First Lady of Honduras

Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, First Lady of Honduras

Xiomara Castro de Zelaya is the wife of deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya. The daughter of Olga Doris Sarmiento Montoya and Irene Castro Reyes, she was born in Tegucigalpa on September 30, 1959. She is the second of five children.

She has a degree in Accounting and Business Administration. Her primary and secondary education were at the “Instituto San Jose del Carmen” and “Maria Auxiliadora”.
In January 1976, Xiomara married Manuel Zelaya. Immediately after the wedding, they made their home in Catacamas, Olancho, where their four children were born: Zoe, Héctor Manuel, Xiomara Hortensia (“La Pichu”) and Jose Manuel.

She played an active part in the “Association of Spouses of Members of the Rotary Club of Catacamas”, founded by her husband, as well as the activities developed within the group to take care of the children in need in the Olancho department.

She took part in the creation of the “Centro de Cuidado Diurno para Niños en Catacamas”, with the aim of offering assistance to single-parent families led by women including through the creation of projects of basic cleaning, sowing of vegetables and floriculture, as important projects of job development. She organized the women’s branch of the Liberal Party of Honduras in Catacamas and conducted a strong campaign in favour of Zelaya Rosales in the internal elections of February 2004, an occasion in which she was in charge of sub-political coordination of this Olancho municipality.

On July 7, 2009 she led a march in Tegucigalpa demanding the restoration of her husband to the presidency.