Xiomara Castro is already president of Honduras after becoming the most voted candidate in history; She is the first woman to reach that position in Central America, and above all, after a "rough" period of transition, which is no coincidence.

With Xiomara Castro, the left returns to power in one of the tilting Republics of Central America after 12 years of journeying in the desert and a decade since the last classic coup d'état ousted Manuel Zelaya in pajamas from power to place him in Costa Rica, where he went into exile. Afterwards, he temporarily took over the president of Congress, Roberto Micheletti, until he installed Porfirio Lobo, of the Honduran National Party, as the winner of disputed elections. After several months of international tension, it ended up being recognized.

Xiomara Castro has her own well-earned political entity, but she is also the wife of Zelaya himself, beaten and put on a plane to leave the country by the army in 2009. Zelaya's nephew, José Manuel Zelaya, is today as Minister of Defense, probably to settle certain accounts, while the son of both becomes the power in the shadows with that position of "private secretary" of the president.

The return of the Castro-Zelaya duo has caused earthquakes throughout Central America, which puts the beachhead in the continental reconstruction by the popular left that awaits the resolution of the attacks in Colombia and Brazil this year to be able to weigh what It comes after the victories in Chile and Peru and the recovery of the government in Bolivia.

The broad victory of Xiomara Castro has left no doubts and up to 57 countries participated yesterday in the inauguration, some at the highest level, such as Spain, which brought King Felipe - which is usual - or the United States, which he displaced Vice President Kamala Harris – which is extraordinary. Bolivia brought Foreign Minister Rogelio Mayta and Sacha Llorenti also participated as Alba's secretary.

Harris's presence is justified by a peculiarity of Honduras, which Xiomara has sworn to maintain: it is one of the few countries in the region that has relations with Taiwan and therefore not with China, which considers it an affront to its sovereignty . In any case, there are underlying issues. Honduras is essentially a country dedicated to the export of raw materials, heavily affected by violence and drug trafficking. Relations with Bolivia are minimal and no commercial exchange is known. There is also no embassy, ​​since in Central America it is limited to Costa Rica and Panama, as well as Nicaragua for more political than strategic reasons.

A “hot” possession

"The Presidency of the Republic had never been assumed by a woman in Honduras, 200 years have passed since our Independence was proclaimed. We are breaking chains and we are breaking traditions, this historical fact could only arise from the will of the majority of the people. Thank you for this honor and trust," were Castro's first words upon being sworn in as president.

The act of inauguration took place before a crowd gathered at the National Stadium in Tegucigalpa and Castro, the first woman president of Honduras and the most voted in its history, was sworn in by Judge Karla Lizeth Romero Dávila.

"I promise to be faithful to the Republic, to comply with and enforce the Constitution and its laws," said the president before the judge.

During his speech, Castro stressed that he was receiving a "bankrupt" state, after having been "sunk these last 12 years." "It is impossible to find another moment in our history so full of sabotage against our homeland [...] We must root out the corruption of the 12 years of dictatorship. We have the right to refound ourselves on sovereign values, not on usury," he added. he.

Castro announced that during the implementation of his "democratic socialism" project, they will concentrate their greatest efforts on four sectors that citizens have constantly demanded: "education, health, security and employment."

The new president pointed out that her mandate will be accompanied by the voice of the people, which she hopes will be expressed through popular consultations. In this regard, she asked the National Congress to "approve the law for citizen participation" for the activation of these mechanisms.

The ghosts

The inauguration process was carried out in this way, after the parallel swearing in of two presidents of Congress last week: Luis Redondo –supported by Castro– and Jorge Cálix, dissident of the ruling party and backed by opposition MPs. This happened after a political crisis arose that led to accusations of treason, after the absence of 20 deputies from the Libertad y Refundación (Libre) party at a meeting and stirred up all the ghosts of the coup.

In this scenario, international actors and mediators such as the United Nations (UN) began rapprochement within the ruling party, until a meeting took place between President Xiomara Castro and dissident Jorge Cálix, to whom he offered take charge of a kind of ministry without portfolio, as coordinator of Ministries, to which Cálix has not responded although he was inclined on twitter.

“Thank you very much President @XiomaraCastroZ, it was a great pleasure talking with you. For me and for anyone, it would be a great honor to be part of the government of resistance and national reconciliation. You will soon receive my answer."

A country to rebuild

Despite the uproar that the struggle has generated within the ruling party, overcoming this political crisis is not the only challenge that Xiomara Castro will face. The current situation in the country, severely affected by covid-19, represents a major challenge for your government.

With poverty levels that were already at 74% before the pandemic (and up to 82% in rural areas), Honduras is one of the Central American countries with the largest number of vulnerable populations. This incontrovertible fact is at the root of the increase in the number of migrants who decide to undertake the dangerous journey to the United States.

Apprehensions of Hondurans at the US border increased almost eight times last year, from 41,543 people arrested in 2020 to 319,324 in 2021.

The increase in the migratory flow, which is seriously worrying Washington, is one of the reasons why the US has also been encouraging talks within the ruling party, since an eventual institutional crisis could be counterproductive in its plan of stop the caravans leaving Central America bound for US territory.

In fact, apprehensions of Hondurans at the US border increased almost eight times last year, going from 41,543 people arrested in 2020 to 319,324 in 2021.

And it is that, in addition to the systemic violence that condemns the population to poverty and pushes them to migrate, in 2021 the country reported a 6.5% increase in the number of homicides compared to 2020.

These elements, together with the impact of natural disasters such as hurricanes Eta and Iota that devastated Honduras last year –and especially affected rural areas dedicated to food production–, configure a scenario of economic, social, political crisis and migratory that the new president will have to face.

On the other hand, Castro will have the challenge of cleaning up his country's image in the international context, after the stain left by his predecessor, Juan Orlando Hernández, accused of links to drug trafficking and his brother Juan Antonio 'Tony ' Hernández imprisoned for life in the US for drug trafficking.

The United States and the fear of the continental gyre

The presence of Kamala Harris, the stellar vice president of the United States, at a time of high geostrategic tension due to the fight with Russia over Ukraine has not stopped attracting attention.

With the arrival of Joe Biden to the presidency – who, by the way, was Vice President when the coup against Zelaya, in which the participation of North American intelligence was detected – the US has tried to change its relations with the continent after the storm Trump, who basically focused on Venezuela. Biden prefers to focus on the region's real "issues" with the United States, and this is essentially mass migration that has the triangle Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala as its main starting point.

With the excuse of migration, Harris put together a purely economic delegation with the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Samantha Power; the Undersecretary of Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment, José W. Fernandez; and the business manager of the US embassy in Tegucigalpa, Colleen Hoey, as well as the Under Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Brian A. Nichols, and promised $1.5 billion of investment in the region from Microsoft, Pepsi and Master Card, but the concern is general.

Only in Central America, with Nicaragua in the hands of the Ortegas and Nayib Bukkele breaking influence in El Salvador with issues as sensitive as cryptocurrencies, Harris will try to prevent Honduras from entering an anti-imperialist drift that leaves them in a minority in the region in a time when tensions are mainly concentrated with China and Russia on a more geostrategic level.

The truth is that the Latin American region is changing color as the months go by and after the pandemic. Countries like Chile and Peru, well established in the center-right, have passed into the hands of rulers of the popular left such as Pedro del Castillo and Gabriel Boric, although they have little to do with each other.

This year Colombia and Brazil, the two most important fiefdoms controlled by the right, are having elections and trends augur a new popular triumph, a situation that would leave the bloc in a unique and uncomfortable situation for the United States and the OAS.

An urgent agenda for the country

The president has promised that from this day on more than a million families living in poverty will no longer pay energy bills, "light will be free in their homes" and, in addition, will be sent a bill to Congress to create a fuel price subsidy.

Environment

There will be no more permits for open mines or mineral exploitation, nor more concessions in the exploitation of rivers, hydrographic basins, national parks and cloud forests and special attention will be paid to agroforestry development, industrial development, tourism promotion and a strict fiscal and monetary policy.

Repair

The Ministry of Education will guarantee face-to-face classes for children and young people, ensuring free enrollment, school meals, vaccines and masks. The Government will focus on agricultural development and food sovereignty. There will be freedom for the political prisoners of Guapinol and justice for environmental Berta Cáceres, murdered activist and indigenous person.