U.S. Leans Toward Incumbent in Honduras, Despite Disputed Result

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MEXICO CITY — The United States appears to have thrown its weight behind President Juan Orlando Hernández of Honduras, who was declared the winner of last month’s disputed election, ignoring a call from the Organization of American States for a repeat of the voting.

Both Mr. Hernández and his opponent, Salvador Nasralla, held fast to their positions on Tuesday. The president, who is seeking a second term, took on the tone of a generous winner in a televised address in which he offered his “undying gratitude” to those who had voted for him and called for “national understanding.”

Mr. Nasralla amplified the O.A.S. recommendations for a new election during a two-day trip to Washington. Speaking to reporters, he urged other countries not to recognize Mr. Hernández as the winner of the election and to suspend aid to the Honduran government until a new vote is negotiated.

“In the exercise of democracy, a candidate cannot ignore the O.A.S.,” he said.

Although Washington has yet to recognize Mr. Hernández as the winner of the election, the State Department said in a statement on Monday that “the United States notes that Honduras’ Supreme Electoral Tribunal has declared incumbent president Juan Orlando Hernández the winner” of the election. In its statement, the State Department called on the opposition to file its complaints with the electoral authorities.

The Honduran electoral commission, which is controlled by allies of Mr. Hernández, said Sunday that Mr. Hernández had won the election by a margin of about 50,000 votes. But an electoral observer mission from the O.A.S. said that the vote count showed so many irregularities, including a statistically improbable swing toward Mr. Hernández as the final third of the ballots were counted, that the result could not be verified.

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Secretary General Luis Almagro of the O.A.S. then called for Honduras to hold a new election.

Several lawmakers in the United States have supported Mr. Almagro’s position. “Given the O.A.S.’s leadership role in the hemisphere, I support their call for a new general election,” Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia, said Tuesday in a statement.

Congress has little leverage to change the administration’s foreign policy on Honduras, but it can withhold aid or State Department appointments. The United States currently does not have an assistant secretary for the Western Hemisphere or an ambassador to Honduras.

Mr. Almagro has been a strong proponent of democratic elections, condemning efforts by leftist leaders in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia to remain in power indefinitely by imposing conditions that weaken their opposition.

“He’s representing the consensus view of this hemisphere about how democracy should be conducted,” said Fulton Armstrong, a professor at American University who has held several positions in the United States government concerned with intelligence and policy matters related to Latin America.

“You would think that the U.S. would love this guy who is going after the left really hard,” he added, referring to Mr. Almagro. “We should applaud his credibility more than any particular outcome.”

Juan Gonzalez, who was a top adviser on Central America to former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., said he was “disappointed” by the State Department’s position.

Deferring to the Honduran electoral commission “and not addressing irregularities or the secretary general’s statement, the State Department essentially picked sides instead of focusing on the process,” he said in an email.