Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro criticised US “intervention” in the internal affairs of Latin American countries, and in the Honduran elections, on November 25.
Xiomara Castro, candidate for the LIBRE party formed by the resistance movement that opposed the 2009 US-backed coup, declared victory after the vote. However, so did her conservative opponent, National Party's Juan Hernandez , with the Electoral Supreme Court (TSE) declaring Hernandez clearly ahead. LIBRE rejected the TSE's count, alleging serious fraud.
US Ambassador to Honduras Lisa Kubiske said minutes after the third preliminary announcement from the TSE that she “recognised and respected” the results, as they “coincide” with the reports of US governmental observers.
The final results with the full count had yet to be announced at the time, and the LIBRE party and the smaller Anti Corrupcion party, said they don’t recognise the results. They say they have proof of irregularities committed during the voting process.
The results announced by the TSE on November 25 gave Hernandez 34.08% of the vote, and Xiomara Castro of the LIBRE party 28.92%, with 67.72% of votes counted.
Maduro also accused the US of spending “I don’t know how many millions” on training the TSE, and stressed that Honduras is still recovering from the “wounds” inflicted on it by the coup against president Manuel Zelaya in 2009.
Maduro said the people of Honduras were mature enough to resolve their internal affairs without US intervention. “I want to express my repugnance at the declarations of the US ambassador in Tegucigalpa,” he said. "It makes your blood boil when you see a US ambassador meddling in the internal affairs of Hondurans.”
He also criticised some comments that have compared the Honduran elections to the presidential elections held in Venezuela earlier this year. In that case, Henrique Capriles, representing the opposition, refused to recognise the results, as did the US.
“Today [Monday] on CNN and the other maggots nests of the right wing in the world, they were comparing the Honduran electoral process with Venezuela’s on 14 April, [but] they are different processes.”
In Venezuela, electoral results are only announced once they are irreversible. “In Venezuela there is an automatic electoral process, we vote in the most monitored electoral process, the most controlled one, the most automatic in the world, we should feel proud of the electoral system we have.”
Venezuelan legislator to the Latin American Parliament, Rodrigo Cabezas, expressed concern about the “denunciations of manipulated results” in the Honduran elections. He expressed solidarity with the LIBRE party, and with “all social movements who support Castro’s candidature”. He called on authorities to investigate the denunciations.
[First appeared at Venezuela Analysis.]
