“The third is the charm,” reads the popular saying that falls like a glove to the former first lady of Honduras, Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, 62, who is seeking the presidency of her country for the third time.
A candidate of the leftist Partido Libertad y Refundación (Libre), her husband, former president Manuel Zelaya Rosales (2006-2009), who was overthrown in a coup in 2009, is her coordinator.
“On November 28, let’s vote well … and we are not going to make a mistake because we will be free, let’s think about the future of Honduras,” Castro de Zelaya recently shouted at one of his political rallies in the department of Yoro, in the north of Honduras.
Libre is the second most important political force in the Central American country and if Castro de Zelaya became president, he would become the first woman to hold the first magistracy of that nation.
She is a native of Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, but after her marriage she moved to the department of Olancho, where she lived a large part of her life with the former president, with whom she had four children. As first lady, she had no greater significance than managing programs aimed at favoring the most deprived and vulnerable groups such as women and children.
His greatest relevance began after the 2009 coup, when he led protests led by the National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP) to demand the return to the country and the restitution of former President Zelaya, exiled in Costa Rica and later in Nicaragua. Her popularity began to gain strength among the followers of the former president when, once the Free Party was organized, she became the first choice as a presidential candidate and not her husband due to the prohibition of reelection in Honduras
Castro de Zelaya is one of the main opponents of the current government, headed by Juan Orlando Hernández, who came to power in 2014 and started a second term in 2018. The candidate accuses him of the economic and social crisis that the country is going through as a result of acts of corruption and drug trafficking to which its officials are linked.
“Honduras is classified as a narco state because of this mafia that governs us and for which they also point us out as the most corrupt country in Latin America. Honduran people, this is the time to say enough to the misery, poverty and exclusion that our country is experiencing today, ”Castro de Zelaya added during the rally.
In 2013 he ran for president with the same party, but lost against Hernández, candidate of the ruling National Party, who by then was in power through President Porfirio Lobo Sosa (2010-2014). For 2017 he also launched his candidacy, but decided to lay down his aspirations and join the Opposition Alliance against the Dictatorship, which brought the television presenter Salvador Nasralla as a candidate for the presidency.
In those elections, the Alliance was defeated again by Juan Orlando Hernández, whose re-election was achieved through an interpretation and reform in 2015 of an article of the Constitution by the Supreme Court of Justice. Xiomara and Nasralla accused Hernández of fraud and encouraged his followers to protest in the streets, which led to acts of vandalism and left at least two dozen dead in clashes with the forces of order.
In the 2021 general elections, Castro de Zelaya is again running for the presidency in Alliance with Nasralla, who this time declined his aspiration for the former first lady to be the official candidate.
“Xiomara is the only candidate for the presidency who can defeat neoliberalism and so much injustice on the part of the traditional parties. I hope there will be a change and a total re-foundation in the country and therefore more equality and social well-being, ”44-year-old supporter of Libre Vania Membreño told The Associated Press.
According to the latest polls, Libre leads the vote on his strongest opponent, the candidate of the ruling National Party, Nasry Juan Asfura Zablah. The ruling party has been in power for 12 years.
“We began by building unity with the Honduran people and unity with Salvador Nasralla. Today we can shout out loud: they are going abroad, they are going abroad … because the people are determined to get them out, ”Castro de Zelaya harangued.
For the director of the Dutch Institute for Democracy, Luis León, Libre showed in 2013 the ability to generate vote and citizen sympathy. “That is evident to the point that Xiomara is emerging as a possible winner”
If Libre wins the elections, León considers that the government will be inclined to the social sectors and the decisions in favor of the Honduran people, trying to include them on some issues. “It seems to me that Libre is clear that a country must be co-governed, because if they (Xiomara and her husband Manuel Zelaya) act in a tax way, the level of ungovernability (misgovernance) will be high because the winner will do so tightly.”
“Libertad y Refundación would not risk in its first government to close the doors of a dialogue, to maintain the quotas of power with other parties. It will be a flexible government to be able to survive for the next four years and become an option again in 2025 ”, he pointed out.
.