Analysis | Women take center stage in Honduras’ general election - video Dailymotion

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TeleSUR correspondent Jorge Gestoso interviews international analyst Diana Sabillon, member of feminist organization “Luchemos”, to provide an analytical outlook into the upcoming Honduras general election, to take place on Sunday, November 30th. teleSUR  These and more stories now!

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00:00Let's stay on topic and go deeper in the analysis of Honduras' upcoming general elections.

00:04We are going live to Honduras with our special envoy, Jorge Hostoso.

00:08Welcome once more to From the South.

00:11Luis Alberto, thank you very much.

00:13We are here in Tegucigalpa, 48 hours away from the electoral day of Sunday.

00:21We are having an election, and we would like to see where the woman fits in this electoral process

00:29and in order to help us to put in perspective the role of women in Honduras and the political spectrum,

00:37we have the honor to have with us Diana Savillon.

00:41She is a member of Luchemos, which is a feminist political organization.

00:47Diana, thanks very much for joining us.

00:49Thank you, Jorge, for the invitation, and Tela Sur as well.

00:52Diana, where is and has been the woman in this political process towards the election of Sunday?

01:02I think that women have been the center of these elections precisely because one of the most important things

01:11that have happened to women here in Honduras has been having the first female president,

01:18Xiomara Castro, that represents a Libre Party, right?

01:23Libertad y Refundación, our party, our progressive government.

01:27So we always talked about how women have been the center of this revolution as well

01:34and for the project of our government.

01:39So I think that we definitely positioned that conversation in the political discussion,

01:48public political discussion here in Honduras.

01:51And, well, the far-right opposition has been trying to instrumentalize what we've been doing

01:58and the narrative that Xiomara Castro does not defend women

02:03or that the Libre Party does not defend women.

02:06Is it true or not?

02:07It's not true.

02:10First of all, we have our second candidate, presidential candidate,

02:14that is a woman, Rixi Moncada,

02:17and also who has talked about this in her proposal as a presidential candidate, right?

02:25She talks about a national strategy to reduce femicides,

02:30also access to credits, support to entrepreneurs,

02:34and other things that have a big impact in women's lives.

02:40In the case of femicides, a subject that you brought up,

02:44we are talking information about revealed this week precisely

02:49because of the day of the fight against violence against women

02:56that the United Nations revealed.

02:59And we're talking, according to that information,

03:01close to 4,000 femicides would take place in Latin America,

03:0611 per day.

03:08And Honduras is one of the countries with a very high figure.

03:12Tell us about how present is femicides in the life of this country.

03:17Well, I think that that topic is a really important one worldwide, right,

03:23because violence against women hasn't changed that much,

03:28especially I think it grows when women decide to be part of the public life, right?

03:36So Honduras has been a very violent country due to the narco state that we had,

03:43the dictatorship that we had after the coup in 2009 that ousted President Manuel Zelaya Rosales.

03:52And who was a progressive?

03:55Who was a progressive leader and still is one of the most brilliant minds here in Honduras.

04:00And he was a founder of the presidential party with the candidate Ritchie Moncada is running with.

04:06Yes, and, well, Xiomara Castro has been his partner for a while now.

04:15So it has been a really important topic.

04:19It's difficult to talk about how to change that since it's a structural problem.

04:25It's a system, a systemic problem.

04:29So what people don't know because the media is controlled by the elite here in Honduras

04:37is that while they have been generating the perception that femicides have gone up in this government,

04:45the government of a first female president, that's not true.

04:49And it's not that our government is saying that, it's observatories, national observatories are saying

04:58that femicides have gone down here in Honduras in this period of time.

05:03So definitely women were making some quote-unquote progress, if you want to use that word,

05:11during the presidency of the first female president of the United, of the, of Honduras.

05:19And she is the wife of the former president, Manuel Zelaya.

05:24We're talking about Xiomara Castro.

05:26Yes, women have gone up, women's life have gone getting better here in Honduras,

05:36even though maybe you can't notice it because every time we talk about women,

05:42people always think that we are only talking about sexual and reproductive rights, for example.

05:47But it's also access to credits that the president has given to thousands of women,

05:59access to education, to health services, with new hospitals, schools that have been repaired,

06:10all that it has an impact, a direct impact in women's lives.

06:13What about the workspace, the workforces? Are the women treated equally?

06:20Well, that's a debt we have still. It has been a little bit difficult,

06:25and I think that because women have gone, like, conquering more spaces, it also has a backlash, right?

06:36And sometimes that provokes violence when women want to change their environment.

06:44So I think that we've had those reactions while women go, are evolving in their work spaces

06:54and getting more leadership roles.

06:56There's somehow an effect in that violence, but I think that we've been trying to change that.

07:07Equal pay for men and women, or still differences?

07:12I think there's still differences.

07:13In the government, in the public administration, we've been making some changes,

07:18but the private enterprise, well, they do what they want, so it's a little more complicated to change that.

07:27So at least would you say that according to your assessment,

07:33during the four years of President Xiomara Castro, there's more awareness of women,

07:39the role of women, the problems of women, the challenges, the violence that women go through in the last four years,

07:48and that has been inherited in the proposals of her successor, the candidate Ritzi Moncada?

07:57Yes, I think that we've managed to make it a very important topic here nationwide.

08:05You see the local news sources, they're talking about women, they're talking about the challenges we have,

08:15but also we talk about how lives have been changed here.

08:22And the proposal of our candidate, Ritzi Moncada, also guarantees that women will keep conquering more in her government.

08:32Diana, thank you very much.

08:34Thank you for having me.

08:36We're talking with Diana Savillon.

08:39She is a member of Luchemos.

08:42We're talking about the feminist political organization here in Honduras.

08:47And she was helping us to put in perspective how the role of women has been much more present

08:54in the last four years with the president, the first female president, Xiomara Castro,

09:00and in the agenda of her candidate.

09:03We're talking about Ritzi Moncada from the Libre Party.

09:09Now we get back to you, Luis Alberto.

09:12Thank you so much for the opportunity.

09:14Yes, please.

Analysis | Women take center stage in Honduras’ general election

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