Venezuela’s Maduro Rejects US “Intervention” in Honduras

Merida, 26^th November 2013 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – Yesterday Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro criticised US “intervention” in the internal affairs of Latin American countries, and in the Honduran elections.

US Ambassador to Honduras, Lisa Kubiske, said minutes after the third preliminary announcement from the TSE (Electoral Supreme Court), that she “recognised and respected” the results, as they “coincide” with the reports of US governmental observers. The final results with the full count had yet to be announced at the time, and the LIBRE party and Anti Corrupcion have stated they don’t recognise the results, as they say they have proof of irregularities committed during the voting process.

The results announced by the TSE  on Monday gave right wing candidate Juan Hernandez 34.08% of the vote, and Xiomara Castro of the LIBRE party 28.92%, with 67.72% of votes counted.

Maduro also accused the US of spending “I don’t know how many millions” on training the TSE and “teaching Hondurans to vote” and stressed that Honduras is still recovering from the “wounds” inflicted on it by the coup against ex-president Manuel Zelaya in 2009.

Maduro said that the people of Honduras are mature enough to resolve their internal affairs without US intervention. “I want to express my repugnance at the declarations of the US ambassador in Tegucigalpa. It makes your blood boil when you see a US ambassador meddling in the internal affairs of Hondurans,” he said.

He also criticised some comments which have compared the Honduran elections to the presidential elections held in Venezuela earlier this year. In that case, Henrique Capriles, representing the opposition, refused to recognise the results, as did the US.

“Today [Monday] on CNN and the other maggots nests of the rightwing in the world, they were comparing the Honduran electoral process with Venezuela’s on 14 April, [but] they are different processes”,

In Venezuela, electoral results are only announced once they are irreversible. “They are different processes. In Venezuela there is an automatic electoral process, we vote in the most monitored electoral process, the most controlled one, the most automatic in the world, we should feel proud of the electoral system we have,” Maduro said.

Venezuelan legislator to the Latin American Parliament, Rodrigo Cabezas expressed concern with the “denunciations of manipulated results” in the Honduran elections. He expressed solidarity with the LIBRE party, and with “all social movements who support Castro’s candidature”. He called on authorities to investigate the denunciations.