President of Honduras 2022: Xiomara Castro was sworn in as the first female President of Honduras on January 27, 2022. The inauguration of the 62-years old leftist former first lady will put an end to the 12 years of right-wing National Party rule in the Central American country which has also been grappling with poverty, drug trafficking, migration, and corruption.
Xiomara Castro, the wife of former President Manuel Zelaya who was deposed in 2009, wrote on Twitter, “Twelve Years of Struggle, 12 years of resistance. Today the people’s government begins.”
Xiomara Castro’s inauguration has ended the eight-year-old rule of Juan Orlando Hernandez, a one-time US ally who has been accused in the US courts of corruption and links to the drug traffickers.
12 años de lucha y 12 años de resistencia. Hoy inicia el gobierno del pueblo. ¡Buenos días, Honduras! 🇭🇳 ☀️
— Xiomara Castro de Zelaya (@XiomaraCastroZ) January 27, 2022
Who is Xiomara Castro?
1. Xiomara Castro is a Honduran politician. She became the first female president of Honduras on January 27, 2022.
2. She is also the first President of the country who is not a member of either the Liberal Party or the National Party since democracy was restored in the Central American country in 1982.
3. In 2013, 2017, and 2021 Honduran general elections, Xiomara Castro represented the left-wing Libre Party, running as the party’s candidate for Honduras President in 2013 and 2021.
4. As the former first lady of Honduras, Castro was also the leader of the movement resisting the 2009 coup d’etat against her Husband Manuel Zelaya, who served as the President of the country between 2006 and 2009.
5. Xiomara Castro, who was flanked by her husband, was sworn in as the President where the supporters applauded her vows to fix Honduras’s massive debt burden.
New President of Honduras: What are the challenges?
Apart from the economic catastrophe, Xiomara Castro and her government face the tests over a sharply divided Congress, and the relations with China because of Honduras maintaining diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
The total debt in the country stands at about $15.5 billion, or nearly 60% of gross domestic product, an economic problem Castro also highlighted ahead of her landslide win in November 2021.
President of Honduras Xiomara Castro has also vowed immediately to give more than 1 million poor people free electricity, with bigger consumers subsidizing the cost.
Xiomara Castro, who describes herself as a democratic socialist, has also vowed to tackle poverty, violence, corruption, and the chronic problems that fueled US-bound immigrants.
Honduras-US relations: VP Kamala Harris meets new President of Honduras
The Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris congratulated Castro over her democratic elections.
Our relationship with Honduras is an important one. Today I met with President Xiomara Castro to discuss deepening our cooperation across a broad range of issues, including addressing the root causes of migration, combatting corruption, and expanding economic opportunity. pic.twitter.com/fGBfHSWqSs
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) January 28, 2022
In a meeting that was held shortly after the ceremony, Kamala Harris promised to collaborate with Castro over the economic development, migration issues, and fighting impunity.
Kamala Harris also promised to send Honduras several hundred thousand more COVID-19 vaccine doses along with 5,00,000 syringes and $1.3 million for educational and health facilities.
The VP of the US has been tasked to address the root causes of the migration in Central America’s impoverished Northern Triangle of countries, however, her trip to Honduras comes as US President Joe Biden’s popularity at home has waned and his immigration policy has also been stalled.
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