Honduras holds primaries as voter frustration simmers over security and the economy

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) - Voters in Honduras will select candidates from the three main parties Sunday to compete in November's general election for the presidency in a country that remains deeply polarized, but skeptical of leaders from the left and right who have failed to deliver on improving security and the economy.

The election comes at a time when President Xiomara Castro - Honduras’ first female leader - of the leftist LIBRE party has a tense relationship with the United States.

She had raised the possibility of ending U.S. access to an air base the U.S. military uses for regional operations and said that she would withdraw from the extradition treaty that sent her predecessor to the U.S. on drug trafficking charges, before eventually backtracking. Her own extended family has been dogged by allegations of ties to drug traffickers.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio notably left Honduras off of his itinerary when he made his first overseas trip to Central America last month since taking up the post.

Sunday's election will offer voters choices of continuation in the form of Castro's defense minister, Rixi Moncada, who has the president’s support. Moncada’s refusal to resign her position to run for office has been criticized, in part because the military is charged with guarding the ballots.

Former first lady Ana García offers the possibility of a return to the recent past as she seeks the nomination of the National Party of Honduras. Her husband, ex-President Juan Orlando Hernández, belongs to the party.

Hernández is serving a 45-year prison sentence in the United States for drug trafficking. At her closing campaign event, she played an audio recording of her husband saying "a vote for Ana is a vote for me, a vote for a better life."

The conservative Liberal Party of Honduras features a face-off between two people who once supported Castro, but became opponents.

One of them, Salvador Nasralla, helped Castro win the presidency in the 2021 election by ending his independent candidacy to join her coalition. He served as vice president, before leaving the administration, saying he had been marginalized.

The other is Jorge Cálix, a young lawyer and politician, who was once a member of LIBRE, but left after Castro failed to support his bid to lead Congress.

Nasralla has expressed admiration for Argentina's libertarian president, Javier Milei, while Cálix says he wants to emulate popular El Salvador President Nayib Bukele's heavy-handed security policies.

"If a millennial did it in El Salvador, why can't another millennial like me do it here," Cálix has said.

In total, 10 candidates will compete for the nominations of the three parties.

Eleven smaller parties will choose their candidates through their own internal processes at other times.

Voters will also choose in ballot races for seats in Congress and mayorships. About 5.8 million Hondurans are eligible to vote.

Participation in the open primaries has historically been low, owing in large part to fears that being identified with one party could limit chances of employment if another party's candidate wins in November.

Political analyst Miguel Cálix said that he hopes the primaries are transparent and without problems, but that hasn’t always been the case.

"The primary votes historically have been the worst electoral exercises in Honduran democracy," he said, noting that they’ve been full of irregularities.

Hondurans are looking for clear proposals on security, jobs, corruption and a faltering health care system.

Low levels of foreign investment in recent years have fueled high unemployment, which continues to drive Hondurans to migrate in search of opportunities.

Persistent violence is another factor pushing Hondurans out of their homes. Street gangs run extortion rackets through fear, and drug traffickers take advantage of Honduras' geographic location to profit from drugs moving north toward the United States.

Political analyst Luis León said that the primary is just as important as the general election, because if the parties don't put forward their best candidates, voters will have poor choices in November.

"Three candidates for the presidency will come out of them and one of them has the potential to be president," León said. "So that's why the best man or best woman with a plan for resolving the country's problems has to emerge."