The president of Honduras, Xiomara Castro. Photo: Canal 8 Honduras.
The president of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, condemned the politicization of the United Nations in her country, in response to the support of the UN representative in Tegucigalpa for the director of the National Anti-Corruption Council (CNA).
“The politicization of the United Nations in Honduras is unacceptable!” President Castro wrote in a Twitter post, after the UN representative in Tegucigalpa, Alice Shackelford, supported CNA director Gabriela Castellanos, who had left the country due to alleged threats on June 18 but had returned on July 20.
¡Inaceptable la politización de Naciones Unidas en Honduras! https://t.co/r3kY8ELYAf
— Xiomara Castro de Zelaya (@XiomaraCastroZ) July 21, 2023
Upon her return, Castellanos held a press conference, where she was accompanied by representatives of the United Nations, the European Union, and several Honduran civil society organizations. At that press conference, she stated that she had returned to Honduras despite threats in order to send the corrupt to prison.
Former President Manuel Zelaya, advisor and husband of the current president, stated in this regard, “I am sorry to see that Alice Shackelford, who knows international law, lends herself to the perverse political game of the CNA against President Xiomara Castro.”
In response to the criticism, Shackelford wrote on Twitter, “We must listen to and involve all voices in a country’s dialogues for its sustainable development. The United Nations will always defend human rights defenders who are under threat, and will accompany and support their institutions and their valuable work.”
Todas las voces deben ser escuchadas e involucradas en los diálogos de un país para su desarrollo sostenible.
Como @ONUHonduras continuaremos siempre defendiendo a defensor@s de DDHH bajo amenaza, acompañando y apoyando sus instituciones y su valioso trabajo. pic.twitter.com/9rlg0F2Zlr
— Alice H. Shackelford (@aliceshackel) July 20, 2023
The threats against Castellanos allegedly came after she presented on May 24 a report entitled Concentration of Power, in which the CNA had pointed out that “strategic positions and those that require a counterweight, are being held by members of the same political organization and by members of the same family, causing institutional monopolization by a minority.”
In 2022, Castro asked the United Nations for its support to install an International Commission Against Impunity and Corruption in Honduras, in order to root out these scourges from the country that had suffered 13 years of a narco-dictatorship.
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
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