Skip to main content
Honduras’ left-wing breakthrough
Since a US-backed coup toppled Mel Zelaya in 2009, Honduras has faced a clampdown on democracy and serious human rights abuses. But the election of socialist Xiomara Castro is a chance to break the cycle, writes FRANCISCO DOMINGUEZ
Xiomara Castro has won the elections, but will now face a wide range of political, social and economic subversion

WHAT appeared impossible has been achieved: the people of Honduras have broken the perpetuation, through electoral fraud and thuggish violence, of a brutal, illegal, illegitimate and criminal regime.

By means of sheer resistance, resilience, mobilisation and organisation, they have managed to defeat Juan Orlando Hernandez’s narco-dictatorship at the ballot box.

Xiomara Castro, presidential candidate of the left-wing Libre party (the Freedom and Refoundation Party, in its Spanish acronym), obtained a splendid 50+ per cent  —  between 15 to 20 per cent more votes than her closest rival candidate, Nasry Asfura, National Party candidate, in an election with historic high levels of participation (68 per cent).

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Colombia protest
Features / 31 October 2025
31 October 2025

Colombia’s success in controlling the drug trade should be recognised and its sovereignty respected, argues Dr GLORY SAAVEDRA

Pic: Official Photo by Simon Liu/Office of the President/Creative Commons
Features / 16 September 2025
16 September 2025

The US is desperate to stop Honduras’s process of social and democratic change, writes TIM YOUNG

BLAME GAME: Nicaraguan President Manuel Ortega. Photo: Ismael Francisco/ Cubadebate/Creative Commons
Features / 17 July 2025
17 July 2025

The corporate media have been quick to point the finger over the murder of a Nicaraguan opposition figure, but where is the actual evidence, ask KELLY NELSON and ROGER D HARRIS

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum looks on during her morn
Features / 20 June 2025
20 June 2025

DAVID RABY reports on the progressive administration in Mexico, which continues to overcome far-left wreckers on the edges of a teaching union, the murderous violence of the cartels, the ploys of the traditional right wing, and Trump’s provocations