Xiomara Castro - Misplaced Pages

(Redirected from Xiomara de Zelaya) President of Honduras since 2022

Her ExcellencyXiomara Castro
Castro in 2023

39th President of Honduras
Incumbent
Assumed office 27 January 2022
Vice President	Salvador Nasralla (until 2024) Doris Gutiérrez Renato Florentino
Preceded by	Juan Orlando Hernández
Member of the National Popular Resistance Front
In office 28 June 2009 – 26 June 2011
Preceded by	Front established
Succeeded by	Front dissolved
First Lady of Honduras
In role 27 January 2006 – 28 June 2009
President	Manuel Zelaya
Preceded by	Aguas Ocaña
Succeeded by	Siomara Girón
13th President pro tempore of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States
Incumbent
Assumed office 4 March 2024
Preceded by	Ralph Gonsalves

Personal details
Born	Iris Xiomara Castro Sarmiento (1959-09-30) 30 September 1959 (age 65) Santa Bárbara, Honduras
Political party	Liberty and Refoundation (2011–present)
Other political affiliations	Liberal Party (until 2011)
Spouse	Manuel Zelaya (m. 1976)
Children	4, including Xiomara
Alma mater	Interamerican Institute of Honduras (BBA)

Iris Xiomara Castro Sarmiento (Spanish pronunciation: [ˌsjoˈmaɾa ˈkastɾo]; born 30 September 1959), also known as Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, is a Honduran politician and business administrator ,who has served as the 39th president of Honduras since January 2022. She is the country's first female president, and served as first lady during the presidency of her husband Manuel Zelaya.

Castro grew up in Tegucigalpa and studied business administration ; She married Zelaya in 1976 and became active in the women's section of the Liberal Party of Honduras. She became the country's first lady in 2006 following her husband's victory in the 2005 Honduran presidential election. Castro became involved in the National Popular Resistance Front after her husband's refusal to comply with a Supreme Court order led to the 2009 Honduran coup d'état, forcing him into exile.

She was nominated as the presidential candidate of the left-wing Liberty and Refoundation (LIBRE) party at the 2013 Honduran general election, finishing runner-up to National Party of Honduras candidate Juan Orlando Hernández and outpolling Liberal candidate Mauricio Villeda. At the 2017 Honduran general election, she was Salvador Nasralla's running mate, with the ticket narrowly losing to Hernández amidst allegations of irregularities. Castro was ultimately elected to the presidency in the 2021 Honduran general election, defeating National candidate Nasry Asfura with Nasralla as her running mate. She is the first president from outside the country's two-party system since democracy was restored in 1982.

In 2023, she was ranked in the Forbes list of "World's 100 most powerful women".

Early life

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Xiomara Castro was born on 30 September 1959 in Santa Bárbara, Honduras. The second of five children to Irene de Jesús Castro Reyes and Olga Doris Sarmiento Montoya, Castro attended primary and secondary school in Tegucigalpa at the San José del Carmen Institute and the María Auxiliadora Institute. In January 1976, Castro married Manuel Zelaya. Immediately after the wedding, they made their home in Catacamas, Olancho.

Castro played an active part in the Association of Spouses of Members of the Rotary Club of Catacamas, as well as the activities developed within the group to take care of children in need in the Olancho department. She took part in the creation of the Centro de Cuidado Diurno para Niños en Catacamas (Children's Daily Care Center in Catacamas), with the aim of offering assistance to single-parent families led by women, including through the creation of projects of basic cleaning, sowing of vegetables, and floriculture as important projects of job development.

Political career

In Catacamas, Castro organized the women's branch of the Liberal Party of Honduras and campaigned in support of her husband in the internal elections of February 2005, while she was in charge of sub-political coordination of Catacamas. As First Lady of Honduras, she was in charge of social development programs, and she worked with the United Nations in coalition with other first ladies to address issues faced by women with HIV.

Following the removal of her husband in the 28 June 2009 coup d'état, she led the movement resisting the coup d'état, repeatedly joining thousands of Hondurans in the streets calling for Zelaya's return. This movement became known as the National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP) and formed the basis for the political party Libre.

The Taiwanese embassy only offered Castro's pregnant daughter political protection on humanitarian grounds. Lai Chien-Chung, the Taiwanese ambassador to Honduras, stating the refusal was to spread the risk and disputed the opposition's narrative of indifference. She said her office reached out to Castro and sheltered her husband and two daughters. Taiwanese KMT opposition member Tsai Cheng-Yuan claims that Taipei staff evicted the family and called in the military police to arrest them. Castro joined her husband in the Brazilian embassy, where he had taken refuge before reaching a negotiation with the de facto regime.

Presidential campaigns

2013

On 1 July 2012, Castro officially launched her presidential campaign at an event in the department of Santa Barbara. She then won her party's primary on 18 November 2012, and on 16 June 2013, she was officially chosen to represent Libre in the 2013 presidential election. She expressed opposition to neoliberalism and the militarization of society, and she campaigned for a constituent assembly to write a new constitution.

Leading up to the election, she was first in the polls among all eight candidates during the months of March through October. However, in the final poll before the election, she fell to second place, behind the President of the National Congress, Juan Orlando Hernández of the National Party of Honduras. Castro and Hernández were widely seen as the two leading candidates going into the election. She came in second behind Hernández with 896,498 votes (28.78%) to Hernández's 1,149,302 (36.89%). This was the first time the Libre party outperformed either the National or the Liberal Party, as Libre won the second most seats in Congress.

2017

For the 2017 presidential election, Castro again sought to be Libre's nominee. She easily won the primary, but when Libre formed an alliance with the Innovation and Unity Party, she agreed to step aside and let Salvador Nasralla lead the alliance's presidential ticket.

The Alliance won the election in the pre-election polls, and led in the preliminary results. However, a general blackout interrupted the publication of the count for 36 hours; when it was restarted, the trend was reversed and President Juan Orlando Hernández was re-elected, leading to accusations of fraud. The ensuing demonstrations were suppressed by the government, leaving 23 people dead, hundreds injured and more than 1,350 detained.

2021

Castro was chosen as the 2021 presidential candidate for Libre and represented her political party in the 2021 Honduran general election. Salvador Nasralla, a presidential candidate for the Savior Party, later dropped out and became Castro's running mate. Polls showed a tight race between Castro and her right-wing opponent Nasry Asfura, of the incumbent National Party, a two-term mayor plagued by allegations of corruption. During her presidential campaign, she suggested the diplomatic recognition of the People's Republic of China in Beijing over the Republic of China on Taiwan (see One-China policy), the establishment of an anti-corruption commission backed by the United Nations similar to the one active in Guatemala and an update to the Honduran Constitution. Castro has proposed a constituent assembly to rewrite the Constitution of Honduras. She has also suggested easing the country's complete prohibition of abortion, under limited circumstances, and allow the use and distribution of emergency contraception.

Following the release of the preliminary results of the election on 29 November, Castro declared victory, and was described by international media as the apparent victor of the election, pending full results. The next day, Asfura's party conceded defeat. He then met with Castro and congratulated her. Castro became Honduras' first female president on 27 January 2022.

2022 congressional leadership dispute

Before the 2021 election, Castro had promised Salvador Nasralla that his Savior Party would hold the leadership of the National Congress should they win the election. This promise was one of the conditions that persuaded Nasralla to end his presidential campaign and join Castro’s. However, on 21 January 2022, 20 deputies from Libre refused to follow suit. They voted for Libre deputy Jorge Cálix to be the congressional president. The rest of the Libre deputies and allied parties voted for Luis Redondo of the Savior Party per the initial agreement. A fight then broke out on the floor of Congress, and Castro refused to recognise Cálix's election. She subsequently denounced the 20 deputies (two of whom later retracted their support for Cálix) as "traitors" and expelled 18 from Libre. The following evening Castro held a vigil with Libre supporters outside the Congress; she stated that the purpose of the event was "...to prevent the kidnapping of the National Congress and to reject the bipartisanship led by the dictator Juan Orlando Hernández with the direct complicity of a few traitorous deputies, elected by the people under our banner". The dispute ended when Calíx and the expelled Libre deputies agreed to support Redondo. Castro subsequently had their party membership restored.

Presidency (2022–present)

Castro was inaugurated as president on 27 January 2022. She was sworn in at the Tegucigalpa National Soccer Stadium, with thousands of individuals present. Among the attendees were King of Spain Felipe VI, Vice President of Taiwan Lai Ching-te, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, Vice President of Argentina Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Vice President of Cuba Salvador Valdés Mesa and President of Costa Rica Carlos Alvarado Quesada.

Castro is the first female President of Honduras and the first to not be a member of the National or Liberal parties since the restoration of democracy in 1982. During her inaugural address, Castro promised to combat corruption and inequality which she said was 'rampant' during the rule of the previous National government.

Castro extradited her predecessor Juan Orlando Hernández to the United States for his links to drug trafficking, rather than hand him over to the Honduran justice system; she cited Honduras state corruption as her motivation. Her government asked for UN help in setting up an international commission to fight corruption.

The Supreme Court, whose members were appointed by previous governments, opposes some of her reform plans.

Economic policy

In her inaugural speech, Castro vowed to re-found a democratic socialist state, stating she had a duty to restore an economic system based upon transparency, efficiency of production, social justice in the distribution of wealth and in national income, and that her vision of her world puts the human being before the rules of the market.

In February 2022, she intervened in a dispute with a businessman over the ownership of a large piece of land south of the capital. The businessman, who owned the land under Honduras law, intended to evict indigenous people to build homes for 10,000 Hondurans; she intervened to stop the eviction, citing indigenous wellbeing over rule of law.

She banned open-pit mining in March 2022 due to the extensive damage to the environment. The government also promised to intervene "immediately" to conserve areas of "high environmental value" for the benefit of the population.

In May 2022, Castro began a measure passed by Congress to abolish Honduras' special economic zones, which the previous National government implemented.

In May 2023, the government introduced a law reforming the tax system, termed Ley de Justicia Tributaria (LJT). The government stated the law is designed to eliminate tax loopholes and privileges for certain economic sectors. The bill was met with protests by melon farmers and shrimpers inside the country, because it entails a revocation of tax rebates for these industries.

At her state visit to the People's Republic of China in Shanghai in June 2023, Castro applied for Honduran membership in the New Development Bank, also called BRICS Development Bank, as this would boost the economic development and raise living standards in her country.

Energy

In a bid to combat poverty, Castro announced during her inauguration that the poorest families in Honduras, those that consume under 150kWh per month of electricity, will no longer pay electricity bills, and that the additional cost of this policy will be paid for by the biggest consumers assuming an extra charge on their bills. In addition, Castro also announced that her government would send a decree to the National Congress of Honduras to achieve a fuel subsidy, and vowed no more concessions in the exploitation of rivers, hydrographic basins and national parks.

Fiscal policy

In her inaugural address, Castro announced to the nation that the largest base of the budget she will present to parliament is dedicated to salaries and wages. In-addition, Castro stated that she had ordered her Minister of Finance and the Central Bank to take action to reduce interest rates for production.

Security policy

On 25 November 2022, a state of emergency was declared to deal with crime.

Initially instituted for forty-five days in two municipalities, Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, the state of exception has been renewed and extended to more than half of the country's cities. The government strengthened police resources, built several high-security prisons, authorized the deployment of security forces in the streets, and authorized the deployment of military forces in the streets to support the police.

The homicide rate has fallen from 38 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2022 to 31 in 2023, a drop of 17%. However, according to some specialists, the reduction in crime is not directly linked to the state of emergency. The government's security policy is also hampered by blockages in Parliament, where Xiomara Castro's party does not hold a majority.

Foreign policy

Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic

In February 2022, Deputy Foreign Minister Gerardo Torres Zelaya held a meeting with Sahrawi President Brahim Ghali, which concluded with an announcement that diplomatic relations between the peoples and governments of Honduras and the SADR had been restored and would be deepened.

Taiwan and People's Republic of China

During her campaign, Castro had promised to change Honduras' allegiance from the Republic of China (Taiwan) to the People's Republic of China if elected. Taiwanese Vice President Lai Ching-te attended Castro's inauguration. On 14 March 2023, Castro instructed her foreign minister to move to cut ties with Taiwan in order to establish formal relations with the People's Republic of China as the sole Chinese state. At the end of March, Honduras and the PRC formally established diplomatic ties and appointed ambassadors to their respective capitals.

Retired Taiwanese Kuomintang opposition member Tsai Cheng-yuan (Alex) posted on social media that this move was a result of Taiwan refusing to shelter Castro during the 2009 coup.

Other critics cite U.S. support of the 2009 right-wing coup, justifying their actions on the grounds that Manuel Zelaya was attempting to hold a referendum to change the constitution to allow a two-term limit rather than the existing single-term limit. In 2013, the US then was silent when the right-wing president changed the constitution allowing him a second term in 2017. Following her election, she cited US interventionism and pressure especially in regards to Taiwan in Central America as motive to open diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China.

Venezuela

Shortly following Castro's inauguration, an event attended by representatives of the Nicolás Maduro government, the Venezuelan embassy in Honduras's capital of Tegucigalpa was vacated by representatives of Juan Guaidó, who had been recognised as the President of Venezuela by outgoing President Juan Orlando Hernández since the Venezuelan presidential crisis. As a result, the embassy was recovered by the Venezuelan delegation sent by the Maduro government. Former President and First Gentleman Manuel Zelaya responded to the news by sending a tweet welcoming Maduro, Latin American unity and the Bolivarian Revolution. Soon after, the Foreign Minister of Venezuela, Félix Plasencia and newly appointed Foreign Minister of Honduras Enrique Reina announced the restoration of diplomatic relations between the two nations for the first time since 2009, when they were severed shortly after the coup. The restoration of diplomatic relations was followed by Honduran accreditation of the Venezuelan ambassador Margaud Godoy by Foreign Minister Reina, who said that if the United States had any uncertainty about Honduras' position, reestablishment of relations with Venezuela "for Honduras is a matter of sovereign foreign policy".

Israeli–Palestinian conflict

Castro announced the recall of the Honduran ambassador from Israel on 4 November 2023, shortly after the country's ministry of foreign affairs stated that "Honduras energetically condemns the genocide and serious violations of international humanitarian law that the civilian Palestinian population is suffering in the Gaza Strip".

Notes

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Castro and the second or maternal family name is Sarmiento.

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External links

Media related to Xiomara Castro at Wikimedia Commons
Quotations related to Xiomara Castro at Wikiquote
Biography by CIDOB

Honorary titles
Preceded byAguas Ocaña	First Lady of Honduras 2006–2009	Succeeded bySiomara Girón
Party political offices
New political party	Libre nominee for President of Honduras 2013	Succeeded bySalvador Nasralla
Preceded byJuan Alberto Barahona	Libre nominee for First Vice President of Honduras 2017	Succeeded bySalvador Nasralla
Preceded bySalvador Nasralla	Libre nominee for President of Honduras 2021	Most recent
Political offices
Preceded byJuan Orlando Hernández	President of Honduras 2022–present	Incumbent

v t e Presidents and heads of state of Honduras
1821–1839	Herrera Milla Bendaña Jeronimo Zelaya Bustamante Morazán Vigil Cocaña Morazán Ángel Arias Morazán Valle Marquez Milla Guevara Rivera Martinez Salinas Herrera Martinez Salinas Lino
1839–1982	Zelaya y Ayes Ferrera Council of Ministers Ferrera Council of Ministers Chávez Council of Ministers Lindo Gómez Cabañas Bueso Aguilar Guardiola Montes Castellanos Montes Medina Inestroza Cruz Medina Arias Leiva Mejía Gómez Medina Soto Council of Ministers Bográn Leiva Vásquez P. Bonilla Sierra Arias Boquín M. Bonilla Oquelí Dávila Bertrand M. Bonilla Bertrand Aguirre Mejía Colindres Bográn López Gutiérrez Bueso Carías Andino Tosta Paz Barahona Mejía Colindres Carías Andino Gálvez Lozano Díaz Military junta Villeda Morales López Arellano Cruz Uclés López Arellano Melgar Paz García
Democratic era (since 1982)	Suazo Córdova Azcona Callejas Reina Flores Maduro Zelaya Micheletti (Disputed) Lobo Hernández Castro

v t e Current heads of state of republics
Africa	Abdelmadjid Tebboune João Lourenço Patrice Talon Duma Boko Ibrahim Traoré* Évariste Ndayishimiye Paul Biya José Maria Neves Faustin-Archange Touadéra Mahamat Déby Azali Assoumani Félix Tshisekedi Denis Sassou Nguesso Ismaïl Omar Guelleh Abdel Fattah el-Sisi Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo Isaias Afwerki Taye Atske Selassie Brice Oligui* Adama Barrow Nana Akufo-Addo Mamady Doumbouya* Umaro Sissoco Embaló Alassane Ouattara William Ruto Joseph Boakai Mohamed al-Menfi* Andry Rajoelina Lazarus Chakwera Assimi Goïta* Mohamed Ould Ghazouani Dharam Gokhool Filipe Nyusi Nangolo Mbumba Abdourahamane Tchiani* Bola Tinubu Paul Kagame Brahim Ghali Carlos Vila Nova Bassirou Diomaye Faye Wavel Ramkalawan Julius Maada Bio Hassan Sheikh Mohamud Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi Cyril Ramaphosa Salva Kiir Mayardit Transitional Sovereignty Council* Samia Suluhu Hassan Faure Gnassingbé Kais Saied Yoweri Museveni Hakainde Hichilema Emmerson Mnangagwa
Asia	Badra Gunba* Vahagn Khachaturyan Ilham Aliyev Mohammed Shahabuddin Xi Jinping José Ramos-Horta Salome Zourabichvili Droupadi Murmu Prabowo Subianto Ali Khamenei Abdul Latif Rashid Isaac Herzog Kassym-Jomart Tokayev Sadyr Japarov Thongloun Sisoulith Najib Mikati* Mohamed Muizzu Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh Min Aung Hlaing* Ram Chandra Poudel Kim Jong Un Asif Ali Zardari Mahmoud Abbas Bongbong Marcos Tharman Shanmugaratnam Han Duck-soo* Alan Gagloev Anura Kumara Dissanayake Syria Vacant Lai Ching-te Emomali Rahmon Serdar Berdimuhamedow Shavkat Mirziyoyev Lương Cường* Rashad al-Alimi*
Europe	Bajram Begaj Alexander Van der Bellen Alexander Lukashenko Denis Bećirović, Željka Cvijanović, and Željko Komšić Rumen Radev Zoran Milanović Nikos Christodoulides Petr Pavel Alar Karis Alexander Stubb Emmanuel Macron Frank-Walter Steinmeier Katerina Sakellaropoulou Tamás Sulyok Halla Tómasdóttir Michael D. Higgins Sergio Mattarella Vjosa Osmani Edgars Rinkēvičs Gitanas Nausėda Myriam Spiteri Debono Maia Sandu Jakov Milatović Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova Ersin Tatar Andrzej Duda Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa Klaus Iohannis Vladimir Putin Francesca Civerchia and Dalibor Riccardi Aleksandar Vučić Peter Pellegrini Nataša Pirc Musar Viola Amherd, Karin Keller-Sutter, Guy Parmelin, Ignazio Cassis, Albert Rösti, Élisabeth Baume-Schneider, and Beat Jans Vadim Krasnoselsky Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Volodymyr Zelenskyy
North America	Sandra Mason Rodrigo Chaves Robles Miguel Díaz-Canel Sylvanie Burton Luis Abinader Nayib Bukele Bernardo Arévalo Transitional Presidential Council* Xiomara Castro Claudia Sheinbaum Daniel Ortega José Raúl Mulino Christine Kangaloo Joe Biden
South America	Javier Milei Luis Arce Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Gabriel Boric Gustavo Petro Daniel Noboa Irfaan Ali Santiago Peña Dina Boluarte Chan Santokhi Luis Lacalle Pou Nicolás Maduro
Oceania	Naiqama Lalabalavu Taneti Maamau Hilda Heine Wesley Simina David Adeang Surangel Whipps Jr. Tuimalealiʻifano Vaʻaletoʻa Sualauvi II Nikenike Vurobaravu
Asterisk () indicate an acting head of state · Italics* indicate a head of state of non-UN member state

v t e Current heads of state in Central American countries
Charles III (Belize) Rodrigo Chaves Robles (Costa Rica) Nayib Bukele (El Salvador) Bernardo Arévalo (Guatemala) Xiomara Castro (Honduras) Daniel Ortega (Nicaragua) José Raúl Mulino (Panama)

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