Honduras' president shows her true colors, passes corruption amnesty law

Honduras’ left-wing President Xiomara Castro – who on the campaign trail promised to fight corruption in the impoverished Central American country -- showed her true colors on Saturday by passing an amnesty law that would effectively exonerate dozens of officials, including her husband, former President Manuel Zelaya, from a wide range of legal infractions.

Although the law, which applies to “officials, employees or elected authorities” during Zelaya’s administration from January 2006 to June 2009, is said to protect those charged with “opposing and protesting against the coup,” analysts believe it will also cover much more serious charges.

According to constitutional lawyer Juan Carlos Barrientos, the measure would also cover people accused of money laundering and the misuse of public funds – among other things.

“It’s evident that they did it to pardon everybody,” Barrientos noted.

But the new amnesty bill might not pass into law as it was voted on by a new congress that has been in crisis since before Castro was sworn in last month. Presently, there is a dispute over the leadership of the legislature and two separate bodies appear to be operating simultaneously in the country.

For this reason, Barrientos believes Honduras’ first female president should never have signed the measure into law and expects it will be subject to endless constitutional challenges from both congressional leadership teams.

“She should have waited until the situation in Congress was straightened out,” he said.

On the campaign trail, Castro made battling corruption in Honduras a pillar of her electoral platform and even promised to invite the United Nations to help in the process.

In a speech delivered before Vice President Kamala Harris at her inauguration last month, Castro stated, “We must uproot the corruption of the last 12 years of dictatorships,” adding that Hondurans “have the right to refound ourselves on citizen values and not on usury.”

Before leaving Honduras, Harris told reporters that she felt optimistic that the partnership between Washington and Tegucigalpa would help improve conditions that cause thousands of Hondurans to head north to the United States.

“I was impressed with the passion with which she talked about her priority on addressing and combating corruption,” Harris said.