The Freedom and Refoundation Party (Libre, left), led by the elected president of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, expelled this Friday 18 of its deputies for opposing the head of the Legislative being Luis Redondo, and called for a mobilization in rejection of interim board of directors.
The “definitive” expulsion of the 18 dissident deputies was reported by Castro at an extraordinary meeting of Libre leaders and deputies, whose coordinator is former Honduran president Manuel Zelaya.
The expelled deputies are: Jorge Cálix, Beatriz Valle, Denis Chirinos, Francis Cabrera, Mario Enrique Cálix, Mario Portillo, Samuel Madrid, Ronald Panchame, Ramón Soto, Marco Tinoco and Edgardo Castro.
They are joined by Frank Ramón Flores, Sergio Castellano, Germán Altamirano, Yahvé Sabillón, Marco Eliud Girón, Wilmer Cruz and Margarita Dabdoub Sikaffi.
The deputies Melbi Ortíz and Cristian de Jesús Hernández, who had voted in favor of Cálix, were not expelled from Libre because in the end they withdrew their vote.
This group of deputies “as of this date loses their status as active members of our party and it is prohibited to carry out their actions in the name of Libre,” the president-elect stressed.
The legislative bench of the Libre party is made up of 50 deputies, of the 128 that make up Parliament, but after the expulsion it would be represented by only 32.
The provisional board of directors of the Honduran Parliament was elected today in the midst of a controversy because the expelled deputies opposed the president being Luis Redondo, supported by the elected president.
Deputy Jorge Cálix, one of those expelled, was sworn in as head of the provisional board of directors of the Legislature, which generated a new political crisis in Honduras.
Xiomara Castro pointed out that the group of deputies led by Cálix, Beatriz Valle and Yavhé Sabillón “challenged” the authority of the Free Party by not attending the meeting called by the general coordination the day before and by not supporting Redondo.
MOBILIZATION TO TEGUCIGALPA
Castro asked the Libre Revolutionary Ethics Tribunal to “take the appropriate measures to complete the file that supports” the expulsion of the 18 dissident deputies.
The president-elect called on the people and members of the Libre party “to mobilize” from this Saturday to Tegucigalpa, the country’s capital, and meet near the National Congress.
“The vigil begins on Saturday night and early Sunday, January 23, to avoid the kidnapping of the National Congress and reject the fact that the bipartisanship led by the dictator Juan Orlando Hernández (president of Honduras) with the direct complicity of a few deputies traitors, elected by the people under our flag,” he stressed.
The Libre party and its “loyal” bench of deputies ratified “their support” for the president-elect and their decision to ignore the spurious and illegal board of directors that emerged from a treacherous maneuver,” the resolution states.
Castro extolled the decision of the Honduran Armed Forces and the National Police to “guarantee the taking of the promise of law” on January 27.
The president-elect offered the international community “the assurance that the events that now threaten to unleash an unnecessary crisis in the National Congress are not going to stop the holding of the people’s democratic festival on January 27,” when she swears in charge.
Castro is the wife of Manuel Zelaya, who was overthrown on June 28, 2009 when he promoted an illegal referendum, according to his detractors.
Free militants today burned tires near the home of dissident deputy Denis Chirinos, with no record of injuries, and demanded that he resign or rectify his position of supporting Jorge Cálix in the National Congress.
The demonstrators wrote “traitor and sold” on the vehicle and the walls of Chirinos’ house, who called on the Libre militants not to promote violence.
EFE Agency
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.