00:00Let's stay on topic and go deeper in the analysis of Honduras' upcoming general elections.
00:05We welcome analyst and human rights specialist David Lopez.
00:09Welcome David to From the South.
00:13Thank you very much today from Geneva.
00:14It's a pleasure to have you as always.
00:16David, we are less than 24 hours away from the election day.
00:20We can say that lots has happened during the campaign period, especially framed on the
00:25denunciation of far-right opposition sectors attempts to hijack the voting transmission
00:29system.
00:30So what is the atmosphere right now in Honduras as the election day closes?
00:35So right now something at the international level is very worried because some behavior
00:44from Washington are very delicate.
00:47So 48 hours before the elections have declarations from President Trump who mentioned that he pardoned
00:55to Juan Orlando Hernandez and put him on freedom after to be condemned at 45 years for narcotics,
01:05weapon traffics, et cetera.
01:07This is a very, very delicate behavior.
01:10Overall, when he mentioned that if his candidate wins, so we understand that the candidate of
01:17the United States right now is Nasri Asfura, if he wins, it will be money for Honduras.
01:25But if he doesn't win, so Honduras will not have money from the United States.
01:30This is a very, very delicate violation of the UN Charter, Article 2.1 and Article 2.7, who
01:40granted the non-intermission of the domestic policies of other countries.
01:49And it violates as well the right of the self-determination, and it's driven under Article 1 of the International
01:57Convention on Civil and Political Rights, recognized as well by the United States.
02:04As we were saying, the U.S. interference in the election also comes in a context, as we
02:09have been discussing for a couple of months now, of the military deployment in the Caribbean,
02:14trying to coerce in a way also nations in Latin America and especially against Venezuela.
02:20So is there a relation?
02:22Do you think there's a coincidence there, a relation in these actions?
02:26Yes, I think that this is a geopolitical context we are living right now in Honduras, because
02:34of course for the United States it's not interesting that a country who traditionally was every time
02:40dominated by the White House today has again the possibility to lose one part of the Central
02:47American territory, maybe to control all the Caribbean to have the possibility to manage
02:52much, much more the military conditions to attack Venezuela.
02:58We have to understand, as I mentioned to you before, that this is incredible that on the
03:07public positions, President Trump mentioned that he will intervene Venezuela because he has
03:15narcotrafficants who export cocaine to the United States and they have to fight against them and
03:23as well against the Colombian government.
03:26And he mentioned that he will intervene military Venezuela and maybe Colombia if that continues.
03:31But at the same time, he pardoned and put in freedom a former president who was condemned
03:36by the U.S. authorities for 45 years because narcotics and because weapon traffic between the United
03:47States and Honduras.
03:49So this is a contradiction and we see there that it has not in Honduras the interest to be, to
03:58respond and to respect the international law and the domestic laws of Honduras, but to respond
04:05in a geopolitical context, who will give the opportunity to the United States to attack
04:11maybe much more easy or make, in any case, much more military pressure over Venezuela and
04:17maybe Colombia and other countries of the region.
04:21We have seen that President Donald Trump has made condition of the delivery of international
04:26aid and any kind of support to Honduras on the option that the candidate that he wants,
04:31the far right candidate wins the election day.
04:33What will be the humanitarian impact for the Honduran people and what will be the impacts
04:38of the impositions of these kinds of policies, of strategies throughout the region?
04:43Yeah.
04:44So this is very delicate because we have to remember that Latin America is a peace region, a peace
04:53region who was as well defended on our biggest geopolitical context and point of view.
05:01We have to remember that Moscow talked to the public to protect and respect this level of
05:11peace we have in Latin America, as well as China and as well as many other countries, as well
05:16the European Union.
05:17They mentioned that it's very dangerous to have some behaviors like the United States in
05:22Latin America because we can conduct the country and the Latin American people to a war.
05:29And this behavior of the United States makes that they don't care about the Latin American
05:35people and if they have to bring these people in a war who respond only to the interests of
05:42the capital of the United States, not the interests of the U.S. people, but only to the interests
05:49of the White House and the people who support the White House policies behind.
05:53They don't care if the people have to go in a war.
05:56This is very complicated and it attempts and violates the basic international rules ratified
06:05as well by the United States, by all the Latin American countries.
06:09And it's for this reason that we need to have an eye today over the elections in Honduras.
06:15But I think that the people in general, in the context we have right now, Rixi Moncada, the
06:24candidate of the officialist government, has the great possibilities to win the election
06:30and continue this policy where the poverty, the reduction of the poverty was a very strong
06:38point of this actual government and it will continue with her.
06:43But if it does not continue because of the oppression of the United States, we can have a very dark
06:48and worried situation on the region.
06:52As we were saying, let's now pretend, let's do a little bit of guesswork in a way.
06:56Let's pretend it's Monday, Honduras has a new elected government.
07:00What development priorities should the next government focus on and what key challenges would it face
07:05coming from taking into context all the foreign interventionist actions and all the situation
07:10right now in the region?
07:12So independently of the candidate who will win, it's important to take in consideration the
07:21first step, the interest of the Honduran people.
07:25Actually, the actual government has made very good policies to respond to the poverty reduction,
07:37to the public health and many other policies who are needed not only in Honduras but in the
07:45majorities of the Latin American countries.
07:47And this is maybe the first point that has to make the next president independently who will win.
07:55And the second one is to ask to the United States, all the countries to respect the international law.
08:02We see what happens if we don't respect the international law.
08:07You can look what happened in Palestine.
08:09You can see what happened right now with the possibilities of the United States to invade Venezuela.
08:14You can see what happened as well in Africa and the geopolitical situation in the Sahel.
08:19This is an act. I think that the next president who will arrive to the power on the next government has to
08:28require the respect of the international law and the respect of the self-determination of Honduras and all the region who actually, with this behavior,
08:40is put on the middle of a big danger of a war.
08:46Thank you very much, David Lopez, for your time here in From the South and for these inputs as we head for the elections in Honduras on Sunday, November 30th.
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