The President of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, condemned on Wednesday a conspiracy to execute an “electoral coup”, after the revelation of the Prosecutor’s Office about an opposition plan to alter the results of the presidential elections on November 30.

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Honduras’ CNE Member Accuses National and Liberal Parties of Plotting Election Sabotage

Castro linked those responsible to the actors of the 2009 coup d’état and the electoral frauds of 2013 and 2017. He stated that “they intend again to supplant the will of the people, generate chaos and hijack popular sovereignty.”

The complaint is based on the investigation announced by the Attorney General, Johel Zelaya, who confirmed the existence of “an illicit association between a councilor owner of the National Electoral Council (CNE), a deputy and an active military officer” to manipulate the presidential result.

The material

The Public Prosecutor’s Office has 24 audios as proof of the plan. In the recordings, attributed by local media to the magistrate of the National Party, Cossette López, a strategy is detailed to “delay, weaken and worsen the process”, with the aim of announcing the candidate of the Liberal Party, Salvador Nasralla, as the winner.

According to the evidence revealed, the recordings include a conversation in which Tomás Zambrano, deputy and head of the parliamentary bench of the National Party; member of the Honduran Armed Forces; and the councilor of the CNE Cossette López.

The audios reveal the coordination between political, business and military actors to create a climate of crisis, sabotage electoral logistics and discredit the official results in the event of a victory of the Libre Party.

Among the most important revelations are discussions about the manipulation of election observation through the infiltration of political activists posing as “observers,” agreements to benefit allied companies in charge of key logistical processes, and strategies to pressure international actors, including the United States.

In one of the recordings, CNE councilor Cossette López, appointed by the conservative National Party to the institution that oversees the electoral process, says: “What matters is that they announce that Salvador Nasralla is winning, not Rixi Moncada.”

For her part, the presidential candidate for the Liberty and Refoundation (Libre) party, Rixi Moncada, denounced the fraudulent operation of an electoral mafia in the CNE and called for the defense of Honduran democracy.

The recordings expose what can reasonably be considered a coordinated operation of institutional destabilization and political manipulation, with direct implications for the integrity of Honduran democracy.

The case has caused national and international alarm.

Attorney General Joel Zelaya has made it clear that the Attorney General’s Office will conduct a thorough investigation in accordance with the law. Zelaya emphasized that investigative teams will work tirelessly to dismantle any scheme aimed at jeopardizing the electoral process or undermining the sovereign will of the Honduran people.

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