Xiomara Castro de Zelaya yesterday became the first woman in history to preside over the Honduran executive after louis round, the new president of Congress, will place the turquoise presidential sash on him. With the conflict still latent over the deputies who put together a parallel legislature, Castro still swore on the Constitution with a judge, as indicated by law.
“Dear Honduran people. This date will remain in history as the imprint of a generation that decided to be free and that will inherit to future generations the possibility of growing”, he said during a speech that lasted forty minutes and in which he denounced the quality of the State he inherits, but also mentioned several projects that raised applause from the people who lined up since dawn to be able to witness the event in a Tegucigalpa National Stadium, which was adorned for the occasion with several murals depicting the country’s history.
International presence
The event was attended by 40 international delegations, including The visit of Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, her American counterpart Kamala Harris, former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, former Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo, King Felipe VI of Spain, Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado and Secretary Deputy General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Nestor Mendez, among others. To ease the heated wait while the remaining leaders arrived, the senator from the Dominican Republic, the bachata singer known as “El torito” -called Hector Acosta– conquered the public with his classics.
The return of Honduras to the world was made evident when Castro’s swearing in was contrasted with what was the act of 2017 where his predecessor John Orlando Hernandez he was beginning his second and illegal presidential term. Castro first gathered at the Basilica of Zuyapa and then toured a large part of the capital in a convertible car where, accompanied by former president Manuel Zelaya Rosales, she greeted the people who were waiting for her on the side of the avenue that connected her with the football field. The now former president had sworn in without any international delegation to congratulate him, while people were gassed and repressed in the streets for protesting electoral theft and subsequent murders.
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The new president assured that the efforts of her mandate will be based on four pillars: health, education, security and work, and pointed out – like Cristina in her speech at the university a day before – against the neoliberal model established after the coup: “The economic catastrophe we have suffered is unparalleled in the country’s history, and its impact on people’s lives is reflected by the 700 percent increase in debt. Poverty increased to 74 percent, which makes Honduras the poorest country in Latin America.” he lamented. “The refoundation of Honduras begins with the restoration of respect for human beings,” he added.
Then, He promised that a million families will have free electricity services, but that these bills will have to be subsidized by those who reflect the most consumption, since they receive a bankrupt State incapable of facing that reduction for the most needy. It also guaranteed free school meals so that children can go back to school and do not have to work to help their families.
Another measure he announced wasThe fuel subsidy, which generated a wave of applause in a country where people use the car up to five blocks, either due to lack of good public transportation, fear of insecurity or habit. The decrease in bank interest It was another promise that aimed to relieve the affected wallets of the population.
To the migrants he also dedicated a portion of his speech to them, promising do everything possible so that they can return and to avoid the mass exodus that has afflicted the country for a long time, but increased and made more visible since 2018 when the famous caravans that walk thousands of kilometers began to leave to try to reach the United States and get a more dignified life opportunity.
the heavy heritage
He also took advantage of his intervention to denounce that the State had been a human rights violator and to demand freedom for the political prisoners and for the defenders of the Guapinol River, in addition to ask for justice for Berta Cáceres, the environmental leader assassinated in 2016 for opposing, together with the Lenca people, the construction of a dam on their sacred Gualcarque River. His daughter and current leader of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), Bertha Zuniga Caceres, gave Castro an ancestral baton, becoming the first Head of State to receive it in history, with the commitment it represents.
Another of the moments most celebrated by the public was when the president delivered to Congress the decree that repeals the Law of the Zede, a project repudiated by the entire population where the best territories were given away for the exploitation of various economic activities without the State having power over those geographies, which had been denounced as unconstitutional by several jurists.
An expected return
The act also served for the president to swear in her new cabinet, in which the return of General Ramon Sabillon to the country as Minister of Security. As Director of the National Police, he earned popular respect when, disobeying an order from above, he still decided to arrest some drug traffickers in 2016, which cost him his job and exile. Rixi Moncada, the representative of the Libre party in the National Electoral Council and one of those most responsible for preventing possible fraud, was awarded the Ministry of Finance.
Once the event was over, people peacefully evacuated the stadium, for many to continue the celebration on some of the stages set up in Tegucigalpa, where the party continued the party in a kind of artistic carnival that lasted until Thursday night.
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