The U.S. Shouldn't Bless Honduras's Flawed Elections

Elections took place Sunday, Nov. 29 in Honduras with National Party leader Porfirio Lobo declared the winner.

But elections carried out under a state of emergency -- with visible military and police presence, by a government installed by coup, with a significant movement opposed to the coup calling for abstention, and with the deposed president still holed up in the center of the capital city in the Brazilian Embassy -- are no cause for celebration. As Latin America Working Group wrote to the State Department on Nov. 24, "a cloud of intimidation and restrictions on assembly and free speech affect the climate in which these elections take place