President-elect Xiomara Castro de Zelaya of Honduras: ‘We won!’

As of this writing, Xiomara Castro de Zelaya leads in the presidential election in Honduras, earning 54% of the vote with well over half of the ballots counted. She would be the first woman President of Honduras. Honduras Resists explains: “She joined the resistance in the streets day after day in 2009, when her spouse, then-President Manuel Zelaya was kidnapped by U.S.-trained General Romeo Vasquez Velasquez in a coup that sent Honduras spiraling into dictatorship and social disintegration, accompanied by brutal and bloody repression. 

“Now, leading a broad coalition of Honduran society, she appears poised to assume the presidency on a promise to give power to the people and put the demands of the social movements and the memory of the resistance’s martyrs at the center of her administration.” (Hondurasresists.blogspot.com) Below is her November 28 victory speech, translated by Honduras Resists. To watch the speech in Spanish go to: youtu.be/K92u6fbaqQc.

Good evening,

We won! We won. Twelve years of the people in resistance and those twelve years were not in vain, because today the people showed up and gave meaning to the slogan: “Only the people will save the people.”

Thank you to the resistance. Thank you to the alliance that we have built with Salvador Nasralla and the Salvador de Honduras party, with Doris Gutierrez, the PINU [Innovation and Unity] party, with Honduras Humana with Milton [Benítez], with the Liberals in Opposition. Thank you for the unity that we have built, together with the Honduran people who showed up today as we held a civic celebration in our country. I also want to send, from the depths of my heart, an enduring salute to our martyrs, who offered their lives so that today our people can have freedom, democracy and justice.

God may take a while but does not forget, and today the people have created justice. We stopped authoritarianism and stopped them from staying in power. 

Throughout the campaign that we developed, we never made a video or released an attack message or any message that could generate hate or division amongst our people. We dealt with a lot, but the author of history, the people, awarded us with their support. 

We will form a government of reconciliation in our country — a government of peace and a government of justice. We are going to initiate a process throughout all of Honduras to guarantee a participatory democracy, a direct democracy, because we are going to be consulting the people. That will be a norm of governance at the level of local governments, mayors, congress and the executive branch. Never again, Hondurans, will there be abuse of power in this country. From this moment on, the people will prevail eternally. Onward toward a direct democracy! Onward toward a participatory democracy!

I am extending a hand to my opposition, because I don’t have enemies. I will call for a dialogue, starting tomorrow, with all sectors of the Honduran nation so that we can find points we coincide on that allow us to build the minimal foundation for the next government.

I want to say to the Honduran people, the people who listened to us as we went throughout the country, that all of the promises that we made, you should know and trust that we will keep them. We will not rest one moment. We will give our soul, life and heart to be able to guarantee a different homeland, a just homeland, an equitable homeland, a free, independent Honduras, able to respond to the many needs of the people. 

We will have a permanent dialogue with the Honduran people, and starting tomorrow we are going to sit down to meet not just with the social movement organizations, the business people and sectors of our country but also with the international organizations to seek the answers that our homeland needs. We are going to build a new era. We are going to build a new history for the Honduran people together. 

Today I want to say from the depths of my heart, so that the Honduran people feel it: No more war! No more hate! No more death squads! No more corruption! No more drug trafficking and organized crime! No more ZEDES [“Special Economic Development Zones”]! No more poverty and misery in Honduras! Until the final victory, united, the people, together we are going to transform our country! 

Thank you very much.