Honduras: Castro celebrates one month as president with controversies and arrest of former governor

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Honduras President Xiomara Castro this Sunday celebrates a month in office marked by internal controversy among deputies of the ruling Freedom and Re-establishment Party (Libre, left) and the sudden prosecution of her predecessor, Juan Orlando Hernandez, who is accused of drug trafficking.

Before taking office on Jan. 27, when she replaced Hernandez, Castro faced her first crisis, with the election of two administrators in Parliament due to an internal conflict in the Libre Party after some deputies did not recognize Luis Redondo of the Salvador Party of Honduras (PSH), which the president supports, as president of the National Congress.

The Castro government is characterized by “the problem that occurred in the legislature,” with two boards of directors that “led to an internal division of Libre, in which the president should not have been involved,” analyst Saúl Bueso told Efe.

The parliamentary crisis was settled Feb. 7 with a compromise signed by Manuel Zelaya, former Honduran president (2006-2009), the Honduran president’s husband and Libre’s general coordinator, and 17 dissident deputies.

The 62-year-old Castro also faced several protests from health care workers and teachers demanding appointment contracts and other social gains.

The Ministry of Health announced the previous day that as of this week it would “review and hand over” the agreements, which meet all requirements and have also been reviewed by the National Anti-Corruption Council (CNA).

Thousands of Libre activists have also demanded employment for sacrificing themselves for the political institution created in 2011 since the coup against Zelaya on June 28, 2009.

CONTROVERSIAL AMNESTY

The first month of Castro’s term coincides with the approval of a controversial amnesty for “political prisoners” that various sectors say benefits people implicated in corruption cases.

The amnesty called the “Law for the Reconstruction of the Constitutional Rule of Law and the Prevention of Repeat Offenses,” was issued by Castro, who last week sent a letter to the United Nations Organization calling for the creation of a commission against corruption in their country.

“No one in this country is against an amnesty decree, but it is against the way it was drafted, namely that political and related ordinary crimes are pardoned, but not crimes that have nothing to do with a political action,” Büso stressed.

In his opinion, the amnesty “will be a blot on the Castro government, which has been touting “anti-corruption” since it took office.”

“People are somehow questioning this symbiosis: I’m fighting corruption, I’m against corruption, but with a decree that benefits people who have mismanaged the people’s money in the past,” the analyst stressed.

ARREST OF THE FORMER PRESIDENT

The first 30 days of the Castro government were also marked by a request from the United States for the provisional arrest and extradition of former President Hernández for crimes related to drug trafficking and weapons use.

Hernández was arrested and handcuffed at his home in Tegucigalpa on Feb. 15, a day after the Honduran Foreign Ministry informed him of the U.S. request.

The Honduran Supreme Court on Thursday upheld Hernández’s “provisional detention,” a decision made Feb. 16 by a natural judge.

Hernández’s defense had appealed last week to change the former president’s “provisional detention” to “house arrest,” but the request was “rejected,” according to the Supreme Court.

Hernandez’s wife, Ana Garcia, said last week that her husband’s rights were “violated” at the time of his arrest, which the Human Rights Secretariat and the country’s foreign minister, Enrique Reina, denied.

“He had the opportunity to turn himself in, his rights were respected; the procedure is the same that Juan Orlando Hernandez himself had established for this type of situation,” Reina said Friday in an interview with Efe at the Honduran Embassy in Washington.

Ten days after the U.S. requested the arrest of former President Hernandez, the head of the U.S. Southern Command, Laura J. Richardson, met in Tegucigalpa with President Castro, who took the baton Friday as commander general of the Honduran armed forces.

Richardson offered Castro military assistance and other cooperation, Defense Minister Jose Manuel Zelaya told reporters.

Castro and Richardson talked about “fighting corruption, transparency” and Honduras’ request to the UN for the creation of an anti-corruption commission, Zelaya said.

With information from EFE