Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner will be present on January 27 at the inauguration of the elected president of Honduras, Xiomara Castro. The act will take place in the national stadium of Tegucigalpa, the capital of that country, spokespersons for the vice president stated in a press release. The statement does not say so, but it is possible that the decision was precipitated by the crisis that Castro faces days following taking office.
“Finally, my dear companion and friend Xiomara, sooner or later, the people and history always do justice,” CFK had written on his social networks on the day of Castro’s victory. Also Kamala Harris, the vice president of the United States, congratulated Xiomara Castro for her convincing victory, and Harris, like her Argentine colleague, will be present in Tegucigalpa at the time of her inauguration.
In addition to the two vice presidents, former presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff (Brazil), Evo Morales (Bolivia), Barack Obama (USA) and Fernando Lugo (Paraguay) were invited to the event. They also appear on the list the Nobel Peace Prize winners Rigoberta Menchú (Guatemalan) and Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (Argentine), as well as Bernie Sanders, former candidate for the United States presidential candidacy.
Crisis preasunción
The current crisis in Honduras began when a group of deputies from the Libertad y Refundación (Libre) party, led by president-elect Castro, decided to vote for one of their own, Jorge Cálix, and not Luis Redondo, as president of the Board of Directors. member of the Salvador Party of Honduras (PSH). Castro had agreed with the PSH that Redondo would be the president. Ultimately, 18 Libre legislators were expelled from the party.
This Sunday, the Honduran parliament was divided when electing the Board of Directors in charge of managing the congress for the next four years. A part of the legislators voted unanimously for Redondo. Outside the building, another assembly ratified Cálix as president.
Outside the congress Castro supporters mobilized to express their support for the elected president, they criticize Cálix and cut off a route.
The president-elect wrote this Sunday on Twitter affirming that she recognizes Redondo as head of congress and invited him to his swearing-in on Thursday the 27th. “I congratulate the deputies who reject 12 years of ‘Joh’ corruption networks,” in reference to Juan Orlando Hernandez.
Two elected, two speeches
Upon taking office, Redondo thanked the Libre party and the PSH for voting for him. “This is not just any session. The doors to the town were opened like never before,” he said.
Redondo assured that he will listen to the “demands” of the Honduran people. He said that the congressional voting system will be modernized and that “a compendium of laws that were approved to generate impunity in this country will be repealed.”
Meanwhile, Cálix said that they will be “watchful that the legislative agenda” proposed by Castro is fulfilled. “It will be the facts that will make it clear which side this Congress will be on. It is a Board of Directors free of interference, it arises with the vote of 80 deputies,” he said.
The Honduran Congress is made up of 128 legislators. Libre has 50 deputies and its ally, the PSH has 10. In opposition, the National Party has 44 seats and the Liberal Party 22. Then the Anti-Corruption Party and the Christian Democratic Party appear with one vote each.
The board of directors of the Honduran Congress chaired by Jorge Cálix announced this Sunday followingnoon that it has a minimum agenda of five points for the first 30 days of the legislature that “is in tune” with the program of the elected president, Xiomara Castro.
Where will Xiomara Castro be sworn in?
And due to the new political crisis in Honduras, Castro might not swear before Parliament, the law states that he can do so before the Court, with magistrates mostly from the National Party. If that was not possible either, a third option would be before a judge.
On Friday, following the incidents in Parliament, Castro announced that she will be sworn in as president on January 27 before a civil judge. The new Honduran Parliament is due to be installed on Tuesday.