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José Manuel Zelaya Rosales, also known as Mel Zelaya, (born September 20, 1952) is a
Honduran politician who was elected President of Honduras in 2006. He was deposed by
the Army on June 28, 2009, but is seen as the legitimate president by the international community.
He defeated National Party candidate Porfirio Pepe Lobo in a national election on November 27, 2005 and was
inaugurated on January 27, 2006, replacing Ricardo Maduro and becoming the fifth President from the Liberal Party.
Zelaya's attempt to hold a constitutional referendum caused a political crisis and his ousting.
Background
Zelaya was born the oldest of four children in Juticalpa, Olancho. He attended Niño de Jesús de Praga y Luis Landa elementary and the Instituto Salesiano San Miguel. He studied Industrial Engineering in The National University of Honduras (UNAH) but left after four years with 11 courses passed to engage fully in the agroforestry business sector. 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 east to Olancho.
Political career
He joined the Liberal Party of Honduras (Partido Liberal de Honduras, PLH) in 1970 and became active a decade later. He was a deputy in the National Congress three 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 planned to revive this scheme during his presidency.
Sister project Wikinews has related news: Manuel Zelaya sworn in as President of Honduras
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, leading the Honduran media to describe the country as having chosen reconciliation over confrontation.
Presidency
George W. Bush and Manuel Zelaya greet
each other in New York, 18 September 2006.
General opinions about his presidency were very divided by political, ideological, party and class lines. The traditional left praised him for his economic policies and social reforms which on occasion have put him at odds with the economic powers which traditionally have ruled in Honduras. The more conservative part of the population expressed their opposition to both his foreign policy, particularly his alliance with Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, and his adhering Honduras to the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas as well as for his periodic attacks on the United States, and periodic confrontations with the business sector.
The Economist gave Zelaya mixed reviews for his first year in office, saying that "Despite success in fulfilling some of his campaign promises [...] Zelaya’s lack of a coherent programme has limited the government’s ability to address Honduras’s long-standing problems," and that "introducing far-reaching reforms will be difficult" in the face of vigorous opposition and "simmering social tensions." In 2008, Zelaya's popular approval dropped amid the 2007–2008 world food price crisis and worsening drug-related violence that gave Honduras one of the highest homicide rates in Latin America.
Conflict with media
On May 24, 2007, Zelaya ordered ten two-hour cadenas (mandatory government broadcasts) on all television and radio stations, "to counteract the misinformation of the news media." The move, while legal, was fiercely criticized by the country's main journalists' union, and Zelaya was dubbed "authoritarian" by his opposition. Ultimately, the broadcasts were scaled back to a one-hour program on the government's plans to expand telephone service, a half hour on new electrical power plants and a half-hour about government revenues. According to the University of New Mexico's electronic bulletin NotiCen, "Zelaya's contention that the media distort his efforts is not without merit," citing reports which gave the public the impression that murder rates were rising, when they actually fell by 3% in 2006.
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 transit point between Colombia and the US. Honduras, with a population of 7 million, suffers an average of 12 murders a day, an estimated 70% of which result from the international drug trade. He also said that Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico face the same problem.
DO WALL STREET TRADERS STILL USE COCAINE ON THE JOB? YEARS BACK MANY REPORTS CONFIRMED MANY DID.
Call to change the constitution
Main article: Honduran constitutional referendum, 2009
In 2009 Zelaya caused uproar with his call to have a referendum in June to decide about convening a Constitutional National Assembly to approve a new political constitution in order to allow the President to be re-elected, given that the current constitution only allows a president to serve for a single term. The constitution explicitly bars changes to some of its clauses, including the term limit.
The question to be asked was: "¿Está usted de acuerdo que en las elecciones generales de noviembre de 2009 se instale una cuarta urna para decidir sobre la convocatoria a una Asamblea Nacional Constituyente que apruebe una nueva Constitución política?" This is roughly translated as "Do you agree to the installation of a fourth ballot [box] during the November 2009 general election to decide whether to convene a National Constitutional Assembly to approve a new political constitution?"
The referendum was ruled unlawful by Honduras's highest court. Zelaya rejected the ruling and sacked Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, the head of Honduras's armed forces. Velásquez had refused to help with the referendum because he did not want to violate law. The sacking was deemed unlawful by the Supreme Court as well as by the Congress.
In addition to the Supreme Court, Zelaya's referendum was declared illegal by the Congress, the country's attorney general, and the country's top electoral body. The Congress began discussing how to impeach Zelaya. On June 27, 2009, thousands of protesters opposed to Zelaya's rule marched through the capital city.
The Supreme Court, the Congress, and the military have recommended that voters stay home because the referendum would be neither fair nor safe to voters. The National Human Rights Commissioner, Ramon Custodio, said "I would tell the people to stay calmly at home in order not to get involved in any incident or any violence by going to vote 'no,' because they might be assaulted by these mobs," referring to Zelaya's supporters. However, unions and farm groups supported the referendum as a necessary precursor to economic reforms favoring Honduras's poor majority.
Political crisis
On June 28, 2009, President Zelaya was seized by soldiers, who later claimed to have been acting on the orders of the Honduran Supreme Court, and taken to an air force base. Honduran radio station HRN reported that Zelaya had been sent into exile. He has been taken to Costa Rica, a neutral country.
Immediately following his ouster, Zelaya spoke to the media from his forced exile in San Jose and described the events "a coup" and "a kidnapping." He stated that soldiers pulled him from his bed and assaulted his guards. Zelaya stated that he will not recognize anyone named as his successor and that he wants to finish his term in office. He also stated that he will now be meeting with diplomats, and plans to attend the Summit of Central American Presidents in Managua, Nicaragua to be held June 30, 2009.
The National Congress voted to accept what they claimed is
Zelaya's letter of resignation, but Zelaya said he did not write the letter.
National Congress President Roberto Micheletti assumed the presidency following Zelaya's ouster.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Zelaya
Honduran politician who was elected President of Honduras in 2006. He was deposed by
the Army on June 28, 2009, but is seen as the legitimate president by the international community.
He defeated National Party candidate Porfirio Pepe Lobo in a national election on November 27, 2005 and was
inaugurated on January 27, 2006, replacing Ricardo Maduro and becoming the fifth President from the Liberal Party.
Zelaya's attempt to hold a constitutional referendum caused a political crisis and his ousting.
Background
Zelaya was born the oldest of four children in Juticalpa, Olancho. He attended Niño de Jesús de Praga y Luis Landa elementary and the Instituto Salesiano San Miguel. He studied Industrial Engineering in The National University of Honduras (UNAH) but left after four years with 11 courses passed to engage fully in the agroforestry business sector. 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 east to Olancho.
Political career
He joined the Liberal Party of Honduras (Partido Liberal de Honduras, PLH) in 1970 and became active a decade later. He was a deputy in the National Congress three 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 planned to revive this scheme during his presidency.
Sister project Wikinews has related news: Manuel Zelaya sworn in as President of Honduras
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, leading the Honduran media to describe the country as having chosen reconciliation over confrontation.
Presidency
George W. Bush and Manuel Zelaya greet
each other in New York, 18 September 2006.
General opinions about his presidency were very divided by political, ideological, party and class lines. The traditional left praised him for his economic policies and social reforms which on occasion have put him at odds with the economic powers which traditionally have ruled in Honduras. The more conservative part of the population expressed their opposition to both his foreign policy, particularly his alliance with Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, and his adhering Honduras to the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas as well as for his periodic attacks on the United States, and periodic confrontations with the business sector.
The Economist gave Zelaya mixed reviews for his first year in office, saying that "Despite success in fulfilling some of his campaign promises [...] Zelaya’s lack of a coherent programme has limited the government’s ability to address Honduras’s long-standing problems," and that "introducing far-reaching reforms will be difficult" in the face of vigorous opposition and "simmering social tensions." In 2008, Zelaya's popular approval dropped amid the 2007–2008 world food price crisis and worsening drug-related violence that gave Honduras one of the highest homicide rates in Latin America.
Conflict with media
On May 24, 2007, Zelaya ordered ten two-hour cadenas (mandatory government broadcasts) on all television and radio stations, "to counteract the misinformation of the news media." The move, while legal, was fiercely criticized by the country's main journalists' union, and Zelaya was dubbed "authoritarian" by his opposition. Ultimately, the broadcasts were scaled back to a one-hour program on the government's plans to expand telephone service, a half hour on new electrical power plants and a half-hour about government revenues. According to the University of New Mexico's electronic bulletin NotiCen, "Zelaya's contention that the media distort his efforts is not without merit," citing reports which gave the public the impression that murder rates were rising, when they actually fell by 3% in 2006.
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 transit point between Colombia and the US. Honduras, with a population of 7 million, suffers an average of 12 murders a day, an estimated 70% of which result from the international drug trade. He also said that Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico face the same problem.
DO WALL STREET TRADERS STILL USE COCAINE ON THE JOB? YEARS BACK MANY REPORTS CONFIRMED MANY DID.
Call to change the constitution
Main article: Honduran constitutional referendum, 2009
In 2009 Zelaya caused uproar with his call to have a referendum in June to decide about convening a Constitutional National Assembly to approve a new political constitution in order to allow the President to be re-elected, given that the current constitution only allows a president to serve for a single term. The constitution explicitly bars changes to some of its clauses, including the term limit.
The question to be asked was: "¿Está usted de acuerdo que en las elecciones generales de noviembre de 2009 se instale una cuarta urna para decidir sobre la convocatoria a una Asamblea Nacional Constituyente que apruebe una nueva Constitución política?" This is roughly translated as "Do you agree to the installation of a fourth ballot [box] during the November 2009 general election to decide whether to convene a National Constitutional Assembly to approve a new political constitution?"
The referendum was ruled unlawful by Honduras's highest court. Zelaya rejected the ruling and sacked Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, the head of Honduras's armed forces. Velásquez had refused to help with the referendum because he did not want to violate law. The sacking was deemed unlawful by the Supreme Court as well as by the Congress.
In addition to the Supreme Court, Zelaya's referendum was declared illegal by the Congress, the country's attorney general, and the country's top electoral body. The Congress began discussing how to impeach Zelaya. On June 27, 2009, thousands of protesters opposed to Zelaya's rule marched through the capital city.
The Supreme Court, the Congress, and the military have recommended that voters stay home because the referendum would be neither fair nor safe to voters. The National Human Rights Commissioner, Ramon Custodio, said "I would tell the people to stay calmly at home in order not to get involved in any incident or any violence by going to vote 'no,' because they might be assaulted by these mobs," referring to Zelaya's supporters. However, unions and farm groups supported the referendum as a necessary precursor to economic reforms favoring Honduras's poor majority.
Political crisis
On June 28, 2009, President Zelaya was seized by soldiers, who later claimed to have been acting on the orders of the Honduran Supreme Court, and taken to an air force base. Honduran radio station HRN reported that Zelaya had been sent into exile. He has been taken to Costa Rica, a neutral country.
Immediately following his ouster, Zelaya spoke to the media from his forced exile in San Jose and described the events "a coup" and "a kidnapping." He stated that soldiers pulled him from his bed and assaulted his guards. Zelaya stated that he will not recognize anyone named as his successor and that he wants to finish his term in office. He also stated that he will now be meeting with diplomats, and plans to attend the Summit of Central American Presidents in Managua, Nicaragua to be held June 30, 2009.
The National Congress voted to accept what they claimed is
Zelaya's letter of resignation, but Zelaya said he did not write the letter.
National Congress President Roberto Micheletti assumed the presidency following Zelaya's ouster.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Zelaya
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