Honduras Suspends Constitution As President 'Flees' Violence
By Staff, www.telesurtv.net
December 2nd, 2017
The embattled president has gone "allegedly to the United States: what could
he be doing there? We don't know yet," opposition leader Nasralla said in a
Facebook video.
The Honduran government has voted to suspend constitutional guarantees
across the country as of 11 pm local time, hours after President Hernandez
reportedly fled the country to avoid violent street protests in the wake of
the disputed presidential election, Diario La Prensa has reported. The
government has also implemented a curfew meant to deter people from publicly
demonstrating.
The move was announced on television and radio networks across Honduras by
Ebal Diaz, secretary of the Council of Ministers, as a bid to control
violence which has erupted across the country since the ballot.
"The officials will announce the scope of the constitutional guarantees that
have been adopted by the council of ministers led by the government
coordinator, Jorge Ramon Hernandez Alcerro," Diaz said during the broadcast.
Honduras' Opposition Alliance candidate Salvador Nasralla earlier claimed
Hernandez had fled to the United States ahead of a plan to announce a state
of emergency to quell increasingly violent protests against ongoing delays
in publishing the results of last Sunday's election.
The embattled president has gone "allegedly to the United States: what could
he be doing there? We don't know yet," Nasralla said in a three-minute
Facebook video posted late Friday, citing information received from his
personal "intelligence service."
"Here in Honduras, we are in a situation of fraud against me," the
opposition leader continued. "I won the elections with 70 percent of the
vote, with 116,000 more votes than Hernandez.
"Mathematically, it is impossible that this would change even with the 30
percent of the ballots left to count."
Nasralla also warned that President Hernandez allegedly plans to implement a
state of emergency later tonight in order to allow the electoral authorities
to announce his victory without public reprisal from opposition protesters,
three of whom have been killed so far in violent clashes with police.
"Let's wait and see if this is confirmed, and hope that this won't happen,"
Nasralla concluded.
Meanwhile, President of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) David Matamoros
reported that the "special scrutiny" of electoral records was being further
delayed.
"We ask for patience, we have nothing to hide," he said, as violent street
protests continued in response to the delayed release of Sunday's
presidential-election results.
Matamoros blamed the delay on the fact that the opposition Alliance
delegates arrived late to start the special count, noting that
representatives of the National Party and international observers were
already present.
The Alliance said they were refusing to take part because the TSE had only
agreed to scrutinise 1,300 ballots out of the 5,000 originally requested.
Matamoros announced Thursday that the electoral body will count the
remaining 1,031 ballot records under the "special scrutiny" of international
organizations in order to "guarantee transparency."
Groups overseeing the count include the European Union Parliament Electoral
Observation Mission in Honduras (EUPEOM), and the Organization of American
States (OAS).
The armed forces of Honduras have also appealed for the general population
to remain calm as the delayed results of last week's presidential elections
trigger increasingly violent protests.
Voters have taken to the streets to demonstrate their anger at the ongoing
delays amid widespread accusations of fraud committed by the country's
electoral body.
Jorge Cerrato, spokesman for the armed forces, released a statement Friday
in which he called on Hondurans to maintain "peace, calm and tolerance" as
tensions continue to escalate.
"The Armed Forces and the National Police. call on the population to
maintain peace, calm, tolerance and not to feed feelings of hatred, revenge
and division among the Honduran family," he said on Twitter.
"We recognize that the Honduran people have all the right to demonstrate as
mandated by the Constitution of the Republic, peacefully without affecting
the free movement, physical integrity of people or property."
The TSE has repeatedly delayed the scheduled release of the results,
prompting public displays of anger which are being increasingly met with
police violence.
Cerrato insisted that security forces are in the "post-election phase,"
faithfully guaranteeing the provisions of electoral law and political
organizations, but he cautioned that anyone "inciting and executing acts of
vandalism that generate chaos, disorder and destruction," will be prosecuted
"respecting human rights in an unrestricted manner."
Protesters, meanwhile, are being attacked by the National Police with tear
gas and rubber bullets. So far, three people have been killed during
demonstrations and dozens more injured.