Xiomara Castro was sworn in on Thursday, becoming the first president of Honduras, for a four-year term, and promised in front of an enthusiastic crowd to found “a socialist and democratic state”.
The new left-wing president was sworn in in the presence of Luis Redondo, whom she recognized as president of Parliament, ignoring the crisis opened six days ago by two rival factions of her Free Party and which gave rise to scenes of fistfights in the tribune of the Assembly.
“The State of Honduras has been led to bankruptcy during the past twelve years” of management by the right, asserted the head of state in her inaugural speech to the crowd massed in the National Stadium of Tegucigalpa.
“I receive it in bankruptcy”, she was indignant, emphasizing that “the country must know what [ses prédécesseurs] made money”. Honduras’ public debt stands at $17 billion.
The president promised that until the end of her mandate in 2026, she will focus her efforts on “education, health, safety and employment”.
But the controversy within his party, where the two rival groups have elected two presidents of two competing parliaments, casts uncertainty over his ability to implement his agenda for the transformation of Honduras.
To reform the country, plagued by corruption and the influence of drug traffickers who have infiltrated the state to its highest level, Ms. Castro needs Parliament where her party and her allies do not have a majority.
The parliamentary crisis erupted when dissidents from Libre refused to honor an agreement between their party and allies of another left-wing party, whose support was instrumental in Ms Castro’s victory in the November poll.
Resolve the parliamentary crisis
Mr. Redondo, who girded the president with the blue and white scarf, symbol of his office, had opened a few hours before a session of “his” Parliament, in the official building, while the president of the concurrent assembly, Jorge Calix, remained silent.
In an attempt to resolve the crisis, the president-elect had offered a high post in her government on Wednesday evening to Mr. Calix, who benefited from the votes of right-wing opposition deputies to be elected as president of the concurrent assembly. .
The dissident thanked on Twitter for the “honor” done to him and promised a “quick response”. But this one is long overdue.
US Vice President Kamala Harris, Spanish King Felipe VI and Taiwanese Vice President William Lai, among others, attended the ceremony.
Ms. Castro was described as a “communist” by her opponents during the campaign, but “the United States has understood that she does not represent a radical left”, estimates sociologist Eugenio Sosa, of the National University of Honduras.
“There is a left turn […] they want to make up for it with the arrival of Vice-President Kamala Harris, but in reality they are very committed to Venezuela, ”denounced to AFP David Chavez, the leader of the National Party (right), now in the ‘opposition.
US Vice President Kamala Harris encouraged the new Honduran President, Xiomara Castro, to fight corruption, considered one of the causes of the massive emigration of Central Americans to the United States.
Ms. Harris was the first to meet the new president after attending the investiture ceremony.
“Vice President Harris welcomed the priority given by President Castro to the fight against corruption and impunity, including her intention to seek the assistance of the United Nations to establish an international commission against corruption” , according to a memo distributed to the press by Ms. Harris’s office.
In her inauguration speech, the new president argued that 74% of the nearly 10 million inhabitants of the country live below the poverty line (59% according to official figures, 71% according to a Honduran NGO).
“This figure alone explains the caravans of thousands of people fleeing north, to Mexico and the United States, in search of […] in a way to subsist, even at the risk of their lives,” Ms Castro said.
Gang violence, which makes Honduras one of the most dangerous in the world (nearly 40 murders per 100,000 inhabitants), also pushes terrified inhabitants to emigrate.