TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras -- Elvin Santos, a 46-year-old construction company executive with a political pedigree and a beauty pageant wife, seemed a sure bet to win November's election and succeed Manuel Zelaya as Honduras' president.

All bets are off, however, following the June 28 coup that deposed Zelaya.

Santos is now trailing in the race and has been pelted with insults, eggs and bags of water by Zelaya supporters who think that he helped plot Zelaya's forced exile nearly two months ago.

In one incident this month at the National Autonomous University, Santos' bodyguards drew their weapons, beat one student with a pistol butt and fired one shot in the air as Santos escaped a jeering mob.

No evidence has emerged to substantiate claims that Santos supported the coup. But his nuanced position on Zelaya's ouster and their rivalry within the Liberal Party -- Santos served as Zelaya's vice president before breaking with him when he resigned last year to run for president -- have made him a ready target.

`ANGER AND HATE'

``This might be the most violent election in the history of the country,'' said Edmundo Orellana, a longtime Liberal Party stalwart who was Zelaya's defense minister. ``There's a lot of anger and hate.''

The rising campaign tension threatens interim President Roberto Micheletti's efforts to oversee the Nov. 29 presidential and congressional elections and hand over power to the new president on Jan. 27.

It also adds to the pressure that Micheletti faces from the Obama administration and Latin American and European leaders who have warned that they will not accept the election results unless Zelaya returns to power, preferably under a plan brokered by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias.

``They need to embrace it fully,'' a senior State Department official said by telephone. ``Countries in the hemisphere clearly want both sides to resolve this.''

On Wednesday, Secretary-General José Miguel Insulza of the Organization of American States held out hope for a resolution of the crisis even after a high-level delegation failed to arrange Zelaya's return. ``There's still a climate for making one final effort,'' he told an OAS meeting in Washington.

The political problems began after Zelaya veered left in the middle of his four-year term and embraced the socialist anti-poverty program of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, a fierce U.S. critic. Zelaya worsened matters by pushing for a June 28 vote giving Hondurans the chance to say whether they supported calling a special body to rewrite the country's constitution.

Virtually all of Honduras' major institutions lined up against him, saying that the constitution did not permit the vote. They suspected that Zelaya was bent on making changes so he could seek another term as president, as Chávez and his allies have done.

Zelaya's supporters say any modification of the constitution would not have taken place until after he left office in January.

The unintended beneficiary of the June coup has been Porfirio ``Pepe'' Lobo, the presidential candidate of the more conservative National Party.

Lobo is a 61-year-old rancher who flirted with communism as a youth, studying in the Soviet Union, before graduating from the University of Miami. He served as president of Congress and then narrowly lost the 2005 presidential election to Zelaya.

An aide said he would not be available for an interview, in keeping with Lobo's strategy of avoiding discussion of the coup.

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@