Trump Tweets about Iran but Stays Silent on Honduras. Here’s Why.

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As 2017 became 2018, a wave of anti-corruption protests erupted in Iran. Meanwhile, in Honduras, people continued to take to the streets to challenge what they claim is a fraudulent reelection of Juan Orlando Hernández as the country’s president.

But only one set of protests received U.S. presidential acknowledgement. On New Years Eve, Trump tweeted: “Big protests in Iran . . . The USA is watching very closely for human rights violations!”

Two days later, Trump doubled down on his tweeted condemnations of Tehran’s government, writing, “The people of Iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime. All of the money that President Obama so foolishly gave them went into terrorism and into their ‘pockets.’ The people have little food, big inflation and no human rights. The U.S. is watching!”

These words—from a President who has shown nothing but animosity toward the Iranians—ring hollow. And Trump appeared to have no comprehension of the economic discontent at the root of the Iranian protests.

But at least he acknowledged they were happening. Only days after Trump’s tweets about Iran, tens of thousands of Hondurans returned to the streets to denounce the re-election of Juan Orlando Hernández in Honduras. On the U.S. President’s Twitter feed? Crickets.

On the U.S. President’s Twitter feed? Crickets.

The protests, which began over alleged fraud in the country’s November 26 presidential election, have not abated. After the recounting of ballots from more than 5,000 polling station, Orlando Hernández was confirmed to have won the election by a tiny margin over the opposition candidate Salvador Nasralla of the Partido Alianza. Nasralla is well known from a career as a sports commentator on Honduran television.

The popular anger stems from the experience and frustrations of many Hondurans following Orlando Hernández’s first term in office. The country’s “business friendly” model has been disastrous for the majority of the country. Despite the increase in the economy, the majority of Hondurans have seen a decrease in opportunities, an increase in crime and violence, and entrenched corruption.

This continued lack of opportunity and violence in Honduras have contributed to the migration of the country’s youth out of the country. When the Honduran protests began in early December, many young Hondurans tweeted at Trump with the hashtag #idontwanttoleavemycountry, pleading with the administration to denounce the fraud and support their struggle for democracy.

When the Honduran protests began in early December, many young Hondurans tweeted at Trump with the hashtag #idontwanttoleavemycountry, pleading with the administration to denounce the fraud and support their struggle for democracy.

“I have been alive for five decades and nothing has changed,” Hector, an engineer in the country’s capital, Tegucigalpa, told The Progressive in December. “The situation keeps getting worse. I broke with how I have voted in the past and voted for Nasralla. We need a change.”

On December 22, the U.S. State Department officially congratulated Orlando Hernández on the victory, despite questions over its legality. The White House has continued to remain silent.

Protesters have faced increasingly violent repression from the Honduran military and military police for their demonstrations against the election results. According to the Committee for the Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras - COFADEH), at least thirty people have been killed by Honduran security forces since the beginning of protests.

Before and after the January 6 marches, the Honduran military police in Tegucigalpa were reportedly carrying lists of known activists.

This campaign of intimidation has also included disappearances. On December 3, 2017, the military police abducted Manuel de Jesús Bautista Salvador in Naco, Cortés. On January 5, family members of Bautista Salvador held a press conference alongside COFADEH to demand information on his whereabouts.

Trump’s lack of condemnation—or even acknowledgement—of the situation in Honduras may lie in the fact that the Hernández government has become an important regional ally for the United States.

The U.S. support for Honduras has grown steadily since a 2009 coup d’état against Manuel Zelaya. The business friendly model that followed the coup found great support in Washington, with many denying that a coup had occurred. But the new administration in Honduras also brought a wave of violence against social movements in the country, and has led to targeted assassinations of hundreds of critics, journalists, and activists, including the world renowned environmental activist Berta Caceres.

As Daniel Runde observes in Foreign Policy Magazine, the United States had a lot riding on the election in Honduras. Orlando Hernández supported the Alliance for Prosperity, a plan developed by the United States in 2014 in order to stem migration out of the country. Runde credits Orlando Hernández for devising the plan in response to the exodus of thousands of unaccompanied Honduran minors to the U.S. during the summer of 2014.

The United States has worked closely with the administration since Orlando Hernández’s first term in 2013. This relationship intensified with the Alliance for Prosperity, which seeks to improve the judicial sector, as well as professionalize the country’s police.

“The United States wants a government in Iran that is its ally,” Jesus Garza, a political and human rights analyst currently with the Foodfirst Information & Action Network in Tegucigalpa, told The Progressive. “Here in Honduras, they already have an ally in Juan Orlando Hernández, and they are seeking to protect their economic and geopolitical interests here.”

Garza suggests that the continued support for Orlando Hernández is to “maintain the image of the U.S. in the country” ahead of a possible end of Temporary Protected Status for immigrants. This week, the Trump administration announced the end of protected status for migrants from El Salvador.

Jeff Abbott is an independent journalist currently based out of Guatemala. His work has appeared in NACLA Report on the Americas, In These Times, and Upside Down World. Follow him on Twitter @palabrasdeabajo.