TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) 鈥� For over 30 years, Javier G谩mez and Mar铆a Barahona worked, scrimped and studied to push their family ahead. G谩mez filled bags with sand from the Choluteca River winding through the Honduran capital and shined shoes in a downtown park; Barahona sold bananas and oranges from a basket.
They continued their education, becoming accountants and raising three children who are now adults on professional tracks. Working-class families like theirs formed the base of the governing Liberty and Refoundation Party, or LIBRE, a movement built on Honduras鈥� political left in the wake of the that removed President Manuel 鈥淢el鈥� Zelaya from power.
Hondurans with limited resources launched their movement into political contention, marching, organizing, making themselves heard, because they believed LIBRE would in turn look out for them. And in 2021, it paid off when with more than 50% of the vote.
Four years later, the party is riven with infighting and trying to come to grips with the spectacular loss of its presidential candidate Rixi Moncada, who in the Nov. 30 election. In another tumultuous election without a clear winner nearly two weeks later, one thing is certain: LIBRE lost badly, punished in part by its own base.
Moncada and others blame U.S. President Donald with his endorsement of conservative Nasry Asfura of the National Party and the pardoning of ex-President Juan Orlando Hern谩ndez. But even Zelaya came out late Tuesday to say the party鈥檚 own data showed candidate Salvador Nasralla from the conservative Liberal Party won. by a percentage point.
One evening as votes were still being counted, G谩mez, a LIBRE poll worker, and Barahona, a LIBRE neighborhood coordinator, both 49, sat on a park bench in Tegucigalpa dissecting the loss of the party they still supported this election, but with less enthusiasm.
The couple and others said there were signs of trouble from the earliest days. They said working-class families did not get the help they expected and Castro’s administration took on some of the worst characteristics of its predecessors. She had promised transparency and failed to deliver on priorities like fighting corruption and pushing drug traffickers out of politics.
鈥淭hey dedicated themselves to only favoring their families, people close to them, and they forgot about the people who put them there,鈥� G谩mez said.
An ominous beginning
One of the first thing鈥檚 Castro鈥檚 administration did upon taking power in 2022 was push a for people tied to her husband鈥檚 administration more than a decade earlier, citing political persecution. For someone who had made rooting out corruption central to her campaign, it stirred immediate unease.
Then the administration failed to establish an anticorruption mission with U.N. support as Castro had promised during the campaign.
In 2023, a Honduran government watchdog group published a report about the high level of nepotism in Castro鈥檚 administration. A month later, the group鈥檚 director said she had with her family after receiving threats.
In August 2024, Castro said she would with the United States after the U.S. ambassador questioned a visit of Honduran military officials to Venezuela. It was under that agreement that Castro’s administration extradited Hern谩ndez, the former president from the National Party, to the United States to face drug trafficking charges. She on the treaty in February after talks with the Trump administration.
Last year, a video recorded in 2013 was released purportedly showing drug traffickers offering more than $525,000 to the president鈥檚 brother-in-law and congressional leader, Carlos Zelaya. Published as part of an investigation by InsightCrime, the video included Castro鈥檚 brother-in-law saying that half of the money would go to 鈥渢he commander,鈥� apparently meaning his brother Manuel Zelaya. Carlos Zelaya and resigned, but said he was unaware of his business.
鈥淭he basic promises they made, they failed to deliver on, but then while governing, they also reminded people of the past that they had voted in 2021 to leave behind,鈥� said Rachel Schwartz, an expert on Central American politics at the University of Oklahoma.
Internal failures and external interference
The night after the election, a few hundred LIBRE supporters gathered at party headquarters to hear Moncada address the partial and preliminary results that already showed her in a distant third.
Standing across the street, Obed Godoy, who works in a government print shop, and Fanny Rodr铆guez chatted about the situation. Rodr铆guez was glued to her phone, occasionally reading aloud accusations of fraud as she saw them on social media.
They lamented Trump鈥檚 interference and Rodr铆guez decried the hypocrisy of a U.S. president who she said sees 鈥渁ll Latino immigrants as criminals,鈥� but frees the ex-president Hern谩ndez convicted in the U.S. of drug trafficking.
Godoy said Castro had achievements, mentioning a government program subsidizing electricity that allowed what Castro鈥檚 administration said were some 900,000 poor families to pay nothing for electricity.
Still, asked if Castro鈥檚 legacy had helped or hindered Moncada, Rodr铆guez said she had helped 鈥渁 little,鈥� but cited the video of Castro鈥檚 brother-in-law discussing money with drug traffickers and a recent scandal at the Social Development Ministry over diverted funds to party politicians as being blemishes.
Communist bogeyman
Across town in the capital鈥檚 El Manchen neighborhood, Karla Godoy, was carrying groceries home with her adult son.
A 16-year employee of the Agriculture Ministry and a LIBRE supporter, Godoy too said Castro鈥檚 administration had successes like building hospitals and giving cash grants to farmers. She blamed opposition media for not telling the public about the good things Castro鈥檚 administration did.
The 54-year-old acknowledged 鈥渟ome failures鈥� by party leaders and chided other LIBRE supporters for throwing support to other parties this time over the fear-mongering of Trump and the Honduran opposition that Moncada would take Honduras down the path to authoritarianism like Venezuela, Cuba or Nicaragua.
Castro and Moncada were among the first prominent regional figures to publicly congratulate Venezuela President Nicol谩s Maduro on his claimed victory in an in a landslide last year.
Godoy鈥檚 son Julio C茅sar Godoy, 31, was less generous with his countrymen. 鈥淭he party lost because of one thing: for the idiosyncrasy that we Hondurans are idiots, we let ourselves believe that communism was coming,鈥� he said.
Trouble at the top
Former LIBRE congresswoman Mar铆a Luisa Borjas was similarly blunt, but about the party leadership.
The ex-police internal affairs commander said it was clear early on that Castro鈥檚 administration would falter, in part because they put 鈥渋ncompetent people鈥� in various decision-making roles across the government. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why they suffered a protest vote, because they never worried about people鈥檚 well-being,鈥� she said.
Schwartz, of the University of Oklahoma, said the administration鈥檚 inability to execute some basic functions of government is part of the legacy of a political system rooted in clientelism, where posts are handed out in exchange for political support.
Barahona, seated beside G谩mez, said she saw support from Castro鈥檚 administration in roads built and schools repaired, but recognized that the administration was not responsive to its base. Still, she said the size of the protest vote surprised her. 鈥淎fter making it to the top, we鈥檙e back at the bottom,鈥� she said.
G谩mez said, 鈥淲e wanted a change for the country, but the people at the top betrayed us.鈥�
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