By Tomás Andino Mencia

The Public Prosecutor’s Office, which refused to issue an indictment against Cossette López and Ana Paola Hall—former members of the National Electoral Council (CNE) who orchestrated the scandalous 2025 election fraud— has now issued indictments against the thirteen (13) members of what was formerly the Permanent Commission of the National Congress, as well as arrest warrants against its former president, Luis Redondo, and Edis Moncada, former manager of the National Graphic Arts Company. In the first case, for the “crime” of having convened and opened a special session of the full Congress (for which he was fully authorized and which was conducted in due form) in order to demand that the CNE complete the vote count from the recent elections, and for resolving that, should the CNE fail to comply with that directive, Congress would act on its own, in accordance with the Constitution (Article 205, paragraph 7). In the case of the latter, for publishing said decree in the Official Gazette, La Gaceta.

This legal action continues the course set by the new government with the impeachment proceedings against Johel Zelaya, the former Attorney General; Marlon Ochoa, a former member of the National Electoral Council; and against Mario Morazán, Lourdes Mejía, and Gabriel Gutiérrez Peralta, former justices of the Electoral Court of Justice—as a political warning to officials of the previous administration. It also targets some grassroots leaders, as in the case of the proceedings initiated against Melvin Ceballos. All of them—or the vast majority—have in common their membership in the left-wing Liberty and Refoundation (LIBRE) party.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the political spectrum, figures such as Juan Orlando Hernández and Alexander Chande Ardón— the former of whom was welcomed with state honors upon his return—people who were not only indicted but also convicted by a U.S. court for committing extremely serious crimes related to drug trafficking and murder.

Similar treatment has been meted out to nefarious figures such as Mario Zelaya, Roberto Bertetti (the IHSS case), and David Chávez Madisson (the INFOP case) for embezzling public funds; or Cossete López and Ana Paola (the electoral fraud case). We can say something similar about Nasry Asfura himself, the current illegitimate president, and Tomás Zambrano, president of the National Congress—both of whom have been accused, but never brought to trial, for cases such as the million-dollar embezzlement at the capital city’s mayor’s office and the “Impunity Pact,” respectively, which were investigated at the time by MACCIH and UFECIC.

In these cases, what those who benefit from power have in common is that they are members and leaders of the National Party, which is currently usurping the government.

This type of “selective justice” is known internationally as “lawfare,” “legal warfare,” or “political instrumentalization of the judiciary,” which refers to the abusive use of legal, judicial, and procedural mechanisms to achieve political objectives—in this case, to harm former officials from an opposing camp. This means that, in Honduras, criminals are using the instruments of justice to silence those who demand respect for the law and the rule of law.

What is the purpose of this outrage? It is to destroy the opposition, silence dissent, and intimidate those who disagree—so that the elite can impose their plans to destroy the nation as they please, without hindrance; that is, to hand over our territories to foreign powers, strip communities of their common property, privatize state-owned enterprises, destroy the population’s social rights, and a long list of other motives through which the ruling elite pursues a single goal: to enrich themselves to obscene levels and crush anyone who opposes them.

If the social and political forces that still have some sense of decency do not react to this abuse, what Bertolt Brecht once warned will happen to them: “First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out… now they’re coming for me, but it’s too late.”

Let’s come together, let’s join forces, to stand up to these heartless people. The world is showing us how to do it: by building unity, organizing, and mobilizing to challenge those in power.