Juan Orlando Hernández starts second term in Honduras amid protests

While his followers cheered him at the National Stadium, his opponents concentrated in the capital city of Miraflores, where they were cleared by the police with tear gas when they tried to march to the place of the investiture.


The president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, assumed a second consecutive mandate on Saturday amid protests by the opposition , which continues to claim that there was fraud in the controversial elections in November.

Hernandez received the presidential band in a session of the Congress in the National Stadium of the capital, full of supporters and strongly sheltered due to the opposition demonstrations in Tegucigalpa.

"I promise to fulfill and enforce the Constitution and the laws," said the president, a 49-year-old lawyer, when he was sworn in again as head of the government of Honduras , an impoverished country hit by violence.

While his followers cheered him at the National Stadium, his opponents concentrated in the capital city of Miraflores, where they were cleared by the police with tear gas when they tried to march to the place of the investiture.

The National Stadium was surrounded by several security rings with police and military located 500 meters around the sports venue. In his speech, Hernández committed himself to improve security and invest more in health, education and employment , while calling his adversaries to a dialogue to overcome the polarization left by the electoral process.

"In front of the Honduran people, I am committed to developing a process of reconciliation among all Hondurans, as it should be," he said. "I am aware that there are differences, we have to sit down and talk ... without barriers, we have to unite the country," the president added.

Opposition on the street

Hernández is recognized among the population for economic stabilization under his rule and for reducing the high rates of criminal violence. But at the same time he faces criticism: he is accused of having authoritarian tendencies because of his iron grip on the state apparatus , and also because of several corruption scandals that shook his first term of office.

Before Hernandez was invested, a group of protesters stopped and stoned a bus with supporters of the president who were heading to the National Stadium. No injuries were reported and the ruling party fled the scene.

In other parts of the capital road blocks were registered, which were lifted by the authorities. In the Miraflores neighborhood, where the opposition was concentrated, ex-candidate Salvador Nasralla, Hernández's main rival in the November elections, announced that the protests will continue .

"The protests do not end today, this is going to be permanent," said Nasralla, a popular 64-year-old television host nominated to the presidency by the leftist Alliance Against Opposition to the Dictatorship.

Nasralla, who lost the presidency by a few points, supported Hernandez's invitation to the dialogue, but clarified that it should be done with a mediator who guarantees that what is agreed in the talks will be fulfilled.

On Friday night, the opposition leader led a caravan through the streets of Tegucigalpa with hundreds of vehicles that traveled until the early hours of several capital neighborhoods. The demonstration had moments of tension when security agents threw tear gas against the caravan .

Reelection questioned

"We come to tell JOH (by the initials of Hernández) that we do not recognize him as our president," said a young girl in the caravan, who identified herself as Silvany, who wore a white ribbon of the opposition alliance on her head. ousted former president Manuel Zelaya.

The November election aroused suspicions of irregularities and allegations of fraud because in a first count Nasralla appeared at the front with 57% of the votes counted, but days later Hernandez took advantage after a series of interruptions in the computation system of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal ( TSE) .

The TSE finally proclaimed Hernández the winner three weeks after the vote and amid continued opposition protests. Human rights organizations say that some 30 people died in police actions to clear road blocks that were staged by opposition supporters that day.

The president had managed to run for a second consecutive term thanks to a ruling by the Supreme Court of Justice, as the Honduran Constitution prohibits presidential re-election.