Juan Orlando Hernández

Juan Orlando Hernández
Hernández, 2015.
55th President of Honduras
Incumbent
Assumed office 27 January 2014
Vice President	Ricardo Álvarez
Preceded by	Porfirio Lobo Sosa
President of the National Congress
In office 27 January 2010 – 13 June 2013
Preceded by	José Alfredo Saavedra (Acting)
Succeeded by	Mauricio Oliva
Personal details
Born	Juan Orlando Hernández Alvarado 28 October 1968 Gracias, Honduras
Political party	National Party
Spouse(s)	Ana García
Alma mater	National Autonomous University of Honduras State University of New York, Albany
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Website	Official website

Juan Orlando Hernández Alvarado, often written as JOH, (born October 28, 1968^[1] in Gracias, Lempira)^[2] is a Honduran politician and businessman who is the current President of Honduras following his victory in the 2013 Honduran presidential election.^[3] A member of the conservative National Party of Honduras, he was the President of the National Congress of Honduras between January 2010 and June 2013 when he was given permission by the Congress to absent himself from all responsibilities in the Congress to dedicate himself to his presidential campaign.^[4]

Early life and career

Juan Orlando Hernández is a lawyer who graduated from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras, where he was President of the Association of Students from 1988 to 1989. He's a graduate in social and legal sciences with a master's degree in public administration, at the State University of New York, and studied legislation at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Honduras. He is a lawyer and a notary.^[5]

He is a businessman in coffee cultivation in his native Gracias and in the radio and television industries as well as being an owner of hotels.^[2] He gained notoriety in Honduras when Liberal leader Rafael Pineda Ponce described him as a “cipote malcriado” (spoiled kid).^[6]

Legislative career (2001-2012)

Juan Orlando Hernández, who represented Lempira Department since 2001, was elected head of a National Congress where the National Party had a comfortable majority, on January 21, 2010, and took office four days later.^[7]

Presidential campaign

In 2012 he fought a campaign against Ricardo Álvarez to try to become the 2013 presidential nationalist candidate, and won the internal election of November 2012^[2] which Álvarez publicly denounced as fraudulent and demanded a "vote by vote" recount which the Tribunal Supremo Electoral (TSE) rejected.

A poll conducted in May 2013 saw him in 3rd place with a projected 18% of the vote.^[8] He began his presidential campaign in July 2013 in Intibucá and La Paz with a campaign entitled El Pueblo Propone (The People Propose in English).^[9] He campaigned for the military to police the streets, and claimed that his closest rival Xiomara Castro wanted to remove the Policía Militar (English: Military Police) which were already in Honduras' two main cities.^[10] He won the election, beating Castro by 250,000 votes.

Hernandez said National Party accountants found that money from companies with links to the IHSS scandal(one of the worst corruption scandals in the country's history) had entered its campaign coffers which they pledged to return but have yet to do so.^[11]

Presidency

Hernández, on January 27, 2014, became the fifty-fifth President Honduras, for a four-year term.

Corruption protests

Hondurans living in various countries such as: Guatemala, Spain, the United States, Belgium, Austria, Italy, etc... have protested against the corruption in Honduras aimed at the government, the judiciary, the military, the police and other entities related to the public administration of the country, and demanding an end to the theft of funds and public money; for example, the embezzlement of the IHSS, and similar cases which have shaken and moved the country.^{[12][13][14][15]}

Rosenthal Family Case

On October 7. 2015, the United States Department of Justice released a statement saying that Jaime Rosenthal, his son Yani Rosenthal and nephew Yankel Rosenthal, as well as seven other businesses, were labeled "specially designated narcotics traffickers" under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, the first time this had been used against a bank outside the United States.^[16] As a result, the Honduran National Commission for Banks and Insurance (Comisión Nacional de Banca y Seguros, CNBS), forcibly liquidated Banco Continental, property of the Rosenthal family, which was closed as of Monday, October 12, 2015,^[17][18] as well as other businesses and properties allegedly involved in money laundering.^[19][20] Hernández said that the financial system "is solid" and made it clear that this "is a problem between Banco Continental and the USA justice system".^[21]

Controversy regarding leadership

Hernandez has been the spotlight of his own people since his presidential debut in 2014, criticized for not taking solutions to economic problems, ignoring the unemployment rate, using military task force to suppress human rights, diverging public fund, and for media covering such corruption scandals.

References

2. "Juan Orlando, empresario y político que sueña con gobernar Honduras - Diario El Heraldo".
3. Catherine E. Shoichet (November 27, 2013). "Winner named in Honduras presidential vote; opposition vows protests". CNN. Retrieved 2013-11-29.
4. Juan Orlando se retira del Congreso Nacional
5. Heraldo, Redacción El. "Buscador".
6. "Juan Orlando Hernández, niñez y política".
7. Juan Orlando Hernández, nuevo presidente del CN
8. "Esposa de Manuel Zelaya lidera las encuestas de cara a las elecciones en Honduras".
9. "JOH lanza "El pueblo propone"".
10. "JOH: "Quieren que la Policía Militar deje de operar"".
11. "Honduras president: graft-linked companies helped fund my campaign". 3 June 2015 – via Reuters.
12. País, Ediciones El (14 June 2015). "Una ola de protestas sacude los gobiernos de Honduras y Guatemala".
13. País, Ediciones El (6 June 2015). "Fotos: Marcha en Honduras contra la corrupción de su Gobierno".
14. "Manifestaciones - Honduprensa".
15. "La 'revolución' de las antorchas en Honduras".
16. "Powerful Honduran businessman indicted in US for alleged money laundering for drug traffickers". 2015-10-09.
17. Carbajal, Richard (12 October 2015). "CNBS procede a la liquidación forzosa de Banco Continental - Tiempo.hn - Noticias de última hora y sucesos de Honduras. Deportes, Ciencia y Entretenimiento en general.".
18. "Honduran bank at center of money laundering case to be shut down". 12 October 2015 – via Reuters.
19. "Incautan 19 empresas y varias casas de la familia Rosenthal".
20. http://www.elheraldo.hn/pais/892035-214/incautan-más-propiedades-a-familia-rosenthal-en-la-capital-de-honduras
21. País, Ediciones El (14 October 2015). "El 'caso Rosenthal' mezcla política y delitos en Honduras".

External links

• Biography by CIDOB (in Spanish)