Honduran president sworn in amid fiery protests in capital
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — President Juan Orlando Hernandez was sworn in for a new term Saturday in the Honduran capital, while across town tear gas drifted across flaming barricades in clashes between police and protesters angry over an election that was marred by allegations of fraud.
The head of Congress put the blue-and-white sash of office on Hernandez in the morning ceremony in Tegucigalpa, and the president promised in an address “to begin a process of reconciliation to unite the Honduran family.”
The inauguration came after soldiers and riot police fired tear gas to block thousands of demonstrators from marching to the National Stadium to protest. Masked protesters shot rocks from slingshots and kicked canisters back toward security forces as barricades burned and billowed on gas the streets.
“This is how the dictator oppresses his people,” said opposition presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla.
Hernandez, a 49-yearold lawyer, is Honduras’ first president to be reelected — a key point in the protests against him. The 1982 constitution bars presidents from seeking a new term and conservative politicians deposed a leftist president in 2009 for allegedly considering re-election. But Hernandez won a Supreme Court ruling in 2015 to get around that prohibition.
Pre-dawn election returns Nov. 26 showed Nasralla with 57 percent of the votes counted.
Then election authorities all but stopped giving public updates on the count. After days of delays and computer problems, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal reported that Hernandez had an edge of 1.5 percent in the final count.
At least 31 people have been killed in the unrest.