Fabrizio Casari, Altrenotizie, November 29th 2021
https://www.altrenotizie.org/primo-piano/9479-honduras-il-cambio-e-ades…
As all polls predicted, Xiomara Castro, candidate of the Honduran left, is the new President of Honduras. Twelve years after Hillary Clinton's coup overthrew the then legitimate President Mel Zelaya, now leader of the progressive Libre Party, Xiomara - Mel's wife - has returned things to their natural order, with the popular consensus in government and the coup mongers in opposition. Desperate attempts to prevent Xiomara's victory by the U.S. government and EU, hand in hand with the OAS, proved ineffective.
Such a wide margin, which while it may have prevented any possible fraud as far as the victory of the presidential candidates is concerned, now sees the right wing working hard to try to nullify or at least partially modify the equally overwhelming victory of the left, both in terms of parliamentary and local government votes. Here, in fact, in the mayoral elections, the right wing is attempting dirty tricks, but the impression is that they may be reduced to disruptive actions that will have little effect on the proclamation of the actual results.
A possible and viable proposal
The identity of the "democratic socialism" avowed by Xiomara Castro should not mislead about a supposed softness towards the ruling classes and the political system. She speaks of direct democracy and popular consultation, of putting an end to poverty and corruption. Well, uniting the situation of the dispossessed and the fight against corruption and crime is a strategic link in the construction of a different Honduras. It is precisely the welding between misappropriation and criminality that constitutes the quintessence of the power system that has kidnapped the country, now characterized more by real horror than that of a modern but unbalanced society. Precisely for this reason, the United States and the local right wing, much more circumspect than certain leftists with their facile and misplaced adjectives, clearly see the threat to their interests.
The political proposal of national reconciliation and deep reform of the Honduran State and society, by means of a determined fight against corruption and organized crime, has proven to be the trump card in a political battle for the redemption of a country plunged into atrocious crime and rampant corruption. It is the other side of the coin of a country reduced to its minimum expression, where crime and poverty rates combine in a horrendous mix, among the highest in the entire American continent. San Pedro Sula, the country's second city, is proportionately more dangerous than Baghdad in terms of murder rate in relation to its inhabitants. Honduras is a country now dominated from outside by the United States and dominated from within by organized crime. A deadly pincer whose two arms respond to the same interests, although not always to the same owners.
This condition reuquired a broad and shared political proposal, triggering a civic as well as political rebellion, which is summarized in the political manifesto of the winning left. In this sense, Xiomara's victory is not only a belated reparation for what was suffered with the 2009 coup d'état, followed by twelve years of social and political struggles and harsh repression, with the assassination of numerous leaders of social movements, but it also gathers the fruits of the struggles against the anti-popular policies of the three governments that followed Micheletti's coup d'état and the increasing incidence of organized crime in government policies.
It is precisely the combination of the struggles for social demands and against brutal repression, on the one hand, and the aspiration for a country free of drug trafficking, on the other, which has represented the link between different social sectors of the country, now reflected in a vote which, due to its breadth and transversality, should be read as a generalized protest and not only one by the most vulnerable segments of the population.
The Honduran dictatorship has suffered gravely from being abandoned even by some of its generally supportive social sectors in traditionally conservative areas. A vertical fall of consensus amplified by the approximately two million Hondurans residing in the United States, many of whom emigrated illegally during the last twelve years of the narco-dictatorship in Tegucigalpa. It is no coincidence that the government has established a mechanism for updating documents that greatly complicates voting abroad.
But it has not served to waylay the country's voters, who will nevertheless have to, in all probability, defend their vote in the streets, given that it is difficult for the right wing and the narco-government of Hernandez to yield power, recognizing the value of the democratic process that produced their electoral defeat.
In fact, attempts to annul the vote by means of pressures and coup-type initiatives cannot be discarded, being able to count on the full support of the US Government, which sees in Xiomara Castro's victory, an important threat to its role of dominance over the country.
International reflections
Honduras is, to all intents and purposes, a US aircraft carrier in Central America. All the coups and assaults on the progressive governments of the Central American and Caribbean era had their origin in the gigantic US bases on its territory and the country was the main base of operations and rearguard of the anti-Sandinista Contras of the 1980s. Total control of Honduras is crucial for military control over the Gulf of Fonseca (in the Pacific Ocean) and the Caribbean Sea and the borders with Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. It is precisely this geographical location that gives it a key position, necessary for control of the entire Central American region.
A region that is not only vital for trade and the telecommunications network of whose market trends affect the US in its southern states, but which, together with Mexico, guarantees the uncontrolled emigration of cheap labor without rights, which is useful to undermine what is left of labor rights in the US domestic market.
The Libre party's affinity with neighboring Nicaragua is reminiscent of Mel Zelaya's support for the Alba project, and the wayward Bukele administration in El Salvador, which with the introduction of the Bitcoin virtual currency could significantly reduce its dependence on the dollar, causing political and financial problems that are not easy to foresee. These are some of the concerns that are currently distressing the CIA and the White House, which are obviously already thinking about what to do to dissuade Xiomara Castro from venturing down her husband's path or, if she does not want to, get rid of her as they did with Mel Zelaya.
The United States does not want and cannot afford a different Honduras along with a Sandinista Nicaragua and a partially out of control El Salvador. For a general reason and a circumstantial reason. The general one is that the United States does not tolerate governments that are not submissive to it; not necessarily hostile, but simply not obedient. The big stick is held permanently over the heads of countries that want to reduce nefarious U.S. influence and the continuous plunder of terrestrial and subterranean resources, as well as geographic and satellite space for Washington's purposes.
In particular, if the geographic proximity of Honduras to Nicaragua were to become strong political proximity as well, many of the threats of isolation of the Sandinista nation would take the form of idle threats. The trade and commerce network would certainly be boosted by a positive development of relations between Managua and Tegucigalpa, which have already improved significantly with the signing of the bilateral agreement on territorial waters in Nicaragua in October. And Nicaragua's ability to export food would allow for a Honduran social agenda that decided to combat poverty through food subsidies to the weakest groups, which would have a direct impact on reducing micro-criminality.
In short, a picture in the making that worries Washington, precisely because the victory of Xiomara Castro is the engine of greater regional integration and greater independence from Washington and the push coming from Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia for a definitive overcoming of the OAS, to be replaced by CELAC, would find a new, unexpected and important piece in the construction of a different and more independent Latin America.
At the news of Xiomara's virrotia, the Honduran flag flew yesterday as never before over the buildings of Tegucigalpa. Moved by a wind of change that accentuated its colors, it flapped sinuously, dancing and touching the sky.
Many swear they saw the arms of Berta Cáceres waving flags and Xiomara's smile dictating the waves. Since yesterday, the moment of a change in the music can be felt from above, as well as from below.