Honduras the Nationalist Party candidate Juan Orlando Hernandez beat out eight other candidates to become the country’s next president, despite his party’s previously poor record on crime.
Running against three other serious contenders–Mauricio Villeda of the Liberal Party, Xiomara Castro, the wife of former Honduran president Mel Zelaya, who ran as the candidate of her own Libre party-Hernandez was able to keep the Nationalist Party in control.
This is in fact such a common occurrence in Honduran politics that whatever you can say about the Nationalist Party, they are usually united behind one person, while fights between leaders in the Liberal Party or worse in more leftist parties like UD, are so infamous that there are political jokes in Honduras about it.
Hernandez was the president of the Honduras Congress during the soon-to-be concluded Nationalist Party administration of President Pepe Lobo. he president of the Congress is always chosen by the party that has the most Congressmen, so the Nationalist Party controlled the Congress. He was also head of the Nationalist Party.
In Honduras, the political party that wins also appoints the Justices of the Supreme Court, and the governors of all the Departments of Honduras. While Pepe Lobo was officially the president of Honduras, Honduran newspapers accused Juan Orlando of really being the power that was making the decisions during Pepe Lobo’s administration, particularly in the last two years when he became head of the Nationalist Party.
