Taiwan did much to help Honduran President Xiomara Castro and her family during a coup in 2009, former Taiwanese ambassador to Honduras Lai Chien-chung (賴建中) said yesterday in response to allegations that Taipei’s indifference at the time helped push the country toward Beijing.
Lai, who served as ambassador from 2006 to 2011, said that Taiwan was among very few countries that reached out to Castro, who was then first lady, when then-Honduran president Manuel Zelaya was ousted and sent into exile.
“We extended our utmost goodwill and efforts,” Lai said, adding that related correspondence can be found at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Photo: AFP
Lai’s remarks came after former legislator Tsai Cheng-yuan (蔡正元) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Thursday said on Facebook that Taiwan refused to shelter Castro during the crisis and only helped her pregnant daughter.
Lai said that the coup took him by surprise, and he provided shelter to Castro’s husband and two daughters at his residence before the situation settled down.
Lai sheltered Castro at the US embassy separately to spread the risk, he said.
Castro often dined at Lai’s residence, he said, adding that relations with her were “very good.”
They remained friendly until Lai was dispatched to Italy in 2011, he said.
Castro drove hours to bid him farewell in person, putting him on the phone with Zelaya so he could thank Lai and Taiwan’s government for its support, Lai said.
Lai described the family’s stay at his house as an “act of trust.”
Castro’s daughter, Xiomara Zelaya, was a member of the diplomatic delegation Honduras dispatched to Beijing on Thursday to discuss the establishment of ties.
Castro on Tuesday last week wrote on Twitter that her country was considering diplomatic relations with China, but Honduras has not officially established ties with Beijing or severed them with Taipei.
Taiwan has yet to receive official communication from Honduras ending diplomatic relations, and is continuing efforts to salvage ties with the country, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
Taiwanese barista Xie Yi-chen (謝溢宸) recently triumphed at the 2024 World Coffee Championships, taking home 1st place in the World Latte Art category. Xie, 28, impressed the judges in the final round with patterns of a whale, a moose, and a dragon in the three-day competition that took place in Copenhagen, Denmark from June 27-29, clinching the title of latte art world champion during his first time representing Taiwan on the world stage. At a press conference held by the Taiwan Coffee Association on Thursday, Xie said that creating latte art gives him a tremendous feeling of achievement. Speaking about his entries in
TRAVEL CONVENIENCE: The program is to shorten wait times while passing through airport checks and would start for Taiwanese from January next year Japan is to launch a new program to expedite entry procedures for Taiwanese starting from January next year. The Japanese government is planning to introduce new rules to shorten the time it takes foreign travelers to pass through immigration, thereby attracting more tourists to visit, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported yesterday. An airport preclearance program would be implemented to allow foreign travelers to finish some screenings at their departure airport’s terminals and undergo simple confirmation procedures upon arrival, it said. The program would initially be applied to travelers from Taiwan from January next year and could be extended to travelers from elsewhere depending
The annual Taipei Summer Festival, which starts today, is to tone down its fireworks displays, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said on Monday. Fireworks displays are to be held at the riverside site in Datong District’s (大同) Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area on four days at this year’s festival, with the first today, and then on Wednesday next week, July 31 and Aug. 10, the department said. There were eight displays last year, with the reduction aimed at minimizing inconvenience to local residents, it said. The first three shows, which are all on Wednesdays, are to last for five minutes, while the final
EYE ON MAYORS: The DPP would file a complaint with the Control Yuan against Ko and Chiang over their handling of reports of abuse at a preschool in the city The Taipei City Government’s belated response under Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) and his predecessor, Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), to alleged child sex abuse at a kindergarten resulted in more children being victimized, two Taipei City Councilors said yesterday. A Taipei preschool teacher has been charged with sexually abusing six children from 2021 to last year at a school registered to his mother. Prosecutors are reportedly considering additional charges amid a wave of new accusations allegedly linking the suspect to 20 other abused children and the discovery at his residence of more than 600 sexually explicit videos featuring minors. The