Democracy Now Interview, December 09, 2022
It has been nearly one year since Xiomara Castro was sworn in as Honduras’s new president. Her inauguration in January marked the end of a brutal 12-year period of rule by the U.S.-[and Canadian] backed, right-wing National Party, which first came to power after the 2009 U.S.-[and Canadian] backed coup that overthrew Castro’s husband, the leftist President Manuel Zelaya.
Xiomara Castro replaced Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was extradited to the United States in April to face drug trafficking and firearms charges.
During the years after the coup, violence soared in Honduras, as did the number of refugees fleeing the country for safety.
We get an update from Gerardo Torres Zelaya, the vice minister of foreign affairs of Honduras, who is in New York for an event with the Progressive International to discuss developing a New International Economic Order. “There is another way of understanding economics,” he says, noting that Castro’s work to end neoliberal policies of her predecessor shows she “does not believe that wealth is only for a few people.”
Rights Action (US & Canada)
at work and struggle in “The Hunger Games” unjust, unequal global order
Since 1995, Rights Action funds land and environment, justice and human rights defense struggles in Guatemala and Honduras; Rights Action provides emergency relief funds (hurricanes, victims of repression, Covid19, etc.); Rights Action works to hold accountable the U.S. and Canadian governments, multi-national companies, investors and banks (World Bank, etc.) that help cause and profit from exploitation and poverty, repression and human rights violations, environmental harms, corruption and impunity in Honduras and Guatemala.
*****
Act / Stir up the pot / Chip away
Keep sending copies of Rights Action information (and that of other solidarity groups/ NGOs) to family and friends, your networks, politicians and media outlets, asking: ‘When will there be binding legal and political accountability for how our governments, companies and investment firms help cause, benefit from and turn a blind eye to corruption and impunity, and to poverty, repression environmental harms in countries like Honduras and Guatemala (and beyond)?’
U.S. Senate: https://www.senate.gov/senators/contact
U.S. House: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
Canadian Parliament: https://www.ourcommons.ca/Parliamentarians/en/members
Follow work of / get involved with other solidarity/NGO groups
Honduras Now: https://www.hondurasnow.org/; https://twitter.com/HondurasNow
Honduras Solidarity Network: www.hondurassolidarity.org; https://twitter.com/hondurassol
Witness for Peace Solidarity Collective: www.solidaritycollective.org; https://twitter.com/WfPSolidCollect
Friendship Office of the Americas: https://friendshipamericas.org
NISGUA (Network in Solidarity with People of Guatemala): www.nisgua.org; https://twitter.com/NISGUA_Guate
GHRC (Guatemalan Human Rights Commission): www.ghrc-usa.org; https://twitter.com/GHRCUSA
Breaking the Silence: www.breakingthesilenceblog.com, https://twitter.com/BTS_MG
CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with People of El Salvador): www.cispes.org; https://twitter.com/CISPES
Alliance for Global Justice (AfGJ) www.afgj.org; NicaNotes, https://afgj.org/category/nicanotes
Friends of Latin America https://friendsoflatinamerica.org/
Friendship Office of the Americas https://friendshipamericas.org/
Peace Brigades International-Canada: https://pbicanada.org/; https://twitter.com/PBIcanada
Mining Watch Canada: www.miningwatch.ca; https://twitter.com/MiningWatch
Mining Injustice Solidarity Network: https://mininginjustice.org; https://twitter.com/mininginjustice
Mining Justice Alliance: https://miningjusticealliance.wordpress.com
Common Frontiers Canada: www.commonfrontiers.ca; https://twitter.com/comfront01
Alliance for Global Justice: www.afgj.org; https://twitter.com/All4GlobalJust
CODEPINK: www.codepink.org; https://twitter.com/codepink
School of Americas Watch: www.soaw.org
TESTIMONIO-Canadian Mining in the Aftermath of Genocides in Guatemala
https://www.testioniothebook.org
https://btlbooks.com/book/testimonio