HONDURAS: Presidential candidates in Honduras make their last-minute appeals to voters with opinion polls predicting a tight race between leftist candidate Xiomara Castro and her conservative rival Juan Orlando Hernandez

Record ID: 346852

  • Title: HONDURAS: Presidential candidates in Honduras make their last-minute appeals to voters with opinion polls predicting a tight race between leftist candidate Xiomara Castro and her conservative rival Juan Orlando Hernandez
  • Date: 18th November 2013
  • Summary: TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS (NOVEMBER 17, 2013) (REUTERS) CLOSING CAMPAIGN RALLY FOR PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE FOR PARTIDO LIBRE (FREE PARTY) XIOMARA CASTRO CASTRO SUPPORTERS WAVING FLAGS CASTRO GREETING FOLLOWERS AT RALLY WIDE OF CLOSING CAMPAIGN RALLY VARIOUS OF XIOMARA CASTRO AND FORMER PRESIDENT MANUEL ZELAYA GREETING FOLLOWERS FROM PODIUM CASTRO SUPPORTERS AT RALLY (SOUNDBITE
  • Embargoed: 3rd December 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Honduras
  • Country: Honduras
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA81LSXL8NGLJ6SCOVFBW9A1MM0
  • Story Text: Honduras presidential candidates closed out their campaigns to cheering crowds on Sunday (November 17) ahead of the upcoming presidential election.
    Leftist candidate Xiomara Castro, the wife of ousted former President Manuel Zelaya, is running neck-and-neck against the ruling party candidate in a tight race to lead the violent Central American country.
    Castro, 54. was catapulted into the spotlight after the 2009 coup when she led protests against the ouster, and she is now running on a toned-down version of her husband's leftist populism.

    "I want to tell you to trust me. I, just like he (former President Manuel Zelaya), didn't let you down and didn't leave you alone, just like you have walked alongside us in the difficult moments. I will not let you down. Take me at my word, the word of a woman who will walk alongside you," she said.
    On economic issues, she has campaigned for rural and urban credit programs, hoping to lure voters in a country where seven out of 10 people live in poverty and wants to create a community police force to tackle the widespread violence.
    Castro promises to "re-found" Honduras, saying that a century of rule by traditional parties has hobbled the country, which now has the world's highest murder rate.

    "There are barely 7 days for Honduras to change, to begin a process of re-founding and reconstructing a new Honduras, a democratic Honduras, a Honduras with a participative democracy, a Honduras with freedom, with independence," she added.
    Honduras' ruling party presidential candidate, Juan Hernandez, was confident his conservative platform for a newly-formed militarised police force to combat drug gangs and tax reforms and a mining royalty scheme to revive the country's debt-ridden economy will see his party to victory.

    "That's why, from Tegucigalpa and one week ahead of elections, we proclaim and announce to the entire nation that the National Party is ready to win the next elections overwhelmingly," he said.
    With former President Manuel Zelaya facing a possible return to the presidential office as "first gentleman" alongside Castro, Hernandez talked up his conservative credentials.
    Zelaya came to power in 2006 as a conservative but shifted to the left under the influence of former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Hernandez told his supporters there would be no dedication to leftist Latin American presidents or revolutionaries under his presidency.

    "I also don't want posters or pictures of Che Guevara or other countries' presidents to show up in Honduran schools nor in the streets," added Hernandez.
    Whoever wins the election on Sunday (November 24) faces some serious security and economic challenges. An average of 20 people are murdered every day in the country of around 8.5 million people, giving it a stunning homicide rate of more than 85 for every 100,000 people in 2012. Over the past six years, Honduras' domestic debt has more than quadrupled to $2.9 billion and is increasingly difficult for the tiny Central American nation to fund.
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