78 Percent of Hondurans Think Their Government Is Run by Elites

Chile-based polling group Latinobarometro released a report about Honduras earlier this week, revealing mass discontent with the country’s current government.

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The report reveals that about 78 percent of Hondurans brand their government as “elitist,” according to HispanTV.

It gets worse.

About 62 percent consider President Juan Orlando Hernandez an "authoritarian" who is compliant to powerful groups in the country. And only 41 percent feel free to criticize the Hernandez administration without fear of retribution.

The study, reporting figures for surveys conducted in 2016, ranks his presidency at 47 out of 100. This is a 15 percent drop from his 2015 rank of 62 out of 100.

Honduras, along with Mexico, Guatemala, and Colombia, have some of the lowest presidential rankings in Latin America, according to the report.

It’s no surprise that Hondurans have little trust in Hernandez. The right-wing politician has implemented economic and political programs that have made Honduras one of the most violent and impoverished countries of Latin America.

Earlier this month, for example, Hernandez announced that he would use a majority of the US$125 million given to the Honduran government by the United States to boost police capabilities. His administration has also increased privatization of public resources like water, electricity, and civil infrastructure.

And late last year, the Supreme Court of Honduras approved Hernandez's bid to seek re-election this year — a decision former President Manuel Zelaya has called "hypocritical," given that he was ousted from power for attempting to seek a re-election bid.

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"They made a fraud in the current president's election and did not say anything," Zelaya told lawmakers last month, according to Diario Tiempo.

Hernandez was chosen president in 2013, in an election that many legal experts have claimed was fraudulent. Thousands of ID’s associated with deceased people and emigrants were connected to people who voted for his right-wing National Party.

The 2013 presidential race was the country's first after the U.S.-backed 2009 coup that brought the National Party to power by forcibly removing democratically-elected Zelaya. Since the coup, hundreds of left-wing activists opposed to Hernandez and the National Party's rule have been murdered.