First post about Honduras I see on Lemmy. I’m from Honduras. Castro is the first left-wing president since her husband was sacked in the 2009 Coup. The two elected presidents since then have all been right wing and have all been involved in drug trafficking and corruption scandals, with the last one, Juan Orlando Hernandez, having been extradited and sentenced in the US over serious drug trafficking charges. His presidency is remembered as a “narco-estado”. During this time, he got reelected, which was previously unconstitutional and which also was the foundational reason for the 2009 Coup: Castro’s Husband, Manuel Zelaya, sought to hold a referendum to rewrite parts of the constitution, with critics of his government as well as a general majority of the populace believing that he sought to write in the ability to run for reelection. He was ousted before the referendum took place. Juan Orlando achieved this by simply replacing the supreme court with his picks, and the court approved the legality of reelections during his time. A tiny little detail about the 2009 Coup: just a month before the coup, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Honduras in an official context. It is speculated by some that she gave green light on behalf of the US for the coup to occur.
All this to say, we have a bittersweet relationship with the US. I’m personally absolutely not a fan of the US, but without extradition, Juan Orlando and many of his accomplices would have remained free and immune from justice. Castro’s presidency was essentially a vote from the people to bring down justice on Juan Orlando, so we view his extradition as the best thing to have happened in this situation. Naturally, we are not reacting that well to this news now that Castro and her family might receive the same treatment as Orlando: The Zelaya family has a long history of drug trafficking, and Manuel Zelaya’s father was directly involved in a month-long massacre, eventually being convicted to 20 years for the murders alongside other perpetrators, before being released after 1 year by the National Assembly. Castro’s presidency is currently plagued by nepotism in all levels of government, chaos and disarray throughout the legislative branch as parties fight among themselves for power over congress, and recurring cries from Castro herself to follow on the footsteps of Venezuela specifically, which we all can currently see how that’s going for them.
I guess I’m just saying that there’s no right calls when it comes to Honduran governments. It’s all corruption all the way down.
Maduro is not the people’s friend. The enemy of my enemy is not always my friend.