SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia—At her inauguration ceremony on Jan. 27, socialist President Xiomara Castro unveiled a plan to give free electricity to 1 million Honduran families.
Castro said she intends to raise the electric bills of less economically disadvantaged residents to finance the measure.
During her speech the nation’s first female president said, “More than a million families are living in poverty and consume less than 150 kilowatts per month.
“As of this day they will no longer pay a bill for energy consumption. The light will be free in their homes ... high consumers will subsidize that energy.”
A vital component behind Castro’s insistence that “high consumers” foot the bill for her electricity plan is because the National Electric Power Company is in the midst of a financial crisis, owing more than $3 million as a direct result of renewable energy contracts.
This came about after former president Manuel Zelaya, who is the husband of Castro, passed a law promoting the generation of electric power through renewable resources.
Along with the electric allowance, Castro promised to tackle the nation’s strict abortion laws, lower fuel costs, education, narco-trafficking, and employment.
In a country where, in the president’s own words, 74 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, some question who the “high consumers” are and if they can afford the responsibility of the proposed electric subsidy.
High unemployment and low wages are among the primary contributors to poverty in Honduras.
“Those kinds of statements about free things can cause trouble,” Tegucigalpa resident Paola Martinez told The Epoch Times.
Martinez and her family are among the fortunate few who belong to the small middle class in Honduras. She also isn’t wild about the idea of Castro’s plan for free electricity.
“People here [in Honduras] who are wealthy can only become that way by being born to an already rich family, owning a lot of land, or drugs. Everyone else works very hard,” she explained.
And the middle class fought hard to emerge from the shadow of dire poverty, according to Martinez.
Honduras has the second smallest middle class in Latin America, which comprises only 10.9 percent of the population.
Castro’s announcement aside, the concept of subsidies in Honduras isn’t a new thing.
In October 2020 the administration of former President Hernandez supported the United Nation’s initiative “Bono Unico” (Unique Bonus), issuing a one time payment of $82 to the nation’s most vulnerable to aid in combating inflated poverty driven by the pandemic and the devastating effects of tropical storm Eta and hurricane Iota.
Last January Hernandez also initiated a program which, through the cooperation of local businesses and banks, allows residents of modest means to purchase “social housing” at a reduced interest rate of 5 percent.
The key difference between those programs and Castro’s electricity grant was no civilians were expected to pay for them.
Despite her ambitious plans the new president is already facing troubles that may impede her ability to move forward with her agenda.
Just days before being sworn into office Castro faced a revolt of 20 deputies within her leftist Libre political party, which leaves her allies deprived of the majority control in Congress.
In her Jan. 27 address to the nation the new president said Honduras had “been sinking” for the past 12 years and she was receiving the country “in bankruptcy.”
Meanwhile, residents like Martinez remain skeptical of Castro’s plan for energy subsidies.
“Even if her plan costs one dollar per family, that’s a million dollars she’s asking the people of Honduras to pay,” she assessed.
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