Latin America
Related: About this forumAnalysis: In Honduras, first woman president faces tough fight on abortion
December 8, 2021
5:28 AM CST
Last Updated 6 hours ago
Americas
By Anna-catherine Brigada
5 minute read
TEGUCIGALPA, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Xiomara Castro has made history as the first woman to be elected president of Honduras - now she faces another battle to ease the country's strict ban on abortion.
Women's rights campaigners hope the country is on the cusp of joining other Latin American nations in increasing abortion access, though Castro may struggle to push through her campaign pledge in the face of strong conservative opposition.
"There has never been a more optimal circumstance to advance the fight to ensure every pregnancy is because of a desire to become a mother," said Neesa Medina, a member of feminist collective Somos Muchas.
"Honduras advanced as a country and it voted for a woman close to the feminist movement," she added.
More:
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/honduras-first-woman-president-faces-tough-fight-abortion-2021-12-08/
Judi Lynn
(160,211 posts)Interview. The people have grown tired of being ruled by a narco-dictatorship, said historian Pedro Landa after the election of the first woman president. The challenge is to move past the current project for the country
in the direction of a sustainable and inclusive development model.
written by Claudia Fanti
Published on
December 7, 2021
Twelve years after the coup against Manuel Zelaya, the Honduran people are regaining hope. With her overwhelming victory in the November 28 general elections, Xiomara Castro, Zelayas wife and the first woman to be elected president, now has the chance to lead the country out of the nightmare of Juan Orlando Hernándezs narco-dictatorship.
We talked about these events with historian Pedro Landa, a human rights and environmental advocate.
After the fraud in the previous elections, how do you explain Xiomara Castros victory?
The result was in the air, because discontent with the Partido Nacional was widespread. But no one expected such a clear advantage: Xiomara Castros victory was so overwhelming that the government had no chance to manipulate the results. There were various reasons for that. With so many officials and former government officials tied to organized crime and drug trafficking and appearing in the Pandora Papers, the Panama Papers and the Engel List (which collects the names of 55 Central American officials accused by the U.S. of various crimes), the people have grown tired of being ruled by a narco-dictatorship.
In addition, there were the repeated corruption scandals, the poor management of the pandemic, and the ineptitude shown by the government in the face of the emergency caused by hurricanes Eta and Iota in 2020. Finally, there has been a progressive erosion of human rights and civil guarantees in the name of promoting investment, in the framework of a highly extractive-focused policy culminating in the law on the Zones of Employment and Economic Development (ZEDE), or model cities, designed to sell off the countrys territory and national sovereignty. This law is so unpopular that more than 200 municipalities out of 298 have declared themselves ZEDE-free, many of them governed by the Partido Nacional itself.
More:
https://global.ilmanifesto.it/xiomara-castros-presidency-could-mark-a-radical-turning-point-for-democracy-in-honduras/