Honduran Parliament normalizes sessions after overcoming crisis of two directives

The Parliament of Hondurasmade up of 128 deputies, normalized its ordinary sessions on Tuesday after overcoming on Monday a crisis derived from having two boards of directors, due to a controversy that arose between deputies of the ruling Libertad y Refundación Party (Libre, left).

The session was attended by the deputies of the six parties that make up the legislature, including the 44 of the outgoing and conservative National Party, which were part of the crisis because when electing the provisional board of directors of Parliament, on January 21, they did against Luis Redondo, who is supported by the new Honduran president, Xiomara Castro.

The deputies of the National Party supported about twenty of the 50 that Libre obtained in the general elections of last November 28, so that the president of the Parliament would be Jorge Cálix, which led to a new political crisis in Honduras.

After an agreement with the general coordinator of Libre, the former Honduran president and husband of Xiomara Castro, Manuel Zelaya, the twenty dissident deputies who had emerged from the government party decided not to continue with the board of directors headed by Jorge Cálix and today joined the session, as officials.

The discrepancies in Libre were due to the fact that about 20 initially opposed Luis Redondo, of the Salvador Party of Honduras (PSH), who only won 10 seats in the last elections.

Redondo was endorsed by President Castro, in compliance with a de facto alliance that she and Libre signed with the president of the PSH, Salvador Nasralla, for the November elections aimed at removing the National Party, which has held power since 2010, from power.

Today’s session was marked by offenses between deputies from Libre, who were in opposition for eight years, and from the National Party, the weighting of Luis Redondo and the return of the 17 dissident deputies who ultimately stood against the new president of Parliament .

Several Libre deputies presented bills, many of them aimed at repealing articles of laws and legal regulations that they consider harmful to the interests of Hondurans, which were approved during the last three administrations of the National Party.

Deputies from the National Party arrived with banners with phrases such as “Ratify the board of directors” and “We demand legality”, considering that the board of directors chaired by Luis Redondo suffers from invalidity, which also affected the one chaired by Jorge Cálix, with the that today demanded legality.

The response that the deputies of the National Party had on the part of those of Libre, was that, by returning their 44 deputies, they were recognizing the legitimacy of the board of directors chaired by Luis Redondo.

Since the country returned to constitutional order in 1980, after almost 20 years of military regimes, its political class has been characterized by creating serious crises such as the June 28, 2009 coup against former President Manuel Zelaya, the re-election of former president Juan Orlando Hernández in the 2017 elections, even when the Constitution did not allow it, and an attempt at continuity in 1985, during the government of Roberto Suazo Córdova.

Now, the deputies of Libre assure that things will be different, although since before President Xiomara Castro assumed power, on January 27, they had already created the first crisis for her, which is presumed to have been resolved on Monday and that the normalcy would have come to Parliament from today.