The Honduran leader whom Vice President Kamala Harris embraced in an effort to stem the flow of illegal aliens on the southern border has joined Russia, China, and Cuba in backing Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro's fraudulent electoral victory.
Honduran president Xiomara Castro de Zelaya congratulated Maduro on his declared reelection victory in an early Monday morning X post that also expressed "Democratic, Socialist and Revolutionary greetings." Western leaders widely consider Maduro's supposed win to be fraudulent, with many of them condemning irregularities with the election process, such as the military's arbitrary shutdowns of polling locations. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday expressed "serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people."
But Castro's statements also underscore why many of Harris's Republican critics considered the vice president's outreach in the region to be quixotic and ineffective. Castro's government is largely seen as hostile to a number of U.S. initiatives, such as countering China and Russia.
Under Castro, for example, Honduras last year ended its recognition of Taiwan as an independent nation, declared that there is "only one China in the world," and said that the Communist-led People's Republic of China "is the only legitimate government that represents all of China."
Harris attended Castro's inauguration in 2022 in hopes that the Honduran president would be a "crucial ally in addressing the corruption and emigration that have challenged Central America," the New York Times reported at the time.
Harris said after her meeting with Castro, a self-avowed socialist, that she was "impressed with the passion with which [Castro] talked about her priority on addressing and combating corruption." Harris considered building a relationship with Castro so important that NPR described the "rare" trip she took to Honduras as a potential "fresh start" to gain a handle on the U.S. southern border crisis.
In subsequent phone calls with Castro, Harris's office said the two "discussed deepening [the two countries'] cooperation" across "addressing the root causes of migration, combatting corruption, and expanding economic opportunity." Harris has since touted a $325 million economic aid package to the Northern Triangle region in Latin America, which includes Honduras, that offers "an $80 million loan to financial institutions to expand financing for [small and medium sized-enterprises], particularly for women entrepreneurs in Honduras."
Law enforcement has logged nearly 875,000 Hondurans who have illegally crossed the U.S. border since President Joe Biden took office. More than half of those crossings took place after Harris traveled to Honduras.
In the wake of Maduro's rigged reelection, Harris fell short of issuing a condemnation. In a Sunday statement, Harris said that the United States "stands with the people of Venezuela who expressed their voice in today's historic presidential election" and that the "will of the Venezuelan people must be respected."
"Despite the many challenges, we will continue to work toward a more democratic, prosperous, and secure future for the people of Venezuela," Harris concluded.
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