Honduras Disregards United States' Ultimatum By Establishing Ties With China
Regional observers believe President Castro has built enough support to withstand against US pressure which has sought to place limits on her government through geopolitical ultimatums.
Xiomara Castro, the first woman to be president of Honduras who is also wife of Manuel Zelaya, the former president ousted from power in a 2009 coup, just faced a geopolitical crossroads in choosing China over Taiwan. The article briefly outlines the ultimatums the US, in its neocolonial designs, devised to control Honduras’ leadership, after having derailed the country several times politically and economically to keep it from exercising sovereignty.
Honduran President Xiomara Castro announced on March 14, 2023 on Twitter that she had instructed the opening of official relations with China. The move would leave Taiwan with only 13 countries in the world recognizing Taiwan including Paraguay, Haiti, and seven other small island nations in the Caribbean. China's growing economic presence together with its political influence in Central America and the Caribbean has changed the perceptions of regional countries on China. Many geoeconomic observers believe Central American countries doing business with China are enjoying increased economic options on what is possible for their countries.
The following day the Taiwanese Foreign Ministry urged Honduras not to "make the wrong decision" to open official relations with China. As is known, countries that enter into relations with China must rupture ties with Taiwan. The island is where the Kuomintang retreated in 1949 after the triumph of the communist forces in the civil war. Beijing considers Taiwan a rebellious province, still part of its territory under the principle of one China, so the government of the Asian giant does not allow any country to maintain simultaneous official diplomatic relations with Beijing and Taipei. The establishment of diplomatic relations between China and 181 countries around the world based on the one-China principle has fully demonstrated that bilateral contact with China is the correct geoeconomic and political trend. One would think that such a decision must be taken by that country alone exercising complete sovereignty, but as we shall see Honduras – and many other global south countries – cannot exercise its discretion when it comes to geopolitical ties.
The Central American country has the largest US military base in Latin America, since the end of World War II the US has had no problem in placing its US proxies in power for neocolonial maintenance. In January 2020 Castro was elected, and in January 2021 took her oath to serve as president but the struggle for sovereignty and the betterment of Honduran society has taken more than a decade to reestablish sovereignty that was stolen twice via elections fraud after the 2009 coup d'état by the Obama administration.
Xiomara Castro as a candidate had suffered several electoral coups since 2009 when Manuel Zelaya – who is Castro's husband – was removed from office by the Honduran military under US orders. Before her historic triumph in 2020 Xiomara Castro and her Libertad y Refundación party, also known as ‘Libre’ had run for president twice, first in 2013 and then in 2017, and had actually won but due to overwhelming corruption in the vote count the elections were stolen from them both times.
An offer Honduras was not supposed to refuse
A week before the 2020 elections a delegation from the US State Department and the Pentagon went to Honduras with two important members of the Southern Command among them. They met with representatives of the most important Honduran political and economic forces. The leaders of Honduras political parties were given documents with a layout of instructions on what is allowed and what is not allowed in this electoral change moving forward. Those were imperial protocols of the Monroe Doctrine which are part of the US neocolonial administration mechanisms.
In this neocolonial administrative meeting with the leadership of the three parties in Honduras the US instructed them all not to establish relations with China and to remain with Taiwan. Thus effectively the US once more de facto eliminates Honduran democracy co-opting them to govern in a way that serves US interests. Salvador Nasrallah also whose main purpose is to maintain relations with Taiwan.
In the meeting an important US-Honduran asset was present, Salvador Nasralla who as a deep-state linked oligarch that operates in the Central American country was inserted into this government coalition precisely to represent the interests of the U.S. Embassy. Nasralla was promptly chosen as one of the three vice presidents, as the Honduran constitution requires three persons to hold the vice-presidential charge. He now has announced an alliance of right-leaning groups to go against the Libre Party. Nasralla also began to spread the fear of going against the wishes of the United States using blackmailing by saying that they could tax remittances if Honduras opens relations with China.
The US also made known the usual parameters of neocolonial government for its vassals in Latin America which are not to establish significant economic or political relations with Cuba, Nicaragua, or Venezuela – unless they can be weaponized of course. Likewise, the US wanted to maintain the current economic structures and trade agreements with the neoliberal neocolonial model within the scope of the Monroe Doctrine.
Regional observers believe President Castro has built enough support to withstand against US pressure placing limits on her government through geopolitical ultimatums. It is going to depend on the popular support behind the Castro government defending their vote for sovereignty. The US is conjuring Hybrid War on all continents in a bid to slow down or stop the global transition towards multipolarity, across the globe which means global south nations should put in place Democratic Security protocols to safeguard their societies from further US destabilization, and perhaps Honduras should consider contacting Russia for counter Hybrid War training and protocol development.