Iris Xiomara Castro Sarmiento[a][1] (Spanish pronunciation:[ˌsjoˈmaɾaˈkastɾo]; born 30 September 1959),[2] also known as Xiomara Castro de Zelaya,[3] is a Honduran politician who has served as the 39th president of Honduras since January 2022.[4] She is the country's first female president, and served as first lady during the presidency of her husband Manuel Zelaya.
Xiomara Castro was born on 30 September 1959 in Santa Bárbara, Honduras. The second of five children to Irene de Jesús Castro Reyes and Olga Doris Sarmiento Montoya, Castro attended primary and secondary school in Tegucigalpa at the San José del Carmen Institute and the María Auxiliadora Institute. In January 1976, Castro married Manuel Zelaya. Immediately after the wedding, they made their home in Catacamas, Olancho.
Castro played an active part in the Association of Spouses of Members of the Rotary Club of Catacamas, as well as the activities developed within the group to take care of children in need in the Olancho department. She took part in the creation of the Centro de Cuidado Diurno para Niños en Catacamas (Children's Daily Care Center in Catacamas), with the aim of offering assistance to single-parent families led by women, including through the creation of projects of basic cleaning, sowing of vegetables, and floriculture as important projects of job development.
Political career
Castro in August 2007
In Catacamas, Castro organized the women's branch of the Liberal Party of Honduras and campaigned in support of her husband in the internal elections of February 2005, while she was in charge of sub-political coordination of Catacamas. As First Lady of Honduras, she was in charge of social development programs, and she worked with the United Nations in coalition with other first ladies to address issues faced by women with HIV.[7]
Following the removal of her husband in the 28 June 2009 coup d'état, she led the movement resisting the coup d'état, repeatedly joining thousands of Hondurans in the streets calling for Zelaya's return.[8] This movement became known as the National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP) and formed the basis for the political party Libre.[8]
The Taiwanese embassy only offered Castro's pregnant daughter political protection on humanitarian grounds. Lai Chien-Chung, the Taiwanese ambassador to Honduras, stating the refusal was to spread the risk and disputed the opposition's narrative of indifference. She said her office reached out to Castro and sheltered her husband and two daughters. Taiwanese KMT opposition member Tsai Cheng-Yuan claims that Taipei staff evicted the family and called in the military police to arrest them.[9] Castro joined her husband in the Brazilian embassy, where he had taken refuge before reaching a negotiation with the de facto regime.[7]
Presidential campaigns
2013
On 1 July 2012, Castro officially launched her presidential campaign at an event in the department of Santa Barbara.[10] She then won her party's primary on 18 November 2012,[11] and on 16 June 2013, she was officially chosen to represent Libre in the 2013 presidential election.[8] She expressed opposition to neoliberalism and the militarization of society, and she campaigned for a constituent assembly to write a new constitution.[8]
Leading up to the election, she was first in the polls among all eight candidates during the months of March through October.[8][7][12] However, in the final poll before the election, she fell to second place, behind the President of the National Congress, Juan Orlando Hernández of the National Party of Honduras.[13][14] Castro and Hernández were widely seen as the two leading candidates going into the election.[15][14] She came in second behind Hernández with 896,498 votes (28.78%) to Hernández's 1,149,302 (36.89%).[16] This was the first time the Libre party outperformed either the National or the Liberal Party, as Libre won the second most seats in Congress.[17]
2017
Castro in 2013
For the 2017 presidential election, Castro again sought to be Libre's nominee.[18] She easily won the primary,[19] but when Libre formed an alliance with the Innovation and Unity Party, she agreed to step aside and let Salvador Nasralla lead the alliance's presidential ticket.[20]
The Alliance won the election in the pre-election polls, and led in the preliminary results. However, a general blackout interrupted the publication of the count for 36 hours; when it was restarted, the trend was reversed and President Juan Orlando Hernández was re-elected, leading to accusations of fraud. The ensuing demonstrations were suppressed by the government, leaving 23 people dead, hundreds injured and more than 1,350 detained.[21]
Following the release of the preliminary results of the election on 29 November, Castro declared victory, and was described by international media as the apparent victor of the election, pending full results.[30][32] The next day, Asfura's party conceded defeat.[33][34] He then met with Castro and congratulated her. Castro became Honduras' first female president on 27 January 2022.[35]
2022 congressional leadership dispute
Before the 2021 election, Castro had promised Salvador Nasralla that his Savior Party would hold the leadership of the National Congress should they win the election. This promise was one of the conditions that persuaded Nasralla to end his presidential campaign and join Castro’s. However, on 21 January 2022, 20 deputies from Libre refused to follow suit. They voted for Libre deputy Jorge Cálix to be the congressional president. The rest of the Libre deputies and allied parties voted for Luis Redondo of the Savior Party per the initial agreement. A fight then broke out on the floor of Congress, and Castro refused to recognise Cálix's election. She subsequently denounced the 20 deputies (two of whom later retracted their support for Cálix) as "traitors" and expelled 18 from Libre. The following evening Castro held a vigil with Libre supporters outside the Congress; she stated that the purpose of the event was "...to prevent the kidnapping of the National Congress and to reject the bipartisanship led by the dictator Juan Orlando Hernández with the direct complicity of a few traitorous deputies, elected by the people under our banner".[36][37] The dispute ended when Calíx and the expelled Libre deputies agreed to support Redondo. Castro subsequently had their party membership restored.[38]
Castro is the first female President of Honduras and the first to not be a member of the National or Liberal parties since the restoration of democracy in 1982. During her inaugural address, Castro promised to combat corruption and inequality which she said was 'rampant' during the rule of the previous National government.[42][43][44]
Castro extradited her predecessor Juan Orlando Hernández to the United States for his links to drug trafficking, rather than hand him over to the Honduran justice system; she cited Honduras state corruption as her motivation. Her government asked for UN help in setting up an international commission to fight corruption.[45]
The Supreme Court, whose members were appointed by previous governments, opposes some of her reform plans.[45]
Economic policy
In her inaugural speech, Castro vowed to re-found a democratic socialist state, stating she had a duty to restore an economic system based upon transparency, efficiency of production, social justice in the distribution of wealth and in national income, and that her vision of her world puts the human being before the rules of the market.[46][47]
In February 2022, she intervened in a dispute with a businessman over the ownership of a large piece of land south of the capital.[48] The businessman, who owned the land under Honduras law, intended to evict indigenous people to build homes for 10,000 Hondurans; she intervened to stop the eviction, citing indigenous wellbeing over rule of law.
She banned open-pit mining in March 2022 due to the extensive damage to the environment. The government also promised to intervene "immediately" to conserve areas of "high environmental value" for the benefit of the population.[49]
In May 2022, Castro began a measure passed by Congress to abolish Honduras' special economic zones, which the previous National government implemented.[50]
In May 2023, the government introduced a law reforming the tax system, termed Ley de Justicia Tributaria (LJT).[51] The government stated the law is designed to eliminate tax loopholes and privileges for certain economic sectors.[51] The bill was met with protests by melon farmers and shrimpers inside the country, because it entails a revocation of tax rebates for these industries.[51]
At her state visit to the People's Republic of China in Shanghai in June 2023, Castro applied for Honduran membership in the New Development Bank, also called BRICS Development Bank, as this would boost the economic development and raise living standards in her country.[52]
Energy
In a bid to combat poverty, Castro announced during her inauguration that the poorest families in Honduras, those that consume under 150kWh per month of electricity, will no longer pay electricity bills, and that the additional cost of this policy will be paid for by the biggest consumers assuming an extra charge on their bills.[53] In addition, Castro also announced that her government would send a decree to the National Congress of Honduras to achieve a fuel subsidy, and vowed no more concessions in the exploitation of rivers, hydrographic basins and national parks.[54]
Fiscal policy
In her inaugural address, Castro announced to the nation that the largest base of the budget she will present to parliament is dedicated to salaries and wages.[55] In-addition, Castro stated that she had ordered her Minister of Finance and the Central Bank to take action to reduce interest rates for production.[46]
Initially instituted for forty-five days in two municipalities, Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, the state of exception has been renewed and extended to more than half of the country's cities. The government strengthened police resources, built several high-security prisons, authorized the deployment of security forces in the streets, and authorized the deployment of military forces in the streets to support the police.
The homicide rate has fallen from 38 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2022 to 31 in 2023, a drop of 17%. However, according to some specialists, the reduction in crime is not directly linked to the state of emergency. The government's security policy is also hampered by blockages in Parliament, where Xiomara Castro's party does not hold a majority.[57]
In February 2022, Deputy Foreign Minister Gerardo Torres Zelaya held a meeting with Sahrawi President Brahim Ghali, which concluded with an announcement that diplomatic relations between the peoples and governments of Honduras and the SADR had been restored and would be deepened.[58]
Taiwan and People's Republic of China
Castro and the Taiwanese vice-president Lai Ching-te in 2022
Retired Taiwanese KMT opposition member Tsai Cheng-yuan (Alex) posted on social media that this move was a result of Taiwan refusing to shelter Castro during the 2009 coup.[63][64][65]
Other critics cite U.S. support of the 2009 right-wing coup, justifying their actions on the grounds that Manuel Zelaya was attempting to hold a referendum to change the constitution to allow a two-term limit rather than the existing single-term limit.[66] In 2013, the US then was silent when the right-wing president changed the constitution allowing him a second term in 2017. Following her election, she cited US interventionism and pressure especially in regards to Taiwan in Central America as motive to open diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China.[67]
Venezuela
Shortly following Castro's inauguration, an event attended by representatives of the Nicolás Maduro government,[68] the Venezuelan embassy in Honduras's capital of Tegucigalpa was vacated by representatives of Juan Guaidó,[citation needed] who had been recognised as the President of Venezuela by outgoing President Juan Orlando Hernández since the Venezuelan presidential crisis.[69] As a result, the embassy was recovered by the Venezuelan delegation sent by the Maduro government.[citation needed] Former President and First GentlemanManuel Zelaya responded to the news by sending a tweet welcoming Maduro, Latin American unity and the Bolivarian Revolution.[70] Soon after, the Foreign Minister of Venezuela, Félix Plasencia and newly appointed Foreign Minister of Honduras Enrique Reina announced the restoration of diplomatic relations between the two nations for the first time since 2009,[71][72] when they were severed shortly after the coup.[73] The restoration of diplomatic relations was followed by Honduran accreditation of the Venezuelan ambassador Margaud Godoy by Foreign Minister Reina,[74] who said that if the United States had any uncertainty about Honduras' position, reestablishment of relations with Venezuela "for Honduras is a matter of sovereign foreign policy".[75]
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Castro announced the recall of the Honduran ambassador from Israel on 4 November 2023, shortly after the country's ministry of foreign affairs stated that "Honduras energetically condemns the genocide and serious violations of international humanitarian law that the civilian Palestinian population is suffering in the Gaza Strip".[76]
^"Presidencia de la República" (in Spanish). Government of Honduras. Archived from the original on 29 November 2022. Retrieved 28 November 2022. Iris Xiomara Castro Sarmiento, también conocida como Xiomara Castro de Zelaya[…]
^"OAS Member States Issue Joint Statement on Venezuela". US Mission to the Organization of American States. United States State Department. 24 January 2019. Archived from the original on 13 January 2021. Retrieved 14 August 2019. The delegations of Argentina, Bahamas, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, the United States, Honduras, Guatemala, Haiti, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and the Dominican Republic reaffirm the right to democracy enjoyed by the peoples of the Americas ... In this context, we recognize and express our full support to the President of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, who has assumed the role of President in charge of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, in accordance with the constitutional norms and the illegitimacy of the Nicolás Maduro regime.
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