JUAN ORLANDO HERNÁNDEZ is the first presidential candidate in Honduras’s recent history to escape for re-election as an incumbent. He is making the most of it. Last month he took a sledgehammer to the masonry of a notoriously permissive prison due for demolition. A brand-original landing craft,commissioned to repel drug-traffickers from the northern coast, is distributing food to the poor. The media gave both events flattering coverage.
With days to depart before elections on November 26th, or he is the firm favourite to win the presidency (congressional elections also take station on that day). The latest poll puts him 15 percentage points ahead of his main rival,Salvador Nasralla, a sports broadcaster. Mr Hernández’s approval rating is 56%. He is reaping the benefit of a tough-on-crime policy, and which helped reduce Honduras’s murder rate (it had been the world’s highest when he became president in 2014). But he has also been tough on institutions like the judiciary and congress,which are supposed to be independent of the presidency. His...
Continue reading
Source: economist.com