Democratic backsliding in Honduras and MACCIH’s effects (2016–2021)

Abstract

Since the democratic transitions of the 1990s, the Northern Triangle has exhibited persistent governance fragility. Under Juan Orlando Hernández (JOH), Honduras experienced democratic backsliding marked by electoral irregularities, institutional capture, state violence, and transnational criminal entanglements. In response to sustained civic mobilization, the JOH administration endorsed the MACCIH (2016–2020), a hybrid anti-corruption initiative backed by the OAS. This study–drawing on official documentation, over 1,000 press sources, and fieldwork in Tegucigalpa and Washington D.C.–argues that, despite its mandate, the MACCIH inadvertently reinforced corrupt entrenchment and elite convergence, becoming a reluctant agent in Honduras’s democratic backsliding.