On Thursday, the House Foreign Affairs Western Hemisphere Subcommittee held a hearing titled “Democracy in Peril: the Fight for Free Elections in Honduras.” The hearing was suspiciously broadcast to Honduras. The subcommittee chair and anti-Cuba hardliner, María Elvira Salazar (R-FL-27), is no stranger to meddling in Latin American countries’ internal affairs and insulting world leaders she disagrees with. She, like most in Congress, believes she has the power to dictate what other countries should do and who should lead them.
In the first few minutes, Salazar highlights her bullying style of diplomacy while spreading misinformation and making unsubstantiated allegations against many leaders and candidates in Honduras’ elections. What became very clear from the very beginning was that she was promoting her preferred candidate while declaring, “I’m not telling you who to vote for.”
The Candidates
Rixi Moncada of the LIBRE Party is hated by Salazar, is a close ally of the current president, and promises to continue Honduras’ social programs, reform the country’s economic system, which only benefits the 10 wealthiest families in the country, and expand access to credit and promote inclusive development.
Nasry ‘Tito’ Asfura wants to bring in private investment to promote infrastructure development and modernize the country’s ports. He has also pledged to create more jobs and argues that migrants being repatriated from the US will stimulate Honduras’ economy. Asfura plans to foster US-Honduras trade relations.
Salvador Nasralla wants to create more jobs by implementing fiscal polices to stimulate investment. He also wants to decentralize the government, much like Javier Milei did in Argentina, and promote tourism, invest in infrastructure projects, and adopt a Bukele-style law enforcement model. This is who Salzar favors in Honduras’ elections.
The Hearing
Salazar opened the meeting by comparing the current Honduran President, Xiomara Castro, to what she declares to be murderous dictators, who were elected into office. Not only does she insult respected leaders in their respective countries, but also the voters who elected them. What she does and how she promotes US interventionism is ignored in the US media, but her polarized and hyperbolic rhetoric does not go unnoticed in Latin America.
Ranking Member Joaquin Castro (D-TX-20) called out the White House for cutting funding to agencies that have long been involved in undermining democracy in other countries. While Castro highlighted some of the same problems as Salazar, and cast doubt about the legitimacy of the upcoming elections, he ended his opening remarks by highlighting how Hondurans are “mobilizing,” suggesting that their votes are being chiled at all.
One of the speakers, Carlos Trujillo, was the U.S. ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS) under the Trump administration and was involved in the 2019 Bolivian presidential election crisis when he pushed the OAS election-monitoring team to report widespread fraud. His actions contributed to the coup of then-President Evo Morales, which led Elon Musk to say on Twitter that “we can coup whoever we want.”
Morales was promptly reelected in later elections.
Trujillo’s involvement in Bolivia’s elections highlights just how easily the US will declare electoral fraud in Latin America and manufacture evidence to make its case. Additionally, Trujillo supported additional sanctions against Cuba that were referred to as “lethal.” His appearance at the hearing was intentional due to his specific bias against much of Latin America and its leaders. Trujillo, who is a registered foreign agent with business interests in Honduras, was challenged by Castro, who gave him a hard time about his conflicts of interest.
Deborah Ullmer, the Regional Director, Latin America and the Caribbean Programs, National Democratic Institute (NDI). The NDI’s parent company, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which, for all intents and purposes, runs covert operations to undermine elections that were once conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In 2001, the NED was implicated in funding groups in Venezuela that would later attempt to oust then-President Hugo Chávez. The NDI was incriminated in attempting to undermine Nicolas Maduro’s government in 2013 and 2015 following Chavez’s death.
Other groups under NED’s umbrella are the International Republican Institute (IRI) and Freedom House. While they maintain that they are non-profit, non-governmental agencies, the bulk of their funding comes directly from agencies funded by the US Congress, such as the NED, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the Department of State, and the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening. All of which have been involved in coups, attempted coups, and casting doubt about elections all over the world.
Enrique Roig, Vice President of External Affairs at Human Rights First, laid much of the concern about the Honduran election on the Trump administration’s cuts to the aforementioned problematic agencies, suggesting that the doubts being cast largely stem from the United States and hearings such as the one he is participating in. While Roig criticized the White House, he appeared more concerned with the agencies behind coups all over the world, not having the money to do what he expects them to do in Honduras.
While the speakers discussed distrust and possible election rigging, it should be noted that all three candidates are accusing each other of unethical and illegal behavior, and the vast majority of it is misinformation. Many of these allegations have led to legal action, thus creating an environment of distrust. The problem exemplified by everyone at the hearing is that they expect elections to be like those in the US, openly corrupt and bought by corporations. When a country does things differently, there will always be opposition from lawmakers who are influenced by biased and dishonest brokers who operate with ulterior motives tied directly to their funding.
The hearing last week laid the groundwork for casting doubt about elections from outside forces, creating a pretext to intervene while also campaigning for the US’s chosen candidate. Meanwhile, Honduran President Xiomara Castro, who was being villainized in the subcommittee hearing, has a 64% approval rating, the lowest of her term.
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