Vol. 73/No. 48      December 14, 2009

The November 29 election came just five months after former President Manuel Zelaya was arrested and removed from the country by the army under the orders of the Honduran Supreme Court. The Honduran congress named Roberto Micheletti as interim president.

The political turmoil erupted when Zelaya tried to organize a referendum on whether to change the constitution to remove the one-term limit for presidents, which the Supreme Court ruled as illegal. Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega recently made similar moves by securing a ruling from the Supreme Court that would allow for his reelection in 2011.

Concerned with restoring stability in Honduras, the U.S. government brokered an agreement that put Zelaya’s political future in the hands of the Honduran congress. Zelaya rescinded his agreement with the U.S.-brokered pact on the grounds that a decision by the legislature should have been made before the election.

A wealthy timber and cattle businessman, Zelaya was elected in 2005 and had pursued typical liberal capitalist policies. What antagonized others in ruling circles, however, was his increasing association with Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez. Zelaya was responsible for bringing Honduras into a Venezuelan-led trade alliance, put forward by its supporters as an “alternative” to trade relationships with more powerful capitalist powers like the United States.

“For now the [Brazilian] position is not to accept the electoral process in Honduras,” Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told the New York Times. He suggested reinstating Zelaya for the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect Lobo.

All of the candidates who were on the ballot in the recent election were chosen in November 2008 primaries, and all but one of them had pushed for the elections to move forward. Each candidate has now accepted the results of the election, including the candidate from Zelaya’s Liberal Party.  
 
 
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