An X-ray of Honduras one year after Xiomara Castro came to power

Cases of corruption, violence, organized crime operations, migration, extreme poverty and the impacts of climate change have continued in Honduras in the first year of the administration of President Xiomara Castro de Zelaya. They are all issues the president promised to eradicate upon assuming power on January 27, 2022.

The first 12 months in the Honduran government house of the first woman to hold this position in the Central American nation could be considered as “a year of hope, but also disappointment,” she explained to the voice of america Edgardo Rodríguez, analyst at the Association of Liberty and Democracy.

“There was a change of government, for the first time a woman, for the first time a left-wing party came to power and expectations were quite high,” explains Rodríguez. In turn, he maintains that one year is enough to evaluate the performance of the government in power: “the population expected more.”

This expert from the Honduran academy and civil society admits that it was expected that the current administration would finish “reconstructing” and avoid “the bad practices at the institutional level that were in the past” with which the government of Juan Orlando Hernandez; however, he believes that these same practices “are being repeated.”

Today, the former opposition of the Free Party, already in power, “is reissuing those same old practices of corruption, distribution of power in a patrimonial way, an erratic economic policy and a foreign policy that looks more towards the Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua than to our traditional partners and friends such as the United States,” he says.

At the same time, he points out that there is “discomfort” even in the circles of the party in power due to the distribution of positions in different government offices to relatives of the presidential couple, which has led to “a very accelerated wear of the party in government.” .

The Honduran Foreign Minister, Eduardo Enrique Reina, has reiterated that the country seeks to establish this year the International Commission against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (CICIH) with the support of the United Nations (UN) with which signed the Memorandum of Understanding in mid-December in New York. That was one of Xiomara Castro’s campaign promises.

Understandings needed for governance

Honduran political scientist Efraín Díaz Arrivillaga tells VOA that the first year of Castro’s government has revealed the political polarization of the country, and in this section come misinformation, ideological charges, and above all the lack of initiatives from the central government to reach governance agreements with the opposition.

The first year of Castro de Zelaya’s government could be considered “in transition” after more than a decade of governments acting “centralized, quite vertical and with democratic setbacks”, he believes.

But that does not detract from the merits -adds Díaz Arrivillaga- so that the executive resorts to the skills in political negotiations, just as they have reached agreements on issues such as the budget for the year 2023, there could well be approaches to address the major issues of the country.

This since the Free Party does not enjoy a majority in the National Congress, and this expert reminds us that the conformation of the legislature started off with a bang a few days after Castro de Zelaya was sworn in.

“I think this situation is one of the problems that have not yet been resolved, the issue of governability and the governance of the country, the need to achieve some multi-party agreements on issues that are of national interest,” he says.

A year of new brands

In their accounts of the different indicators for the country in 2022, the media highlight that new records have been established in various fields, coinciding with the first year of Xiomara Castro’s coming to power.

Irregular migration of Hondurans to the United States has not stopped, while Honduras has seen the massive arrival of foreigners from countries such as Cuba and Venezuela -mostly- which in 2022 exceeded 184,000. The figure represented a growth of 900% compared to 2021. Both groups were mostly looking to reach the US.

But Honduras has also seen an increase in the number of forced return of their migrants to the country from the United States and en route countries. At the same time, she saw the amount of remittances rise.

In the United States, activist Juan Flores, who heads the September 15 Foundation, told VOA that the year of Castro de Zelaya’s government reveals a country that is “submerged in poverty, political crisis, violence and irregular migration.”

Flores adds that the president’s messages do not contribute at all to the interests of more than a million Hondurans residing in the United States, according to estimated government figures: “there is a diaspora that asks for actions and solutions, to get Honduras out of of the statistics of the second poorest country in Latin America”.

This activist emphasizes that the management began to falter since Castro de Zelaya declined to participate in the Summit of the Americas, sponsored by US President Joe Biden, last June. “[Es] the first great international mistake”, which did not leave any revenue to the country more than the solidarity of the president with the rulers of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, “undemocratic countries and violators of human rights,” he adds.

What squeezes the Hondurans’ stock market

In economic matters, the Central Bank of Honduras (BCH) breathed with some relief at the end of 2022, when inflation in December stood at 9.9% less than expected for a year in which Hondurans saw the prices of goods and services rise significantly. exponential. In June they had reached a peak of 10.86%, according to the institution that governs the country’s hunting policy.

However, the BCH views with concern that inflation is reflected to a greater extent in food prices. Only in this area have they reached the conclusion that the increase in prices stands at 16.25%, which is explained by the increase in the cost of inputs for national and agricultural production.

The president of the National Federation of Farmers and Ranchers of Honduras (FENAGH) Anabel Gallardo, explained to the voice of america that in this sector -strategic for the food subsistence and export of the country- it was made available for the work plan promoted by the head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, Laura Suazo, towards an agricultural strategy with which the country would seek guarantee “food security” in the next 30 years.

This is one of the bets of the president Xiomara Castro to leave the maps of malnutrition and lack of food in various areas of Central America.

Some 45 productive sectors of the country joined the diagnosis “we would hope that this 2023 will be to execute all that consultation that was made to the productive sectors, there are many issues that we have seen that have been in decline,” explains Gallardo.

The agricultural sector has also recently seen the impact of migration and the forced seizure of productive land, a phenomenon that has unleashed social conflicts and that the Castro de Zelaya government has categorized as “an inherited crisis”, where they have even arisen in parallel acts murders of environmentalists.

For Anabel Gallardo, the agricultural sector is concerned that disorderly irregular migration and the bags of remittances that arrive in the country could be behind the lack of labor in the field, especially for the collection of seasonal fruits such as coffee and other grains, a problem that already afflicts producers.

On January 16, during her participation in the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, President Xiomara Castro said that her country would propose “on behalf of the producers to create the Organization of Coffee Exporting Countries (OPEC) and thus compete in world markets for fair prices”.

The National Party, the country’s leading political force in the opposition, criticized Castro’s management so far and considered that it is “a year in free fall” by listing the mistakes of the president “that show a negative balance and note of postponements in all the areas”.

“In economic matters we are experiencing the worst year in decades with a drop in national and foreign investment, land invasions and the closure of large and small companies due to the lack of legal certainty and the threats of expropriation from the current government,” said the National Party. it’s a statement.

A study carried out by the Honduran Council of Private Enterprise (COHEP) states that in Honduras there is a problem in the labor market due to “unemployment, insufficient work and income.”

COHEP estimates the workforce in 2022 at 3,722,370, however “66% of these, equivalent to more than 2 million people, have employment problems or work in informal conditions,” according to the institution that groups the private sector .

The voice of america requested an interview with Marcio Sierra, president of the National Banking and Insurance Commission and in charge of the Executive of Xiomara Castro to evaluate the government’s management in this first year of mandate. As of the time of publication, we have not received a response.

Connect with the Voice of America! Subscribe to our channel Youtube and activate notifications, or follow us on social networks: Facebook, Twitter and instagram.