HomeNewsBriefOrganized Crime the True Winner in Honduras Elections
BRIEF

Organized Crime the True Winner in Honduras Elections

HONDURAS / 26 NOV 2013 BY MARGUERITE CAWLEY EN

What is the last thing a violence-wracked, corrupt Central American nation needs as it seeks to fight transnational organized crime: contested presidential elections.  Welcome to Honduras.

The country’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) has National Party (PN) candidate, Juan Orlando Hernandez, as the winner of  November 24's presidential election, with 34 percent of ballots cast, based on results from over two thirds of polling stations, reported Europa Press

Xiomara Castro, of the Liberty and Refoundation Party (LIBRE), received 29 percent of the votes, according to the official count. The TSE has said the results to the moment “reflect an irreversible trend” towards a Hernandez victory, reported AFP.

Castro’s husband and LIBRE leader, former President Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted from office in a 2009 coup, has refused to acknowledge the victory, and called for a recount of the votes. LIBRE leaders have claimed there were “serious inconsistencies” in the documentation of the results, according to El Heraldo.

Zelaya claimed, “We are going to defend the results of the victory… if necessary, on the streets,” reported Univision.

InSight Crime Analysis

The 2009 ousting of Zelaya was a watershed moment for Honduras’ organized crime landscape. The coup left a political vacuum that allowed the country to develop into the principal air bridge for cocaine flights from South America almost overnight and to become the world’s most dangerous country as foreign criminal groups moved in.

The country has remained unstable throughout the administration of current President Porfirio Lobo, something reflected in the weakness and corruption of its institutions, and particularly the police. Up to 40 percent of Honduran police are thought to be involved in organized crime and ongoing police reform has seen little headway.

Additionally, Honduras’ street gangs, primarily Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha (MS13) continue to be major drivers of violence, engaging in widespread extortion with immense power in the neighborhoods they control.

Regardless of how the electoral situation is resolved, calls of fraud by the political underdog reduce the legitimacy of the results. This is likely to make it difficult for the winner to rally national support, leading to a continuation of the country’s ongoing political crisis and polarization, providing criminal groups with the same unstable climate that has allowed them to flourish.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Tags

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

EL SALVADOR / 30 DEC 2021

The United States, under the Biden administration, was supposed to help curb corruption, but for corrupt officials in Central America,…

COCAINE / 7 MAR 2023

The US State Department's annual narcotics report sees coca cultivation spreading, while Colombia remains the top cocaine supplier to the…

BOLIVIA / 8 MAR 2023

InSight Crime reviews Latin America and the Caribbean's cocaine seizure date from 2022 to find out what it reveals about…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela Coverage Continues to be Highlighted

3 MAR 2023

This week, InSight Crime co-director Jeremy McDermott was the featured guest on the Americas Quarterly podcast, where he provided an expert overview of the changing dynamics…

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela's Organized Crime Top 10 Attracts Attention

24 FEB 2023

Last week, InSight Crime published its ranking of Venezuela’s ten organized crime groups to accompany the launch of the Venezuela Organized Crime Observatory. Read…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime on El País Podcast

10 FEB 2023

This week, InSight Crime co-founder, Jeremy McDermott, was among experts featured in an El País podcast on the progress of Colombia’s nascent peace process.

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Interviewed by Associated Press

3 FEB 2023

This week, InSight Crime’s Co-director Jeremy McDermott was interviewed by the Associated Press on developments in Haiti as the country continues its prolonged collapse. McDermott’s words were republished around the world,…

THE ORGANIZATION

Escaping Barrio 18

27 JAN 2023

Last week, InSight Crime published an investigation charting the story of Desafío, a 28-year-old Barrio 18 gang member who is desperate to escape gang life. But there’s one problem: he’s…