33 Facts About Xiomara Castro

Iris Xiomara Castro Sarmiento, known as Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, is a Honduran politician who is the 56th president of Honduras, in office since January 2022.

Xiomara Castro is the country's first female president, having earlier served as first lady during the presidency of her husband Manuel Zelaya.

Xiomara Castro married Manuel Zelaya in 1976 and became active in the women's section of the Liberal Party of Honduras.

Xiomara Castro became the country's first lady in 2006 following her husband's victory in the 2005 presidential election.

Xiomara Castro was nominated as the presidential candidate of the left-wing Liberty and Refoundation party at the 2013 election, finishing runner-up to National Party candidate Juan Orlando Hernandez and outpolling Liberal candidate Mauricio Villeda.

Xiomara Castro was ultimately elected to the presidency in 2021, defeating National candidate Nasry Asfura with Nasralla as her running mate.

Xiomara Castro is the first president from outside the country's two-party system since democracy was restored in 1982.

The second of five children, Xiomara Castro attended primary and secondary school in Tegucigalpa at the San Jose del Carmen Institute and the Maria Auxiliadora Institute.

Xiomara Castro played an active part in the Association of Spouses of Members of the Rotary Club of Catacamas, as well as the activities developed within the group to take care of children in need in the Olancho department.

Xiomara Castro took part in the creation of the Centro de Cuidado Diurno para Ninos en Catacamas, with the aim of offering assistance to single-parent families led by women, including through the creation of projects of basic cleaning, sowing of vegetables, and floriculture as important projects of job development.

In Catacamas, Xiomara Castro organized the women's branch of the Liberal Party of Honduras and conducted a strong campaign in favor of her husband in the internal elections of February 2005, an occasion in which she was in charge of sub-political coordination of Catacamas.

Xiomara Castro joined her husband in the Brazilian embassy, where he had taken refuge after returning to Honduras before reaching a negotiation with the de facto regime.

On 1 July 2012, Xiomara Castro officially launched her presidential campaign at an event in the department of Santa Barbara.

Xiomara Castro then won her party's primary on 18 November 2012, and on 16 June 2013, she was officially chosen to represent Libre in the 2013 presidential election.

Xiomara Castro expressed opposition to neoliberalism and the militarization of society, and she campaigned for a constituent assembly to write a new constitution.

Xiomara Castro came in second behind Hernandez with 896,498 votes to Hernandez's 1,149,302.

Xiomara Castro easily won the primary, but when Libre formed an alliance with the Innovation and Unity Party, she agreed to step aside and let Salvador Nasralla lead the alliance's presidential ticket.

Xiomara Castro was chosen as the 2021 presidential candidate for Libre and represented her political party in the 2021 Honduran general election.

Xiomara Castro has proposed a constituent assembly to rewrite the Constitution of Honduras.

Xiomara Castro has suggested easing the country's complete prohibition of abortion, under limited circumstances, and allow the use and distribution of emergency contraception.

Xiomara Castro became Honduras' first female president on 27 January 2022.

Xiomara Castro subsequently denounced the 20 deputies as "traitors" and expelled 18 from Libre.

Xiomara Castro was sworn in at the Tegucigalpa National Soccer Stadium, with thousands of individuals present.

Xiomara Castro is the first female President of Honduras and the first to not be a member of the National or Liberal parties since the restoration of democracy in 1982.

Xiomara Castro inherited a deeply corrupt state apparatus, leading her to choose to extradite her predecessor Juan Orlando Hernandez to the United States for his links to drug trafficking, rather than hand him over to the Honduran justice system.

Xiomara Castro's government asked for UN help in setting up an international commission to fight corruption.

Xiomara Castro is confronted with the strong vulnerability of Honduras to US pressure to keep Honduras within regional free trade regimes and the presence of the US military on its territory.

Xiomara Castro banned open-pit mining in March 2022 due to the extensive damage to the environment.

In May 2022, Xiomara Castro signed a measure passed by Congress to abolish Honduras' special economic zones, which the previous National government implemented.

In-addition, Xiomara Castro stated that she had ordered her Minister of Finance and the Central Bank to take action to reduce interest rates for production.

Xiomara Castro had reassured that she has no plans of changing recognition from the Republic of China to the People's Republic of China, and vowed to vice president Lai Ching-te to strengthen the relationship with Taiwan.

Xiomara Castro was the first lady at the time, and the Taiwanese embassy only offered her pregnant daughter political protection on humanitarian grounds.

Xiomara Castro said that her office reached out to Castro and sheltered her husband and two daughters.