Honduran President Xiomara Castro addressed the COP30 climate conference in Belém, Brazil, declaring climate change "an open wound bleeding in our communities" rather than a distant forecast. She identified capitalism as the primary executioner of environmental destruction, emphasizing the urgent need for systemic change to address the escalating crisis.
00:00Indigenous peoples and champions of our land, it is an honor to represent a
00:09sovereign people of Honduras at COP30 here in Belem do Pará with the
00:21throbbing heart of the Amazon. I would like to thank President Luis Inácio
00:28Lula da Silva, his team, and the Brazilian people for organizing this
00:39summit that delivers the voice of hope and life to the south. In Belem talking
00:50about, Belem is talking about the lungs of the world, but it is also talking
00:57about the place where a continent-sized consciousness has emerged against
01:04violence and inequality. Here, so we signed the Inter-American Convention of Belem,
01:14which has enshrined the right of women to live a life free of violence and
01:24domination. From this very ground, I raise my voice as the first woman president from
01:36Honduras to state that the land also has rights to live free from abuse and violence. I was
01:49elected after the 2009 coup, and after 12 years of piling and violence. During this time, the
02:09narco-dictatorship of , the forests, the mines, and the coast, and the
02:18population capital that has split the country as a prize of war. Various economic groups have
02:35concentrated power and have destroyed the pillars of democracy. So they merged, Honduras, in a
02:48situation of lack of sovereignty. Our countries in the tropical region are the vital reserve of oxygen that
03:03supports the world. However, we are the most punished by climate inequality. In COP28, as the president of the
03:17coalition of tropical forest countries, I reported that just a few companies accounted for 71% of pollution
03:32emissions. But a region of the world with only 10% of the population produces more than half of the gases that destroy the climate.
03:45So this has become the most significant environmental liability, drying the rivers that put millions of people in a situation of hunger and displacement.
04:05Climate change is not prognostic. It's an open injury, bleeding in Dubai. I proposed seven urgent actions to protect nature and to ensure that human life is recognized, and nature is recognized as a universal supreme good.
04:33So today I would like to tell you that we would like to stop the wars that are ravaging the world and ensure peace with the right to international law.
04:53So today I would like to stop the war, how to stop the things we are now losing our horizon.
04:58Let's stop the war. Let's stop the war. Let's stop the war. Let's stop the war. Let's stop the war. If you have any problems, please.
05:03So this is why we will not have to stop the war. That was really about the war and the war. We will not have to stop the war. We will not have to stop the war.
05:16our predators who destroy forests, rivers, and ancient lands in tropical
05:25countries and indigenous peoples. Develop an initiative so that the
05:34countries, so that borrower countries and the international credit institutions
05:42approve the external sale to implement a plan for environmental development and
05:49mitigate the harmful effects of climate change. Comply with the agreements of the
05:57World Ocean Agreement by sanctioning over-exploitation and marine pollution,
06:08reducing irrational consumption of natural resources by industrialized
06:16countries which endangers the balance of life in our planet include
06:25environmental assets under the jurisdiction of the international level by
06:32punishing companies and governments that destroy nature. If we curb the
06:43atrocities of capitalism in tropical countries and forests we will be
06:48protecting humankind. Honduras is an active member and the current presidency of the
06:58coalition of forest of tropical forest countries accounts for has more than 30
07:06percent of its national territory that has sacred lands that is to be ignored by
07:16colonialism. In our government we have started to recover the environment of the
07:24over-harmed nation. We have created three environmental task forces for in order to achieve the zero
07:37deforestation target by 2030 and we have also reduced the deforestation in protected areas.
07:44The agroforest program has produced a 30 million plants and has reforest 10,000 hectares
07:54and has benefited thousands of rural families. We have created the national protected area fund to ensure the provision of permanent funds for a hundred and full water micro accounts and with our national farming schools we train the youth in a number of topics including
08:24including the love of the land. In addition to this Honduras will establish its first international agreement in order to engage climate sovereign financing based on high integrity carbon credit and by doing so will be ensuring environmental justice and sustainable development.
08:52We have not granted one single new concession on our natural endowments because the environmental regulation is also an act of sovereignty. Honduras supports the initiative of President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva.
09:16The tropical forest forever fund because this requires recognizing the economic value of the people who dwell in those areas but while we move ahead in reestablishing our environmental foundations we face a new threat.
09:46The same groups that broke the institutional principles in 2009 and who defrauded the elections in 2013-2017 are now conspiring against democracy.
10:0826 audios have emerged that reflect the criminal intent against the national election council. At this summit I declare that no political conspiracy either digital or otherwise can remove the right of people to vote.
10:3627 audios have emerged that no political sympathy.
10:3727 audios have emerged that no political belief that it is not a woman who defrauded the right of people to vote on the 30th of November will have free clean and transparent elections.
10:48Adora's will once again show that right here will have a free sovereign and independent elections.
11:00world. Re-establishing a nation also means re-establishing our relationship
11:09with nature. Environmental justice is the foundation of social justice and and
11:16the defense of forests also means the defense of democracy. A woman, as a woman,
11:25as a mother and as a president, I know to look after and is looking after life. So
11:37based on this, so aware that women should live free from violence, I'd also urge you
11:48to free the planet from abuse and selfishness. I hope that COP30 will go
11:57down in history as the summit of the South that started demanding respect so that it
12:10can also generate hope. So we should be human. So thank you very much.
12:21Listening to the words of the president of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, this addressing the COP30 summit.
12:34We have been listening from different leaders and in particular the leaders of Latin America,
12:40this region that is hosting the COP30 summoned by Brazilian president Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva,
12:47are calling for a more fair and fairly distributed climate action because this is the region that is
12:53having the tougher consequences in what is being produced by the main industries of the North.
13:01We were listening from Xiomara Castro in this moment, but we will continue to listen to different
13:06leaders as this summit unfolds Thursday and on Friday as well. But for now, we have come to the
13:13end of this news brief. You can find these and many other stories on our website at
13:17tellustoryenglish.net. Also join us on social media. We are on Facebook, Instagram, Telegram,
13:23and TikTok as well. For Tellustory English, my name is Belinda Los Santos. Thank you for watching.
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