[News] What is behind the election of the general and deputy attorneys in Honduras?

[Jafeth]

Honduran President Xiomara Castro (center), accompanied by her husband, former president (2006-2009) Manuel Zelaya (left), gives a speech before a demonstration calling for the appointment of a new attorney general, in Tegucigalpa, on August 29, 2023. (Credit: ORLANDO SIERRA/AFP via Getty Images)
(CNN Spanish) -- The political climate in Honduras is becoming rare in the midst of the struggle between the ruling party and the opposition to choose the attorney general and the deputy attorney general.

For the leader of the Honduran National Party (PNH), Fernando Anduray, President Xiomara Castro seeks to make the Prosecutor's Office a political arm of the government.

"It is an effort by the Free Party to close a circle of power to unleash an atrocious political and judicial persecution against the political opposition in order to dismantle the forces that defend the rule of law," Anduray told CNN.

According to the opposition leader, there is an intention to set up a National Constituent Assembly and Castro seeks to control the powers of the State for this purpose.

President of Honduras calls for a march for this Tuesday to demand that Congress elect the attorney general
The head of the bench of the ruling Free Party in the National Congress, Rafael Sarmiento, rejected the opposition's accusations and told CNN that the government of President Xiomara Castro seeks to elect the general and deputy attorney to respond to the interests of the country and not of institutions or individuals in particular.

"At no time is the party looking for a prosecutor who responds to our interests as the opposition says, we want true justice to be delivered and for it to be equal for all," he assured.

"Let the opponents get out of their heads that we want a prosecutor for a National Constituent Assembly," said Deputy Sarmiento.

Analyst Raúl Pineda Alvarado told CNN that whenever the time comes to choose these two officials, political groups strive to appoint people related to their parties, although in cases like the current one they do not have enough votes in Congress. to do it on your own.

Pineda Alvarado considered that "the prosecutor can serve the (government) Liberty and Refoundation Party as an instrument to neutralize all the leadership of the opposition parties, particularly the National Party, which is its biggest opponent."

Another thesis, according to Pineda Alvarado, is that behind the election of the new prosecutor and the deputy prosecutor there are other political projects aimed at creating a crisis and "finding a way to install a National Constituent Assembly tailored to the government and the party that supports government".

Pineda Alvarado interprets that the impasse created in Congress for the election of the two high officials of the Public Ministry is due to the fact that "the five nominees for the position, although they are politically active, do not enjoy the confidence of the Libre Party or the National Party and they fear that once in the Prosecutor's Office, they will be totally independent".

For the election of the new attorney general and the assistant prosecutor, the votes of at least 86 of the 128 deputies of the National Congress are required.

The ruling party only has 50 votes and the five opposition parties have 78, so some kind of consensus is necessary to appoint the two officials of the institution that has exclusive control over criminal charges in Honduras and who last in their charges five years.