Manuel Zelaya

Manuel Zelaya
President of Honduras
Incumbent
Assumed office 27 January 2006
Vice President	Elvin Ernesto Santos
Preceded by	Ricardo Maduro
Personal details
Born	(1952-09-20) September 20, 1952 Catacamas, Olancho, Honduras
Political party	PLH
Spouse	Xiomara Castro

José Manuel Zelaya Rosales, also known as Mel Zelaya, (born September 20, 1952) is the President of Honduras and has been since January 27 2006. On November 27, 2005, as the Liberal Party of Honduras (PLH) candidate he beat the National Party of Honduras (PNH's) Porfirio Pepe Lobo in the presidential election, replacing Ricardo Maduro as president on January 27, 2006, as the PLH's fifth president, in the national stadium in Tegucigalpa in front of 250 dignitaries, including leaders from other countries.

Background

Zelaya was born the oldest of four children in Juticalpa, Olancho, to a prosperous family. He attended Niño de Jesús de Praga y Luis Landa elementary and the Instituto Salesiano San Miguel, yet he did not manage to graduate from the latter due to his poor grades. Hence, he also was unable to pursue any university studies. Two of his brothers remain alive, one is Carlos Armando and the other is Marco Antonio, while his mother, Ortensia Rosales de Zelaya, has been described as his best campaigner. He has engaged in various business activities, specifically timber and cattle, which were handed down to him by his late father. He is now a landowner in the department of Olancho. His family first lived in Copán then they moved west to Olancho.

He is married to Xiomara de Zelaya, who is now the first lady of Honduras.

Political career

He joined the PLH in 1970 and became active a decade later. He was a deputy in the National Congress 3 consecutive times between 1985 and 1998. He held many positions within the PLH and was Minister for Investment in charge of the Honduran Social Investment Fund (FHIS) in a previous PLH government. During the government of Carlos Roberto Flores Zelaya introduced an Open counties programme to decentralize decision making and return power to the local communities. He used both the official division according to Municipality and another method which categorised people according to their indigenous or traditional communities, with said categorisation creating 297 different groups and he is planning to revive this scheme once he becomes President.

During the election campaign Zelaya promised to double police numbers from 9,000 to 18,000. He also promised to initiate a programme of re-education amongst the Mara Salvatrucha gangs. In this question his approach was very different from that of his main rival Pepe Lobo, who advocated the death penalty for these groups of delinquents, leading the Honduran media to describe the country as having chosen reconciliation over confrontation.

Presidency

File:G.W. Bush & Manuel Zelaya.jpg

George W. Bush and Manuel Zelaya greet each other before meeting, Monday, 18 Sept. 2006, in New York.

His government has been described as fragile. The main socio-economic problems his government faces are delinquency, corruption and poverty. The dominant theme of his government has been the bidding process organized by the government to try and reduce the cost of petroleum in Honduras.

In the first year of Zelaya's presidency, several cabinet members quit their jobs protesting over the President's leadership style and skills. In addition, in December 2006 an evaluation of all the Ministries and their head Ministers took place. This evaluation was based on passing and non-passing grades. Several members of Zelaya's cabinet questioned such evaluation and eventually led to the resignation of the Minister of Education and the replacement of other members of his cabinet. There has also been national concern about who really runs the country, him or his political party. This question is raised after so many public appearances with Patricia Rodas (President of PLH), even though she doesn't have a job in the government.

On May 24, 2007 Zelaya ordered all Honduran television and radio stations "to carry government propaganda for two hours a day," according to the BBCin order to publicise government projects.

As of 2008, according to critics, his presidency has come into question due to his poor handling of the economy and several corruption and personal scandals in which some of his closer collaborators have been involved.

In the Corruption Perception Index published by Transparency International [1], Honduras was ranked as follows: in 2006 in position no. 107, in 2007 in position no. 121 and in 2008 in position 131 (the higher the most corrupted). ZELAYA.. is driving honduras to a dead subit.

Call to legalize drugs

On February 22, 2008 Zelaya called on the United States to legalize drugs, in order, he said, to prevent the majority of violent murders occurring in Honduras. Honduras is used by cocaine smugglers as a transiting point between Colombia and the US. Honduras, with a population of 7 million, suffers an average of 8-10 murders a day, with an estimated 70% being as a result of this international drug trade. The same problem is occurring in Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico, according to Zelaya.

External links

• Manuel Zelaya at the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB) (in Spanish)