Bipartisan bacteria

No doubt plenty of nasty things have been said about food poisoning bacteria over the centuries, but one thing they've never been accused of is political bias.

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No doubt plenty of nasty things have been said about food poisoning bacteria over the centuries, but one thing they've never been accused of is political bias. When bad food strikes, it does so without even a whiff of partisanship, as the political movers and shakers of Honduras learned to their severe discomfort on a couple of occasions this year.

The story begins back in January at a rally for the National Party's presidential candidate Porfirio Lobo Sosa, held at Comayagua, some 95 km north of the capital Tegucigalpa. There's no reason to think things weren't going swell at the rally, at least until the chicken and rice was served. Perhaps it was left in the open air too long, perhaps some of it was undercooked. Whatever the cause, more than 200 supporters fell ill from a nasty case of bacterial food poisoning.

You could hardly blame the National Party ...

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