By Christopher Sherman, Garance Burke, and Martha Mendoza
Associated Press
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Amid a deepening electoral crisis in Honduras, the administration of President Donald Trump on Thursday certified the country's progress in protecting human rights and attacking corruption.
The move comes nearly two restive weeks after a presidential election, but Hondurans still do not know who their next leader will be. President Juan Orlando Hernandez narrowly leads in the vote tally, but has not been declared the winner. His challenger, Salvador Nasralla, alleges fraud.
Troops and police units, some trained by U.S. forces, are patrolling the streets of the capital and have been accused of killing and wounding demonstrators after Hernandez declared a dusk-to-dawn curfew and suspended some constitutional rights to tamp down pro-opposition protesters.
If accepted by U.S. congressional appropriations committees, the certifications by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson would ensure that Honduras receives millions of dollars in U.S. funds that are conditional on progress in human rights and corruption.
Human rights defenders in Honduras were stunned by the certification.
"We were really surprised that in the middle of this crisis the State Department comes out with this kind of statement when the government of Honduras is not meeting the conditions," said Carlos Sierra, a security and human rights investigator with the Center for Investigation and Promotion of Human Rights in Honduras. "It came right in this institutional and political crisis."
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hernandez said Wednesday that he appreciated the U.S. certification.
"That determination signifies a very important message," he said, "and reflects how they (the U.S.) are seeing Hondurans."
The certification affects only half of the U.S. funds that go directly to Honduras' central government, which amounts to between $15 million and $20 million, according to the office of U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. Other U.S. assistance is unaffected by the certification process.
Leahy said the certification conditions are important to send a message that U.S. aid is not a blank check.
"We expect our own government to hold them accountable," he said. "The certification just received, in the midst of an election debacle that has triggered a political crisis, requires careful scrutiny by the Congress."
As vice chairman of the Senate Appropriations committee, Leahy could put a hold on all or some of those funds, but the senator has not decided how to respond to the certification and wants to discuss it with the State Department, his office said.
While the certification was published Thursday in the Federal Register, Tillerson signed the memo recommending it on Nov. 28, two days after the election.
Nasralla had held a five-point lead in the electoral court's first partial results when the count stalled for some 24 hours. When results resumed, his lead gradually diminished and then disappeared entirely. He alleged fraud and called his supporters into the streets.
An election monitoring team from the European Union released a preliminary report on Nov. 28 criticizing the electoral tribunal's poor communication about the delayed results. By the end of the week, security forces and protesters began to battle in the streets.
The move comes nearly two restive weeks after a presidential election, but Hondurans still do not know who their next leader will be. President Juan Orlando Hernandez narrowly leads in the vote tally, but has not been declared the winner. His challenger, Salvador Nasralla, alleges fraud.
Troops and police units, some trained by U.S. forces, are patrolling the streets of the capital and have been accused of killing and wounding demonstrators after Hernandez declared a dusk-to-dawn curfew and suspended some constitutional rights to tamp down pro-opposition protesters.
If accepted by U.S. congressional appropriations committees, the certifications by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson would ensure that Honduras receives millions of dollars in U.S. funds that are conditional on progress in human rights and corruption.
Human rights defenders in Honduras were stunned by the certification.
"We were really surprised that in the middle of this crisis the State Department comes out with this kind of statement when the government of Honduras is not meeting the conditions," said Carlos Sierra, a security and human rights investigator with the Center for Investigation and Promotion of Human Rights in Honduras. "It came right in this institutional and political crisis."
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hernandez said Wednesday that he appreciated the U.S. certification.
"That determination signifies a very important message," he said, "and reflects how they (the U.S.) are seeing Hondurans."
The certification affects only half of the U.S. funds that go directly to Honduras' central government, which amounts to between $15 million and $20 million, according to the office of U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. Other U.S. assistance is unaffected by the certification process.
Leahy said the certification conditions are important to send a message that U.S. aid is not a blank check.
"We expect our own government to hold them accountable," he said. "The certification just received, in the midst of an election debacle that has triggered a political crisis, requires careful scrutiny by the Congress."
As vice chairman of the Senate Appropriations committee, Leahy could put a hold on all or some of those funds, but the senator has not decided how to respond to the certification and wants to discuss it with the State Department, his office said.
While the certification was published Thursday in the Federal Register, Tillerson signed the memo recommending it on Nov. 28, two days after the election.
Nasralla had held a five-point lead in the electoral court's first partial results when the count stalled for some 24 hours. When results resumed, his lead gradually diminished and then disappeared entirely. He alleged fraud and called his supporters into the streets.
An election monitoring team from the European Union released a preliminary report on Nov. 28 criticizing the electoral tribunal's poor communication about the delayed results. By the end of the week, security forces and protesters began to battle in the streets.
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2 comments:
I don’t give a fuck about Honduras..it is a cesspool. Build the wall.
This is what this country will become if they keep electing pendejo republicans and its just around the corner.
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