- Carlos Roberto Reina
Carlos Roberto Reina Idiáquez (
March 13 ,1926 -August 19 ,2003 ) was a politician and President ofHonduras fromJanuary 27 ,1994 toJanuary 27 ,1998 .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 theNational Autonomous University of Honduras where he earned abachelor's degree in Juridical andSocial Sciences . Later, Reina continued his postgraduate studies in the cities ofLondon andParis .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 ofHonduras toFrance , and president of the Central Executive Council (CCE) of the Liberal Party, among other important positions.Reina was arrested several times for his political activities in opposition to the military governments during his younger years. The first time was in 1944 for protesting against dictator Tiburcio Carías. Later in the 1960s he was sent to prison twice by
General Oswaldo López, who had taken over the Honduran government though the use of military force. This led Reina to become a fierce defender ofhuman rights throughout the rest of his life. In 1979 he was nominated president of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of theOrganization of American States .Reina’s socialist sympathiesFact|date=February 2007 led him to develop a close friendship with Cuban dictator
Fidel Castro , which motivated him to travel toCuba often.President
Carlos Reina became president in November 1993, after defeating Oswaldo Ramos, the candidate of the National Party with 56 % of the vote. He was accompanied by his vice presidential candidate: retired General Walter López, the politician Juan de la Cruz Avelar and the lady Guadalupe Jerezano Mejía.
On
January 27 ,1994 Reina replaced presidentRafael Leonardo Callejas . Reina inherited a relatively difficult economic situation from the existing nationalist administration.Foreign debt weighed heavily on theeconomy of thecountry : debt service represented 40% of Honduran exports. Even though approximately 700 million dollars were condoned toHonduras , 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." The issue of whether his plan was a success or a failure is still highly controversial.One of Carlos Roberto Reina’s main objectives during his
government was the reform of theArmed 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 are also controversial, were many sectors believe they helped in the proliferation of gangs, by eliminating a source of employment and education for young men.Reina's death
Carlos Roberto Reina finished his presidency on
January 27 ,1998 . Later, in October 1998, Reina began his period as president of theCentral American Parliament (Parlacén), where he remained untilOctober 28 ,1999 . Finally onAugust 19 ,2003 , Carlos Roberto Reina committed suicide from a gunshot at the age of 77. It is presumed that hissuicide was the result of an unbearable disease, from which the ex-president had been suffering for some timeFact|date=February 2007.See also
History of Honduras .External links
*CIDOB|r-016
*Posas, Mario.(1994),'Reina: "No prometo ríos de leche y miel."' www.envio.org [http://www.envio.org.ni/articulo/833]
*Fernandez Gomez, Cristina. (1997), 'Flores, del Partido Liberal, triunfa en los comicios hondureños.' www.elmundo.es [http://www.elmundo.es/1997/12/02/internacional/02N0048.html]
*findagrave|7778646
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