© Orlando Sierra/AFP/GettySupporters of Honduran presidential candidate for the Opposition Alliance against the Dictatorship party Salvador Nasralla, are affected by tear gas during a protest outside the Electoral Supreme Court (TSE), to demand the announcement of the election final results in Tegucigalpa, on November 30, 2017.
The recent crisis in Honduras has found its way to the public sphere in the United States, but it has not gotten nearly as much attention as a situation of this magnitude deserves. Honduras was just in the midst of a presidential election between conservative incumbent Juan Orlando Hernández and left-leaning Salvador Nasralla. Initial results showed Nasralla leading the vote by what many considered to be an irreversible margin. However, the next day it was announced that Hernández had taken the lead as the
Supreme Electoral Tribunal stopped publicizing tallies, closed the electoral process to the public eye and postponed any official recounts. The people of Honduras rallied in massive protests on the streets of the country as allegations of mass fraud began to
surface. Hernández, who has been re-instated as president, has deployed several elite police forces that have
violently confronted peaceful protesters on several occasions, prompting a humanitarian crisis on top of the political turmoil. Activists and observers alike have recently called out the United States, which has a history of involvement in Honduras, for their support of Hernández over the past several years. Additionally, they point to the United States' role in training these military forces, calling into question their potential
involvement in the recent situation.
The current crisis in Honduras has served to highlight the devastating consequences of U.S interventionism in Latin America, which has threatened and continue to threaten the very institutions of democracy in countries that still struggle for the right to self-determination in a supposedly post-colonial world.
Comment: Pelosi should be in a padded room, not Congress.