Honduras is teetering on the edge of chaos as protests by the ruling socialist Libre party grind the presidential election count to a halt.
According to Breitbart, two weeks after the November election, violent demonstrations against the National Electoral Council (CNE) have injured at least eight people and delayed final results in a tight race between Nasry Asfura of the National Party and Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party.
The unrest kicked off with Libre party members, backed by President Xiomara Castro, crying foul over alleged fraud and even a supposed coup against their administration.
Their candidate, Rixi Moncada, sits in third place with just over 19 percent of the vote, per the CNE’s last update on December 9, showing Asfura ahead by a slim 42,000 votes.
Instead of accepting the numbers, Libre’s leadership has pushed supporters into the streets, with riots erupting across Tegucigalpa by Monday, blocking highways and CNE facilities.
Honduran police had to step in that night, breaking up a so-called “peaceful” protest outside a storage site that featured burning tires and a five-hour blockade of a major boulevard.
The CNE says these disruptions have stalled a critical review of over 2,700 voting records flagged for inconsistencies, a process meant to start on Sunday but still on hold as of now.
Adding to the mess, Libre’s representative, Marlon Ochoa, refuses to authorize the review, demanding a full recount while the nation waits for clarity.
Initial delays were blamed on technical glitches with service providers, but the CNE points to the ongoing protests as the real roadblock now, with chaos reigning as of early Wednesday morning.
International watchdogs from the Organization of American States (OAS) and European Union aren’t buying Libre’s narrative, noting significant delays but no evidence of irregularities that would taint the results.
“We have observed significant delays in processing the results, but no evidence that would cause us to doubt their validity,” said Eladio Loizaga, head of OAS’s electoral mission to Honduras. Well, that’s a polite way to say ‘calm down’ to the socialists throwing tantrums over math they don’t like.
Even a U.S. State Department spokesperson chimed in, stating, “There is no credible evidence to suggest the election should be annulled.” Sounds like a rare moment of sanity from Washington, cutting through the noise of baseless conspiracy theories.
Libre and Castro have gone as far as accusing President Donald Trump of meddling by endorsing Asfura, a claim that smells more like desperation than evidence in a country already fed up with socialist overreach.
While the ruling party plays the victim, the Honduran people are left in limbo, waiting for a resolution as the CNE struggles to finish its job amidst this manufactured crisis. If this isn’t a textbook case of sore losers undermining democracy, what is?