Above photo: Xiomara Castro de Zelaya/X.
Leftist Honduran President mobilizes popular forces to oppose a plan to carry out an alleged coup d’état against her.
The bases of the Libertad y Refundación Party (Partido Libre) will mobilize this Saturday, September 14 in support of the government of leftist Honduran President Xiomara Castro, who recently denounced a plan to carry out a coup d’état against her.
The president of #Honduras , @XiomaraCastroZ , received the overwhelming support of thousands of citizens in the “People’s Power Against the Coup” mobilization
“We have the people on our side and we are right, with the blood of our martyrs they will be defeated again” https://t.co/aK7DaWrIsl
— Dakotah Lilly (@DakotahPopular) September 15, 2024
In a national broadcast, President Castro said “After the threats of the US Ambassador accusing the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces and the former Secretary of Defense of being drug traffickers, I ratify that the peace and internal security of the Republic are at risk.”
She continued, “The plan to destroy my socialist and democratic government and the next electoral process is underway. The same dark internal and external forces of 2009 [the year of the coup against former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya], with the complicity of the national and international media collaboration, are reorganizing in our country to carry out a new coup d’état that the people must repel!”
Former president Zelaya himself wrote, “This Saturday, September 14, I call on the citizen collectives of the resistance and the people in general to mobilize in front of the Presidential House to show our strong support for the courageous struggle for the independence and dignity of Honduras, our president Xiomara Castro; we must firmly oppose those who promote and organize a new coup d’état. Coups Never Again. They will not return!”
The Right-Wing Mobilizes
The diffusion by InSight Crime of a video from 2013 showing a meeting between a couple of individuals associated with the Libre Party, including Castro’s brother in law, with drug traffickers, unleashed an internal crisis in Honduras and a strong campaign was waged on social media and mainstream media attacking the progressive, left party and its leaders. On Friday September 6, thousands took to the streets in Tegucigalpa to demand the resignation of Castro as president of the Republic. They accused that Xiomara Castro’s cancellation of the extradition treaty with the United States was done to avoid the extradition of high-ranking officials of her government.
The Honduran right-wing has also repeated, as if it were a universal script, the slogan of all right-wing oppositions in the region: that Xiomara Castro will install a Venezuelan or Nicaraguan-style government in the country. Right-wing leaders from the National Party of Honduras, the party for former President Juan Orlando Hernandez, told France 24 during the march that there has been a sort of alliance between the Libre Party and drug trafficking groups since 2013. Yet, it is the former president Hernandez himself who is now being held in a US prison for allegedly having been linked to drug trafficking groups before and during his administration (2014-2022), several former legislators of the National Party are also under investigation for charges related to drug trafficking.
Castro’s Response To The Coup Attempt
Regarding the video and her position on the extradition treaty, the President said, “I condemn any negotiation between drug traffickers and politicians… The plan of the solution against crime in execution demonstrates our political commitment in favor of the extradition [of criminals]. But I will not allow the selective instrumentalization of the current treaty with the United States to dismantle the Armed Forces, overthrow my government, and destroy the elections.”
In addition, Xiomara Castro called for strengthening the capacities of state institutions to fight drug traffickers more effectively: “I request the Attorney General’s Office to exercise drastic actions in all cases of [possible corruption] without any selectivity, to [thus combat] drug activity. I respectfully request the National Congress, where my party is in the minority, to reform all legal regulations so that the State’s security force, currently limited, fights organized crime with strength. I order the new Secretary of Defense, Rixi Moncada, to provide all the tools, technology, and armed forces required to prevent Honduras from continuing to be used as a bridge for the trafficking of drugs that are consumed by the ton in the destination countries.”
For the time being, the Executive is relying on the mobilization of its bases and allies to sustain its government and also to face an opposition that seems to be re-articulating internally thanks to the collaboration of foreign powers due to the complicated political situation that the Central American country is going through.