Vice President Kamala Harris is leading a delegation to Honduras this week to attend the inauguration of the socialist president-elect Xiomara Castro.
Harris’ trip is an effort to address what the Biden administration calls the “root causes” of the migration crisis.
The vice president and Castro reportedly spoke on the phone last month and vowed to “deepen the partnership between the United States and Honduras and work together to advance economic growth, combat corruption, and address the root causes of migration”.
Castro is the first woman to take the role and will be the first leader in Honduran history to be elected on a socialist platform.
Castro’s husband, former Honduran President Mel Zelaya, was deposed from his presidency by a military coup in 2009. Zelaya attempted to recreate the policies of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and was an ally of Fidel Castro.
First Vice President-elect Salvador Nasralla, running with Castro, has reportedly made comments about Jews and Israel.
Fox News reported that “Nasralla claimed that outgoing Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández’s ‘boss is the government of Israel’ and said in a debate that Jews control the global money supply”.
Nasralla’s wife gave an apology to the Latin American Jewish Congress after saying “Hitler was a great leader” in an interview.
Since March of 2021, Harris has been widely criticized for her handling of the border crisis. As the U.S. dealt with record-setting numbers of illegal immigrants, Harris didn’t visit the border til June.
Even though she visited the border, Harris was criticized for visiting El Paso, Texas, instead of the Rio Grande Valley, where the real issues were.
In fiscal year 2021, Customs and Border Protection data estimated that approximately 1.72 million migrants who illegally crossed into the US were encountered by officials.