Before taking office, he already had to face a dispute in his party for Congress.
The 51% that he obtained in the November elections give great initial support to Xiomara Castro, who from today will officially be the first woman in the Presidency of Honduras.
After eight years of John Orlando Hernandez In the Presidency, the country has had serious problems of corruption, relationship between institutions and drug trafficking, and a distancing from the United States.
However, before starting his mandate, Castro has had to face a break in his bench, since the previous week the new Congress was installed, in which the Free Party (PL, ruling party) was going to have almost 40%, but due to lack of agreements, everything ended in a new crisis that led to the election of two parallel boards of directors in Parliament on Sunday: one at the Legislative headquarters and another on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa, amid the accusation of “treason” by Castro to about twenty dissident legislators.
Sociologist Julieta Castellanos, former rector of the National Autonomous University of Honduras, comments that the PL had agreed with the Salvador Party of Honduras (PSH) that the latter (with ten seats) join the government caucus and propose the president of Parliament; but, in the end, a faction of the PL did not want to and ended up placing Jorge Cálix (PL) in the presidency of Congress with the support of the National Party (rulerism, until yesterday).
This complicates the prospects for the promises made by the new president, several of which will require a qualified majority, and it will even be difficult to obtain a simple majority. It must also elect the new Supreme Court of Justice, the new Attorney General, the Attorney General and other authorities.
“Deep down, the alliance is weakening (PL-PSH) and the agenda they proposed, which was to fight corruption, impunity, reform criminal codes that have weakened the justice system. The dissident group has not explained how it is going to approve this legislation if they have been supported by the deputies who approved, in the previous legislation, all these harmful laws for the fight against corruption”, comments Castellanos.
Leaving aside this partisan political dispute, the president will have to face the remainder of the pandemic and its impact on the health system, environmental vulnerability due to the passage of hurricanes and their consequences on people’s quality of life, as well as the job demand. In addition, the educational system is semi-paralyzed at all levels, the figures give 40 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, the poor sectors have very limited access to resources and with immediate demands, with the unions there is a certain closeness with Libre (which can give it a waiting time), producers are always suing, in addition to the industrial and financial sectors.
Experts also mention the country’s indebtedness, as well as the problems of the energy system, since there is a danger of rationing and there are high costs.
Honduran analyst Raúl Pineda comments that Castro will have to confront political and exogenous interests that are economically very powerful and that managed to unite factions that were apparently irreconcilable (because of the Congress). However, with desertions in the dissident movement of the ruling party, it is believed that it would emerge victorious from the conflict.
Pineda also recalls that the great vote that Castro had, more than for her, was due to the great rejection of Hernández, who is not expected at the inauguration, in which the Vice President of the United States, Kamala, will be. Harris.
Harris’s presence is very important to represent a new approach, since Honduras has always been strategic for the Americans. And this time they have promised Castro to give him the necessary support as long as he keeps a distance from radical leftist regimes, according to Pineda.
“In Central America, (the US) has a bad relationship with Guatemala, El Salvador, a very bad relationship with the government of Daniel Ortega, and it only has Honduras left, where they have military bases… The Guantánamo base is supplied from here and others that require the logistics provided by the Palmerola base… They are very interested in reaffirming a very strong influence in the country,” says Pineda, who believes that, ideologically, Castro “is going to remain a watered-down left.”
In accordance with Fátima Romero, journalist for the newspaper the press, from Honduras, people have great expectations for the change of command, and that support from the international community had not been seen after eight years of Hernández.
“Although the crisis (in Congress) does have many people with uncertainty, in general people hope that (the new government) will be better, because the last four years of Hernández have been difficult,” says Romero.
He also remembers that Castro is the wife of the ousted president Manuel Zelaya, who has remained an adviser; in addition to the fact that his son, Héctor Zelaya Castro, has taken more prominence. (I)
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