History of Honduras (1982–present)
Growing public dissatisfaction with the rising cost of living and with widespread government corruption led voters in 1993 to elect Liberal Party candidate Carlos Roberto Reina with 56% of the vote.
Flores inaugurated reforms and modernized the Honduran government and economy, with emphasis on helping Honduras' poorest citizens while maintaining the country's fiscal health and improving international competitiveness.
Suazo Córdova, a country doctor from La Paz, was a veteran of Honduran political infighting, but lacked the kind of experience that might have prepared him for an internationalist role as president of the republic.
In keeping with this conciliatory approach, on March 23, 1982 Minister of Foreign Affairs Edgardo Paz Barnica proposed a peace plan to the permanent council of the Organization of American States (OAS), based on the following six points: general disarmament in Central America, reduction of foreign military and other advisors (then a point of contention with the Nicaraguan government), international supervision of a final agreement, an end to regional arms traffic, respect for delineated and demarcated borders, and the establishment of a permanent multilateral dialogue.
[citation needed] Gradually, the Suazo Córdova administration began to perceive the FSLN government (commonly known as "Sandinistas") as an obstructionist as well as a subversive force that intended to undermine political stability in Honduras through intimidation, propaganda, and direct aid to insurgents.
[citation needed] Consensus on this point in the Honduran administration and armed forces coincided with a significant expansion of the United States' role in Honduras both as policy adviser and as purveyor of military and economic aid.
The initial goals of APROH were to attract foreign investment and to block the growth of "popular organizations" (labor unions, campesino and other activist groups) such as those that supported the FMLN in El Salvador.
He reportedly assisted in the initial formation of the Nicaraguan Resistance (more commonly known as the Contras, short for contrarevolucionarios—counterrevolutionaries in Spanish), arranged large-scale joint exercises with United States Armed Forces, and agreed to allow the training of Salvadoran troops by United States Special Forces at a facility near Puerto Castilla known as the Regional Center for Military Training (Spanish: Centro Regional de Entrenamiento Militar, CREM).
Álvarez proposed to eliminate this organization, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Spanish: Consejo Superior de las Fuerzas Armadas, Consuffaa), and to replace it with a board of eight senior officers.
[citation needed] The prospect of early (involuntary) retirement, with its attendant loss of licit and illicit income, prompted a clique of senior officers to move against Álvarez on March 31, 1984, seizing him and dispatching him on a flight to Miami.
Air Force Brigadier General Walter López Reyes, the new commander-in-chief, demanded further increases in military aid in return for Honduran cooperation in regional affairs.
Although the new accord allowed the United States to expand and improve its temporary facilities at Palmerola Air Base (near Comayagua), it generally limited Honduran cooperation in comparison with the terms of the 1982 agreement.
[6] Although 1983 and 1985 public-opinion polls had shown that a majority of Hondurans supported United States policy in Central America, there was still a growing uneasiness over the country's role as reluctant host to Nicaraguan rebel forces.
Although the constitution forbade his reelection, Suazo Córdova conspired to nominate Oscar Mejía Arellano [Fi], a fellow Rodista (the PLH faction founded by Modesto Rodas Alvarado) for the 1985 presidential election.
The potential key to a Mejía victory lay in the makeup of the supreme court of justice, which could (under the terms of the 1981 constitution) decide an election in which all candidates failed to receive a clear majority.
Although he stopped short of carrying out that threat, troops surrounded the Congress building temporarily after the deputies announced their action and military police took Ramón Valladares Soto (the new president of the Supreme Court) into custody.
The Contadora negotiating process (named for the Panamanian island where it was initiated in January 1983) sought to hammer out a solution among the five Central American nations through mediation by the governments of Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, and Panama.
The Nicaraguans demanded that any Contadora treaty call for an immediate end to Contra aid, whereas all other Central American states and mediating countries (with the exception of Mexico) downplayed the importance of such a provision.
To break this impasse, the governments of Argentina, Brazil, Peru, and Uruguay announced in July 1985 that they would join the Contadora process as a "support group" in an attempt to resolve the remaining points of contention and achieve a comprehensive agreement.
[citation needed] Despite the combined efforts of the original "core four" nations and the "support group", the Contadora process essentially halted during June 1986; the Central American countries failed to resolve their differences sufficiently to permit the signing of a final treaty draft.
The government of Guatemalan president Marco Vinicio Cerezo Arévalo established a more independent position, but still supported the concept of a diplomatic solution to Central America's troubles.
The plan called for dialogue between governments and opposition groups, amnesty for political prisoners, cease-fires in ongoing insurgent conflicts, democratization, and free elections in all five regional states.
[citation needed] The Central American Peace Agreement, variously referred to as "Esquipulas II" or the "Arias Plan", initially required the implementation of certain conditions by November 5, 1987.
Although the Bush administration expressed disapproval of the new agreement, the White House and United States Congress agreed that the Contras' aid would be cut off if the Nicaraguan rebels failed to disband.
At one point Azcona stormed out of a session, after Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega refused to drop Nicaragua's International Court of Justice suit against Honduras over the Contras' use of Honduran territory.
Carlos Roberto Flores, a Rodista and protégé of ex-president Suazo Córdova, won the PLH nomination and the right to oppose Rafael Leonardo Callejas Romero, who had also carried the banner of the PNH when he lost in 1985.
Growing public dissatisfaction with the rising cost of living and widespread government corruption led voters in 1993 to elect Liberal Party candidate Carlos Roberto Reina with 56% of the vote.
Flores inaugurated programs of reform and modernization of the Honduran government and economy, with emphasis on helping Honduras' poorest citizens while maintaining the country's fiscal health and improving international competitiveness.
Maduro's first act as president was to deploy a joint police-military force on the streets to permit wider neighborhood patrols in the ongoing fight against the country's crime and gang problem.
[20] In April 2022, former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, who served two terms between 2014 and January 2022, was extradited to the United States to face charges of drug trafficking and money laundering.
