On Saturday, thousands of Hondurans demonstrated their support for President Xiomara Castro in the streets following the release of a video purportedly capturing her brother-in-law interacting with drug traffickers.
Supporters chanted in front of the presidential residence, “Xiomara is not alone!”
Days after Castro announced the termination of an extradition treaty with the United States, the tape surfaced purporting to show brother-in-law Carlos Zelaya asking the traffickers for money for Castro’s 2013 campaign.
When Castro made the unexpected disclosure on August 28, she expressed her concern that the agreement would be exploited to carry out a “coup.”
In a speech to supporters who had taken buses from all around the nation to the nation’s capital, she restated those assertions.
Castro said, standing surrounded by cabinet colleagues and her husband Manuel Zelaya, “I will not allow them to stage a new coup.”
In 2009, a military coup backed by the political right and business elites toppled former president Zelaya.
Castro has been under fire from the opposition for allegedly breaking the extradition pact and fabricating stories to shield her family and government officials.
Following the release of the video, Carlos Zelaya resigned from Congress. Jose Manuel Zelaya, Castro’s nephew, resigned as defence minister not long after.
Thousands of people participated in a torchlit protest against the extradition deal last Friday in Tegucigalpa, which has resulted in the extradition of 50 Hondurans accused of drug trafficking to the United States for prosecution over the previous ten years.
Among them is the former president Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was given a 45-year prison term in New York in June.
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