Xiomara Castro, who is going to make history as Honduras' first female president when she takes office on January 27, plans to ask the UN for help in fighting the corruption that plagues the Central American nation, and will urge Congress to repeal so-called impunity laws.
The 62-year-old Castro, who heads the leftist LIBRE party, told AFP in an interview that they will work to rescind laws that cover up all the corruption of recent years - a clear allusion to the government of her predecessor, Juan Orlando Hernandez.
She said Honduras needs the heart of a woman who feels the needs of the people. Castro, the wife of the ousted president Manuel Zelaya in 2006 -- 2009, answered AFP's questions via a WhatsApp audio link.
Here is what she had to say on a variety of topics:
Some 60 percent of the country's 10 million people live in poverty, and thousands have gone north since 2018 in hopes of finding work in the United States.
She said that our commitment is to make sure people in Honduras have the conditions for a dignified life in their country: free, universal education for all children and young people, free universal healthcare, and free universal healthcare for all children and young people.
In 2016 after President Hernandez acknowledged that his campaign was partly funded with public money, the Organization of American States OAS sent an anti-corruption mission to Honduras in 2016, but it left in 2020 after a disagreement over renewing its mandate.
Castro wants to reactivate a high-level mission, this time headed by the United Nations, and she has approached UN officials about doing so.
She said her government would send an initiative to Congress to repeal the laws that have supported the dictatorship - by which she means the Hernandez government. The state anti-corruption council refers to those regulations as the laws of impunity. Castro specifically mentioned the law of secrets, which classifies information on state purchases and has covered up all the corruption. She opposes a reform of the penal code that reduces penalties for money laundering.
Washington, which has had a military base in Honduras since the 1980s, had called for peaceful and transparent elections and closely followed the process.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has indicated willingness to work with Castro, while she has described the bilateral relationship as cordial. One of the main issues that is facing the United States is migration, said Castro. The defence of human rights, the safety of migrants, and above all the children and their families is fundamental. The current president's brother, Tony Hernandez, is serving a life sentence in the United States for drug trafficking.
Castro said that they will fight narco-trafficking head-on. We are going to ensure the security of our borders, both in the air and in sea, so that neither narco-trafficking nor arms trafficking can take place in our country. In 2013 the rightist National Party government promoted the creation of Special Economic Development Zones ZEDE - largely autonomous territories within Honduras that are meant to promote investment.
Some groups in the civil society consider these zones unconstitutional as states within the state where people evading extradition can take refuge. The UN asked Honduras to review the practice.
After assuming the presidency, we are going to send the National Congress an initiative for the repeal of the ZEDE law, Castro said.
After his election atop the rightist Liberal Party, Castro's husband Manuel Zelaya and his government took a clear left turn, aligning with Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua before being ousted in 2009 by a civil-military alliance. In 2011 Zelaya returned to the country after being exiled.
During Castro's campaign she promised she would lead a government of democratic socialism and would draw on the experience of her husband as her best advisor in the fight against poverty.
Castro said as the first woman to govern Honduras, I am committed to ensuring that women's rights are respected. With debt of nearly $17 billion -- including $11 billion in foreign debt - one of the first actions we will take is to readjust that debt, the new president said.
She said we're not going to impose new taxes, though analysts say debt and the fiscal deficit could pose major challenges for the new government.