JANUARY 27, 2022
COMMENTARY
Today’s inauguration of new Honduran President Xiomara Castro was supposed to inspire hope in a country blighted by economic collapse, massive emigration, and one of the world’s highest murder rates. Castro’s November 28 landslide win, followed by a quick concession by the incumbent National Party candidate, had been hailed as proof that democracy in one of Latin America’s poorest countries was alive and kicking. But excitement over the country’s first female head of state has dampened considerably as she has faced both a severe political crisis within her own party that risks overshadowing her inauguration and the uphill battles of combating corruption and organized crime.
Castro’s victory was the first time since the country’s democratization in 1982 that a president did not hail from either the Liberal Party or the National Party, which have dominated Honduran politics for forty years. Since 2009, when Castro’s husband, Manuel Zelaya, was ousted in a military coup, the..
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