Since the summer, the political situation in Honduras has been complicated. President Zelaya was ousted and the government that is now in charge was not democratically elected. Tomorrow, Sunday, there will be elections. The crisis is not expected to be over after that and a number of countries and the EU are choosing not to send election observers.

On 30 October the parties in Honduras reached an agreement. This meant that a coalition government with representatives of different political parties and civil society would take office on 5 November. The coalition government would lead the country until the elections. The EU welcomed the agreement when it was made, but it was broken just a week later. The coup government is still in power and it is this government which is holding the elections.

“Complex situation”

Because the agreement was broken, diplomatic relations between the EU and Honduras have not been restored. The Presidency holder Sweden does not have an embassy in the country, and therefore Spain’s Ambassador in Honduras, Ignacio Rupérez Rubio, represents the EU Presidency locally. As explained in a previous article on se2009.eu, Ambassador Rupérez has not been able to return to the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa, but is in El Salvador.
“The situation has not improved. It is complex. Now the elections will take place without the President being reinstated and many countries are rejecting the elections”, explains Ambassador Rupérez.

Frozen agreement

In its statements, the EU has made it clear that it is in favour of a constitutional solution and positive to the mediation by the OAS, Organisation of American States.
“Otherwise, there has not been a lot the EU can do, even if the Union has a lot of sympathy for Honduras.”
The EU was in the process of negotiating an association agreement with Central America, which concerned free trade, politics and development cooperation. But when the crisis broke out in Honduras, the negotiations were frozen.
“It was hoped that the agreement could be signed at the beginning of next year, but now the outlook is bleak. There is also less unity in Central America in general now”, says Ambassador Rupérez.

Elections

In the elections on Sunday, neither the leader of the coup government Mr Micheletti nor the ousted President Mr Zelaya are among the candidates. The presidential candidates were decided in primary elections last year. Mr Zelaya has already ruled Honduras for as long as the country’s constitution allows; one of the reasons for the crisis was that Mr Zelaya wanted to change the constitution to make a re-election possible. For over two months, Mr Zelaya has been at the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa.
“I hope that the election day will be calm, that the Honduran people will be able to go and vote and move freely. There have been some threats ahead of the elections and some minor attacks”, says Ambassador Rupérez.
He does not think the prospects for a political solution are good at the moment.
“All the dialogue, all the expectations that there were; nothing has been fulfilled yet. I don’t see a quick or easy solution to the situation.”