Story.
This is the same country where, in 2009, Xiomara Castro's husband, President Manuel Zelaya, was ousted in a military coup -- and there are well-grounded suspicions of American support for it. And American Libertarians have called Honduras under that junta a libertarian paradise.
For a tiny Central American country of less than 10 million people, Castro’s inauguration was an international event, with attendees including US vice president Kamala Harris, the King of Spain Felipe VI, and Argentina’s popular vice president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Throughout the continent, the Latin American left celebrated her victory as giving momentum to the “second pink tide” of progressive governments sweeping the region, a tide that will soon include Gabriel Boric in Chile and, hopefully later this year, Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Colombia’s Gustavo Petro.
Castro’s agenda for cleaning house is vast. She called for “no more death squads, no more silence on femicides, no more hired killers, no more drug trafficking, no more organized crime.” She even used the term “democratic socialism” to describe her agenda.
But Castro faces intense challenges going forward. She inherits one of the most violent countries in the world, where the majority of homicides are connected to gangs, organized crime, and drug trafficking; and collusion between government officials, state and private security forces, paramilitary groups, and business leaders is widespread. Honduras is also a nation with a biased and corrupt judiciary that routinely fails to bring perpetrators of violent crimes to justice.
Castro also inherits a nation battered by crushing debt, immense inequality, coronavirus, and recent natural disasters such as intense rains, droughts, and hurricanes. Castro said, “I receive a country bankrupted after twelve years of dictatorship. We are the poorest country in Latin America. That explains the caravans of migrants fleeing northward, risking their lives.”
She pledged free electricity for the country’s poorest citizens and a reduction in fuel prices. But given the bare government coffers, her policies will be constrained by the dictates of foreign donors — especially the United States. Castro will also be constrained by the Honduran Congress, which is in the midst of an intense power struggle that has muddied the waters of her victory lap.
This is the same country where, in 2009, Xiomara Castro's husband, President Manuel Zelaya, was ousted in a military coup -- and there are well-grounded suspicions of American support for it. And American Libertarians have called Honduras under that junta a libertarian paradise.