Report by Karen Spring, Honduras Now
Summary
January 2023 marked the one-year anniversary of President Xiomara Castro’s administration in Honduras. Throughout their first year in office, the Castro administration not only had to reckon with a country ravished by a 12-year narco-dictatorship, but also several instances of U.S. interference aimed at weakening the government’s agenda and undermining Castro’s progressive platform.
On October 31, 2022, Honduran Foreign Affairs Minister Enrique Reina requested a formal meeting with U.S. Ambassador to Honduras, Laura Dogu, to present a formal protest against the Ambassador’s public statements disapproving of new government reforms.
Taking aim at Castro’s Energy Reform Law and Temporary Labor Law, and the repeal of the legislation that gave birth to the widely unpopular Zones of Economic Development and Employment (ZEDEs), the U.S. Ambassador claimed that the reforms would hinder the “chances of success” of Vice President Kamala Harris’ billion dollar ‘Call to Action’ launched to allegedly address the root causes of migration.
This U.S. government claim could be not be farther from the truth. While trying to address the concerns of Honduras’ majority poor population, Castro’s administration identified that high energy prices, poor labor conditions, and land dispossession and social conflict drive migration to the U.S and present serious obstacles for the country’s growth.
Instead of applauding Castro’s attempts to address the causes of migration, the U.S. in multiple instances interfered in Honduras’ internal affairs in order to promote the economic and geopolitical interests of the U.S. government and North American corporations. By speaking out against Castro’s reforms, the U.S. contradicts its own statements that it is interested in addressing what drives Hondurans to leave their own country for the U.S.-Mexico border.
It would be impossible to overstate the damage done to Honduran democracy and economic development by U.S. domination historically and in the recent past. Public comments, behind-the-scenes meetings, and political coercion are some of the many ways that U.S. interventionism seeks to maintain U.S. power and its economic interests in the region.
There’s a pattern to these actions which repeats again and again in both Honduras and the rest of Latin America.
The Honduras Solidarity Network (HSN) and Honduras Now have witnessed and denounced U.S. interference in Honduras during Castro’s first year.
In response, we have decided to document U.S. interference in Honduras throughout 2022. This is the first annual report, a working document, that will be updated annually over the next four years of President Castro’s Presidency to outline U.S. intervention and the responses to such from inside Honduras.
This report will first outline the event in late 2022 that became the ‘final straw’ that led Foreign Affairs Minister Reina García to formally complain to U.S. Ambassador Laura Dogu about the U.S.’s interventions and statements.
Then, the report details three major interventions related to policy reforms or changes proposed and implemented by President Castro: the Energy Law, the Temporary Labor Law, and the ZEDE laws. Lastly, it outlines a few ‘odds and ends’ of U.S. interventionism during key legislative and political moments in 2022.
Given that this report seeks to outline, overview, and display the U.S. intervention tactics in Honduras, we refrain from making recommendations. However, the Honduras Solidarity Network and Honduras Now insist that the U.S. must stop intervening to promote its own economic and corporate agenda. In the past and particularly since the U.S.-backed coup d’état in 2009, this has only created political turmoil, poverty, inequality, and further driven emigration from Honduras.
Full report: https://www.hondurasnow.org/us-intervention-monitor/
Karen Spring, Honduras Now, & Co-Coordinator of Honduras Solidarity Network (HSN)
karen@hondurasnow.org
Recent postings
“We Want to Live in Peace!”
October 11, 2022 Speech of Honduran President Xiomara Castro before United Nations
https://mailchi.mp/rightsaction/we-want-to-live-in-peace
Update on Honduras, One Year After Election of President Xiomara Castro
Democracy Now interview, DECEMBER 09, 2022
https://mailchi.mp/rightsaction/one-year-after-election-of-president-xiomara-castro
