by BENJAMIN NORTON
In her first UN speech, Honduras’ left-wing President Xiomara Castro denounced colonialism, “neoliberal injustice,” and the foreign corporations that have exploited her country. Calling for multipolarity, she declared, “Never again will we carry the stereotype of a banana republic.”
“Honduras will only have a future if it takes firm steps to dismantle the neoliberal economic dictatorship,” she asserted.
Castro (of no relation to Cuba’s Fidel Castro) also condemned the violent right-wing military coup that the United States sponsored in Honduras in 2009, which overthrew democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya – Castro’s husband.
“We poor nations of the world will no longer tolerate coups d’etat; we will no longer tolerate the use of lawfare, or color revolutions, which are usually organized to plunder our extensive natural resources,” she proclaimed.
Honduran leader calls for multipolar world
The September 20 speech was the first time the Honduran president addressed the United Nations since coming to power this January.
Wearing a bright-red suit – the color of her socialist political party, the Liberty and Refoundation Party, or Libre (“Free”) Party for short – Castro stressed, “It is time to seriously discuss multipolarity in the world.”
She demanded an end to the US government’s “despicable and brutal blockade” on Cuba, and added that “the aggression against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela must stop.”
Castro also decried the US-dominated international financial institutions that have trapped her country in unpayable odious debt and imposed devastating neoliberal austerity policies.
“It is clear that today, for our country to survive, we must reject this so-called austerity, which awards those who concentrate wealth in a few hands, and favors those who exponentially increase inequality,” she said.
Xiomara Castro denounces 13 years of US-backed right-wing coup regimes
Following the US-backed 2009 coup, Honduras became one of the most violent countries on Earth. This created a crisis that turned hundreds of thousands of Hondurans into refugees and migrants.
Castro used her UN speech to explain the importance of her landslide victory in the November 2021 elections and her efforts to reverse this social catastrophe:
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