Radio Holguin – Cuba congratulates Xiomara Castro after the elections in Honduras

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel congratulated candidate Chiomara Castro, representative of the Libertad y Retardación (Libre) party, who is leading the vote counting in Sunday’s elections in Honduras.

“The coup against Manuel Zelaya took 12 years, for the people of Honduras to achieve a resounding victory on Sunday at the polls. Congratulations to President-elect Xiomara Castro. Latin America and the Caribbean are also celebrating with Honduras,” the president wrote in his account on the social network Twitter.

According to the National Electoral Council of that country, the candidate from the opposition alliance at the conclusion of yesterday received 554,000 votes, representing 53.61 percent of the total. With this number, Castro exceeded 205 thousand votes, to take second place in these elections, the ruling National Party candidate, Nasri Asfoura, with about 350 thousand votes in his favour, with a rate of 33.95 percent.

In third place came the liberal candidate, Jani Rosenthal, with 95,000 votes, or only 9 percent.

Referring to the challenges of the upcoming government, attorney Doris Gutierrez, deputy for the Innovation and Unity Party, one of the opposition coalition member organizations, announced that it had achieved one of the proposed goals: defeating the ruling political power; “The only way to defeat them was through unity.”

With regard to establishing relations with the countries of the region if Castro is the winner, he acknowledged that Honduras is free to establish diplomatic and economic relations. “Schiomara and Lieber already have their government’s plan in place, while maintaining harmonious relations,” he added.