Honduras—The Militarisation of Politics or the Politicisation of the Military?

Abstract

The essential role of Honduran armed forces is the defence of the republic’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. However, the constitution envisages the possibility that the military institution may play additional roles ‘in support of’ other state institutions. The military have assumed those roles as part of their daily activity. The 2009 coup d’état invoked old ideological spectres and re-established the military’s prominence in the country’s political life. They yet again left the barracks, but more on the initiative of the country’s political parties than on their own accord. During the past 10 years, the successive presidents have promoted, by leveraging first the legislative and then the executive branch of government, the remilitarisation of public security and, more recently, that of the state. Accordingly, the military became the armed wing of a political project initiated by the legislative branch and continued by the executive branch of the government presided by Juan Orlando Hernández (2014–2022). Under Hernández, the armed forces were the de facto strong arm of a president discredited at home and abroad, which has weakened them as an institution and has made them highly politicised and contaminated. Reversing the remilitarisation of the state occurring during the past 10 years will be a complex and difficult process, which poses a huge challenge to society and the party system, especially with the victory of Xiomara Castro, spouse of ex-president Manuel Zelaya (deposed in 2009) in the presidential elections of November 2019.