Yani Rosenthal

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Yani Benjamin Rosenthal Hildago (born July 14, 1965 in San Pedro Sula, Honduras) is a businessman and politician.

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[edit] Personal Data

His parents are Mr. Jaime Rolando Rosenthal Oliva and Mrs. Miriam Marina Hildago de Rosenthal. He has a sister, Patricia and three brothers; Jaime (deceased), Carlos José and César Augusto. Yani is married to Claudia Madrid and they have four daughters; Isabella, Victoria, Elissa, and Alexandra.

In 1993 his home suffered damages from a bomb attack. Rosenthal was Director of Diario Tiempo (Honduras Times Newspaper) and published a series of articles about military abuses and his home was temporary shelter of a witness of a killing performed by military, so it has been alleged that the military was involved.[1][2]

[edit] Education

Rosenthal studied high school at Bilingual School: Escuela Internacional Sampedrana in San Pedro Sula, he is a lawyer graduated from UNAH-Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras (Honduras National Autonomous University) and an Executive Master of Business Administration (MBA) from INCAE-Instituto Centroamericano de Administración de Empresas (Central American Business Administration Institute). In 1998 the Honduras Supreme Court of Justice granted him the title of Notary public.

[edit] Political career

When José Manuel Zelaya Rosales took office in January 27, 2006 as Honduras President, Rosenthal was appointed as Minister of the Presidency.[3] Due to his lack of any public service experience, his appointment was criticized in the local media, since it was seen as a result of the political negotiations of his father. Jaime Rosenthal Sr. has backed Yani into the political arena in recent years. After the death of his younger brother Jaime in a gun accident, Yani was seen as the natural successor to his father.

His previous experience has been very limited. He was advisor of San Pedro Sula municipality when Jerónimo Sandoval Sorto was mayor of the city (1986-1990). Also has been coordinator of presidential campaign of his father Jaime Rosenthal and in 2005 after internal election within Liberal Party, he was regional coordinator of Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales presidential campaign.

In December 2006 Diario La Tribuna (La Tribuna newspaper) made a poll among a number of broadcasters, it showed that Rosenthal had the highest favorable opinion of all Ministers of Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales Administration. [4] The results have little statistical merit since the broadcaster's population polled was just over 100 and his family owns several broadcasting companies including television (Canal 11) and a newspaper (Diario Tiempo) which employ many of the polled broadcasters. On January 24, 2007 CID-Gallup published a poll of public opinion. The results showed Rosenthal with a 24% favorable opinion from the poll.

In December 2006 and January 2007 he suffered severe criticism from his own party members, after he announced the results of an evaluation process of all government ministers and other executives of which he was in charge. Rosenthal was the only minister not evaluated. Several well known members of the Partido Liberal flunked the examination and in some cases only few were even removed from their posts. [5] This internal dispute extended all the way to the Vice President of Honduras Elvin Santos, who declared publicly that Rosenthal was unfit to evaluate him. [6]

He was also heading the process of adjudication of import rights of oil products into the country. This process was adjudicated in 2006 to ConocoPhillips. ChevronTexaco, Exxon and Shell were left out of the importing business in Honduras, in which they had operated for decades. This process which Rosenthal has led with other officials close to President Zelaya has been under constant criticism from the private sector in Honduras, as well of the government of the United States. [7] [8] ConocoPhilips, despite winning the monopoly rights of importing oil in the country, lacks the storage facilities. Chevron, Exxon and Shell have expressed their denial to lease to ConnocoPhillips or the Government their respective facilities. After this negative President Zelaya pushed an executive mandate to force multinational companies to lease their facilities under a price point set by the government. [9]

On January 16, 2007, the US Ambassador in Honduras Charles Ford, expressed publicly his concern derived from the executive mandate to force a lease of oil storage facilities to the government. [10]

On January 17, 2007, President Manuel Zelaya's legal advisor Enrique Flores said the government would not take control of the terminal owned by Chevron, but would take control of two oil storage terminals owned by Honduran company DIPPSA, including one in which Exxon Mobil owns a 50% stake. [11]

On December 31, 2007, Yani Rosenthal resigned as Minister of the Presidency. he is currently running to be elected in the internal primary election within the Liberal Party to become the candidate for the 2010 Honduras Presidency.

Recently, Arcadia, an American NGO, declared that there were signs of corruption in one of the companies owned by the Rosenthal family in Honduras. This communications company was pressumably involved in "gray traficking", violating, or at least bending Honduran law. Although this report was widely published in the media, no legal or investigative action was ever taken or made public against the company.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ 1993 Human Rights Report: HONDURAS
  2. ^ Global Media Journal
  3. ^ Secretaría de la Presidencia
  4. ^ TIEMPO DIGITAL, El Diario que se lee primero
  5. ^ La Prensa Diario La Prensa noticias San Pedro Sula, Tegucigalpa, resto de Honduras y el mundo , News from Honduras and all the world - Aún no hay despedidos / 04 / 01 / 2007 / Ediciones / La Prensa
  6. ^ La Prensa Diario La Prensa noticias San Pedro Sula, Tegucigalpa, resto de Honduras y el mundo , News from Honduras and all the world - "Yani no tiene solvencia para evaluarme": Elvin / 12 / 01 / 2007 / Ediciones / La Prensa
  7. ^ La Prensa Diario La Prensa noticias San Pedro Sula, Tegucigalpa, resto de Honduras y el mundo , News from Honduras and all the world - "La intromisión de un Gobierno no siempre es buena" / 15 / 01 / 2007 / Ediciones / La Prensa
  8. ^ La Prensa Diario La Prensa noticias San Pedro Sula, Tegucigalpa, resto de Honduras y el mundo , News from Honduras and all the world - EUA critica a Honduras en caso de combustibles de Texaco y Esso / 15 / 01 / 2007 / Ediciones / La Prensa
  9. ^ Honduras court orders handover of oil depots | Reuters
  10. ^ La Prensa Diario La Prensa noticias San Pedro Sula, Tegucigalpa, resto de Honduras y el mundo , News from Honduras and all the world - Ford: "Las consecuencias pueden ser graves" / 16 / 01 / 2007 / Ediciones / La Prensa
  11. ^ Honduras says terminals grab hits Exxon, not Chevron | Reuters