Carlos Roberto Reina
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Carlos Roberto Reina Idiáquez (born March 13, 1926 and died August 19, 2003) was a politician and President of Honduras from January 27, 1994 to January 27, 1998.
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[edit] Biography
He was born in the city of Comayagüela, Honduras. His wife, Bessy Watson, was an American citizen with whom he had two daughters. He completed university studies in the National Autonomous University of Honduras where he earned a bachelor's degree in Juridical and Social Sciences. Later, Reina continued his postgraduate studies in the cities of London and Paris.
Throughout his long political career Reina held a number of political governmental and international jobs, including judge in the court of Tegucigalpa, peace member of the international court of The Hague, Ambassador of Honduras to France, and president of the Central Executive Council (CCE) of the Honduran Liberal Party, among other important positions.
For his political activities in opposition to the military governments during his younger years, Reina was arrested several times. The first time was in 1944 for protesting against dictator Tiburcio Carias Andino. Later in the 1960s he was sent to prison twice by General Oswaldo Lopez Arellano, who had taken over the Honduran government though the use of military force. This led Reina to become a fierce defender of human rights throughout the rest of his life. In 1979 he was nominated president of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of the Organization of American States.
Reina’s socialist sympathies[citation needed] led him to develop a close friendship with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, which motivated him to travel to Cuba often.
[edit] President
Carlos Reina became president in November of 1993, after defeating Oswaldo Ramos Soto, the candidate of the Honduran National Party with 56 % of the vote. He was accompanied by his vice presidential candidate: retired General Walter Lopez Reyes, the politician Juan de la Cruz Avelar and the lady Guadalupe Jerezano Mejía.
On January 27, 1994 Reina, replaced president Rafael Leonardo Callejas, whose corruption scandals, such as the 'Paquetazo', and the 'Chinazo', contributed a great deal to Reina's election. Reina inherited a difficult economic situation from the exiting nationalist administration. Foreign debt … 'weighed' heavily on the economy of the country: debt service represented 40 % of Honduran exports. Even though approximately 700 million dollars were condoned to Honduras, the debt 'was' still higher than that it had been at the beginnings of 1990.
In his first presidential speech Reina launched his moral revolution: " I pawn my word of honor before God, before the people and before history, of which we will go forward in this enterprise that we have imposed upon ourselves. We will defeat corruption; we will give currency to social liberalism. We will see the moral revolution to its end.” he said.
At the conclusion of his presidential period, Reina delivered the country to his successor Carlos Roberto Flores Facussé, almost the same way as it was when he took office, or worse: in a difficult situation which many qualified as a ' " a barrel of gunpowder on the verge of exploding ". Despite the improvement of macroeconomic numbers, 80 % of Hondurans remained in poverty; the rate of illiteracy hovered at 40 % and with more than one million unemployed and delinquency was running rampant.
One of Carlos Roberto Reyna’s main objectives during his government was the reform of the Armed Forces. His reforms were mostly realized by the end of his first year in office. The first one was the total transfer of all power in hands of military men to civilian authorities, followed by the abolition of compulsory military service in the country. These and other reforms to the military brought about a series of negative effects in Honduran society.
Many Honduran assure that Reina not only converted the military entity into a civil one, but that he completely dismantled the national intelligence and security agencies of the country. As a result, Reina left the entire Honduran population at the mercy of criminals, gang members and drug dealers. He did not commit to a serious effort to modernize the national police, which for a long time, had been in the hands of the military leaders.
The elimination of compulsory military service in Honduras was another of Reina’s changes that had very negative effects in the country. Thousands of young poor Honduran used the military as a way to prepare themselves for the future. In the military, many of them became mechanics, carpenters, bricklayers, others went to night school, and yet others simply followed a military or police career. With their earnings they also helped to support their families.
Once compulsory military service was eliminated, so was a very important resource for many young Hondurans. Without this viable option, many joined with the common criminals, and so the entire population has been victimized and terrified, for many years now. --In short; the drastic changes brought about by Reina; provoked a social trauma, in a country that was not prepared for it.
[edit] Reina's death
Carlos Roberto Reina finished the presidency on January 27, 1998. Later, in October 1998, Reina began his period as president of the Central American Parliament (Parlacén), where he remained until October 28, 1999. Finally on August 19, 2003, Carlos Roberto Reina committed suicide from a gunshot at the age of 77. It is presumed that his suicide was the result of an unbearable disease, from which the ex-president had been suffering for some time[citation needed].
See also History of Honduras.
[edit] External link
- Carlos Roberto Reina at CIDOB bio. (Spanish)
- 1.Posas, Mario.(1994),'Reina: "No prometo ríos de leche y miel."' www.envio.org [1]
- 2.Fernandez Gomez, Cristina. (1997), 'Flores, del Partido Liberal, triunfa en los comicios hondureños.' www.elmundo.es [2]
| Preceded by Rafael Leonardo Callejas |
President of Honduras 1994–1998 |
Succeeded by Carlos Roberto Flores |
