Leftist Xiomara Castro will become the first woman to govern Honduras on Thursday, with her leadership put to the test by a group of rebellious deputies who threaten her plans to combat corruption, drug trafficking and poverty.
Castro, 62, wife of the ousted president Manuel Zelaya, won the November 28 elections with a coalition led by Libre, defeating the right-wing National Party, of the outgoing president John Orlando Hernandez.
Under the proposal of a “democratic socialism”, Xiomara Castro proposes profound changes in a country where 71% of its almost 10 million inhabitants live in poverty, according to the NGO Social Forum of Foreign Debt and Development of Honduras (Fosdeh).
“Four out of ten inhabitants do not have the resources to even buy a plate of food a day,” Fosdeh explained in a report.
In Honduras too there is a high homicide rate of almost 40 per 100,000 inhabitants, generated by drug cartels and gangs. Added to this are climatic phenomena, intensified by global warming, causing enormous damage.
All this adversity generates strong migratory currents towards the United States in search of employment.
To deal with these problems, Xiomara Castro will need the support of Congress, which even before her inauguration is elusive. Although the analyst, former director of the NGO Documentation Center (Cedoh) and former minister of Zelaya, Víctor Meza, believes that he will recover it.
The crisis began on Friday, when a group of legislators from Libre dismissed the president-elect’s proposal to appoint Luis Redondo, from the allied group Partido Salvador de Honduras (PSH), as head of Congress, whose support was key to winning the elections. elections in exchange for appointing the presidential candidate of that formation, Salvador Nasralla, as vice president.
But a score of dissidents from Libre decided to support Jorge Cálix as head of Parliament, whose candidacy had the support of the PN and other opposition groups to Castro, in a session held amid shouts and blows.
Last Sunday, in parallel meetings, Redondo was elected in the Parliament building, but with a majority of substitute legislators, while Cálix did so with 79 of 128 titular deputies, in a country club.
Free expelled the dissidents.
All under the watchful eye of the United States, which has already shown its support for Xiomara Castro at the highest level. the vice president herself Kamala Harris will be present at the inauguration, which will take place at the National Stadium in Tegucigalpa.
Cálix considered that Libre should preside over Parliament, because he has the first majority, with 50 legislators, and was in favor of a new vote.
Meanwhile, Redondo reported that he was called by the US embassy in Tegucigalpa to discuss the matter.
According to sources close to the negotiations, the parties have evaluated the possibility of a third consensus candidate.
Castro invited Redondo to place the presidential sash on him. But if until Thursday the direction of Parliament is not defined, a judge can do it, according to the law.
In the midst of the crisis, Castro received the support of the influential Armed Forces and the National Police.
Source From: Ambito
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