President Xiomara Castro of Honduras signed an executive order on Wednesday that lifted a longtime ban on emergency contraceptive pills, delivering on a campaign promise for a policy change that was sought by feminist groups for years (Jiminez and Suazo, 2023).” President Castro is taking the right steps to promote democracies and freedoms and by doing this was the first step in the right direction for women in Honduras. Not only that, but democracy.

References:

• Jiménez, Jesus, and Joan Suazo. “Honduras Lifts Longtime Ban on ‘morning after’ Pills.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 9 Mar. 2023,

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/09/world/americas/honduras-morning-after-pill.html.

• Kurmanaev, A. (2022, January 21). New Honduran leader loses grip on Congress, sapping hope for change. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/21/world/americas/honduras-castro-congress-rebellion.html
• Lopez, Oscar. “What’s at Stake in the Honduran Presidential Election?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 28 Nov. 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/11/28/world/americas/honduras-elections.html.
• Malkin, Elisabeth. “Political Unrest Grips Honduras after Disputed Election.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 30 Nov. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/world/americas/honduras-vote-political-crisis.html.
• “World Report 2021: Rights Trends in Honduras.” Human Rights Watch, 2021, www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/country-chapters/honduras.