The official candidate of the Libre Party, lawyer Rixi Moncada, is the option of a left wing that came to end the two-party system but has fallen into many of the inertias of its predecessors.
Moncada, a strong character that could work against her. “Rixi Moncada is a person who has a clear understanding of the government’s management. She has very strong support from Libre’s members. She has been recognized as a great leader. She has a strong character, a temperament that has shown her to be a force to be reckoned with,” Honduran political scientist Sergio Vélez explained to RFI.
However, while this could be “a great strength,” it could also be “his own weakness, because the harshness he has expressed outwardly has generated little empathy with other sectors that may be of interest to the electorate.” Tito Asfura, the conservative businessman whom Donald Trump has endorsed, remodeled many infrastructure projects as mayor of Tegucigalpa, an asset that contrasts with the burden of having inherited the reins of the National Party, the same party as former president Juan Orlando Hernández, convicted of drug trafficking.
“Asfura is a more reserved person. He prefers working to being in the spotlight. Perhaps that’s why he’s accused of being somewhat taciturn. We have to consider the fact that he enters under a set of criteria and a shadow that isn’t his own. And that’s what happened with Juan Orlando Hernández, the country’s former president,” emphasizes Sergio Vélez.
Allegations of fraud revive the ghosts of election night 2017, when, after a power outage, new results propelled President Juan Orlando Hernández to re-election, accompanied by a social explosion in which at least 23 people died, according to the UN.
