Rafael Leonardo Callejas
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Rafael Leonardo Callejas Romero was a economist and politician Honduran. He was the constitutional president of the Republic of Honduras, since the Constitution of 1982; started on January 27, 1990 until January 27, 1994. He was implicated in the scandal known as FIFA Gate
Biography edit
The young Rafael Leonardo completed his elementary studies at the American School and his secondary studies at the San Francisco Institute in Tegucigalpa. He later moved to Mississippi, Louisiana where he pursued his graduate studies at the University of Mississippi, graduating in agricultural economics in 1966. In 1967 he did a short graduate degree at the Hague Institute of Social Sciences on agricultural development.
Political career edit
Upon his return to Honduras, Callejas Romero served as chief planner of the Agricultural Sector in the Superior Council for Economic Planning during the government of General Oswaldo López Arellano in the period 1967-1971. From 1972 to 1975, he held the position of Undersecretary and then Secretary of State in the Office of Natural Resources during the second government of López Arellano. According to the historian, Longino Becerra : «As holder of said portfolio, Callejas presided over the Board of Directors of the National Bank for Agricultural Development (BANADESA) and the Honduran Institute of Agricultural Marketing (IHMA). His performance in these functions was extremely discreet, limited to an essentially routine administration».
In 1975, General Juan Alberto Melgar appointed him Minister of Natural Resources. When Policarpo Paz García overthrew Melgar and seized power at the head of a Military Government Junta, Mr. Callejas was confirmed in his ministerial position in August 1978.
From 1980 to 1981, Rafael Callejas Romero was a deputy to the National Constituent Assembly for the Francisco Morazán, for the promulgation of the current constitution of Honduras. He was also appointed presidential in the formula of Ricardo Zúñiga Agustinus, when he disputed the presidency against the liberal Roberto Suazo Córdova, in the elections that meant the restoration of democracy in Honduras in 1981. During this time, Callejas became a member of the Commission n Politics and to preside over the Central Committee of the National Party of Honduras, becoming one of the visible heads of the internal Unity and Change faction, which encouraged the businessman Ricardo Maduro Joest. Subsequently, Callejas activated a personalist faction, the Movimiento Nacional Callejista (Monarca), with a view to his presidential bid.
1985 Elections edit
In 1985, the Honduran people were summoned to general elections to elect the new authorities that would govern the country's destinies. But President Roberto Suazo Córdova threatened to perpetuate himself in power. "When the historical parties were already preparing in their conventions to proclaim their presidential candidates." There was an institutional crisis and with the mediation of the private company, the labor unions, the armed forces and the Catholic Church, a solution to the existing problem was sought and a voting mechanism called “Alternative B” was approved. With this mechanism, the participation of several candidates from the same party was allowed and in the end the votes would be added and the political institute that obtained the most votes would be the winner.
In these elections the Engineer José Azcona del Hoyo, the lawyers Óscar Mejía Arellano, José Efraín Bú Girón and Carlos Roberto Reina competed for "the liberals, for the nationalists Mr. Rafael Leonardo Callejas, Mr. Juan Pablo Urrutia Raudales, and Mr. Fernando Lardizábal Guilbert, as well as candidates from the Christian Democracy and PINU parties."
Committed to respecting this arrangement so as not to hinder the democratic system that began in 1982, for that one time in the traditional parties internal and general elections were held jointly, and were won by the liberal Azcona Hoyo, With this act, article 236 of the Constitution of the Republic was violated, which stated at that time "The president and three designated to the Presidency will be elected jointly and directly by the people, by simple majority of votes."
1988 Elections edit
For the following elections, Rafael Callejas once again enjoyed the confidence of the National Party. The external elections for the selection of candidates for the presidential elections of 1989, which took place in the month of December, were purely symbolic. Rafael Leonardo Callejas, maximum leader of the movement or internal political current of the National Party called the Rafael Callejas National Movement (MONARCA), previously negotiated with the leaders of the other movements giving them a quota of positions in the state apparatus.
In 1989, during these elections, Mr. Rafael Callejas faced as his main opponent a young Carlos Roberto Flores Facussé from the Liberal Party, former minister of the presidency during the government of Roberto Suazo Córdova. According to the journalist, Juan Ramón Durán "there were" between these two candidates "more coincidences than differences." "Both political leaders are young... owners of a business vision in managing public and private interests, pragmatic, respectful of military and North American influence." This suggested that "the social origin and ideological proximity of the candidates"was equally conservative.
Despite the similarity between these two candidates; the incapacity and lack of leadership within his own party of the outgoing president, Azcona Hoyo, "the internal struggles of the Liberal Party and the erosion of two successive periods" of Liberal government "in a decade of crisis, as well as the successes of Rafael Leonardo Callejas in the management of his party and his campaign led the Liberals to defeat in 1989 and a large victory for the National Party."
"At the end of the electoral contest, "Callejas obtained around 52% of the votes, the Liberals 43% and the rest is divided between the PINU-SD with 1.8% and the Christian Democracy with 1.4 percent...The victory of Callejas is explained by the failure of the two liberal governments to manage the country's economic crisis and alleviate the conditions of unemployment and poverty of the majority of the population. The population "looked" for an alternative in Callejas."According to the historian, Juan Arancibia, the victory of "Rafael Leonardo Callejas, was due to the fact that this candidate" resorted to innovative techniques in his campaign of marketing, he restructured and energized his party and presented himself attending to the most sensitive points of public opinion: the economic crisis and the departure of the Nicaraguan Contras.
Presidency (1990-1994) edit
Economy edit
The elected president, Rafael Leonardo Callejas Romero received from the previous liberal governments, a country submerged in a deep economic crisis. With this discouraging panorama, the new president had to face the challenges of a Honduras with a fiscal deficit, trade deficit, massive unemployment, as well as the fact that this nation had been declared "ineligible" for loans and other financial aid. by international credit organizations, this, among many other economic problems.
It was for this reason that in March 1990, Callejas declared that Honduras was "bankrupt" with a "false" economy. To solve this crisis, Callejas presented to the National Congress a package of laws called the Measures of the Economic Order based on "the neoliberal economic model" which "does not allow the regulation of the State in the market or in the business or economic development of the country" .
The economic measures presented by Callejas were re-baptized by the National Congress of the Republic as Decree Law 18-90 of the Structural Ordering of the Economy. These were "recommended" as a form of pressure by international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the International Agency for Development (AID) so that Honduras would once again be eligible for new loans, which was one of the objectives of President Callejas.
Historian Longino Becerra, one of the harshest critics of Callejas and the new law, asserts that "almost immediately after the "package" was approved... the prices of numerous essential items began to skyrocket." However, for some, this was because "Honduran producers believed that free markets implied the consent of their excesses, such as the upward variation of the prices of their products."
In addition to rising prices, the new Law resulted in "successive devaluations of the national currency, the Lempira - which since 1920 had maintained a fixed exchange rate with the dollar." There were "massive layoffs in the public sector and the reduction of social spending, inevitably punished large layers of the population already hit by the shortcomings of a poor country and with a very unbalanced distribution of income" ... "causing, already in the first months of the Callejas administration, a strong social protest that was expressed in street agitations and sectoral strikes called by very combative union organizations."
Despite the fact that President Callejas began his term with serious setbacks after the implementation of his economic package, and having finished his term with a fairly "discreet performance in the macro economy, with an average annual growth of only 1, 5% of GDP", the efforts made by President Callejas in the economic sphere were recognized by some observers.
According to the writer, Rodolfo Pastor Fasquelle, when Callejas came to power in 1990, "the shortcomings were immense and inertia had fallen." According to Fasquelle, Callejas "had the courage to act consistently." In addition, says Fasquelle, Callejas "professionally cleaned up the state's finances, which was necessary; opened the market, took the productive apparatus out of drowsiness, prevented speculation from getting out of control; advanced in the privatization process; achieved relative growth. .. left a substantial material heritage.” In addition to achieving " the resumption of international financial assistance, which, together with the excellent relations with the North American power, facilitated the cancellation by Washington in September 1991 of 430 million dollars of bilateral debt."
For Alexis Gonzáles de Oliva, Callejas is "Possibly ... the first president who, when assuming the Presidency of the Republic, has a greater awareness of national problems, an appreciation of the difficulties that have slowed down the country's economic growth, and clear visions of what must be done to create the bases for taking off, the risks that must be run, the bureaucratic legal adjustments that had to be introduced and the results that could be expected".
Corruption accusations edit
After his presidency, Callejas is accused in seven cases of abuse of power and embezzlement of public funds. During the two subsequent periods, the cases continue without being found guilty. In 2005, the National Congress withdraws the law by which former presidents, among other former officials, enjoyed immunity. The next day, former President Callejas voluntarily appears in court to proceed with his trials. Subsequently, he is found innocent by the Judiciary, receiving release letters in all the cases in which he had been charged.
On December 3, 2015, the United States requests the extradition of Callejas for accusations in the New York Court for the FIFA corruption scandal, called "FIFA gate", for alleged acts of corruption for receiving bribes together with Hawitt, in the amount of US$ 600,000 from MEdiaWorld, for the exclusive transmission of the matches of the Honduran National Team, using United States banks, for money laundering and carry out transactions through Citibank Panama. He was extradited to the United States on December 14, 2015. The OABI officially confirmed on December 15, 2015 that there were no longer any funds in the personal and business bank accounts of the former president, for which it is presumed that he had emptied them in the week he was charged. Rafael Leonardo Callejas pleaded guilty in a New York court to racketeering conspiracy and wire fraud in the scandal known as 'Fifagate'.
Callejas hired the services of attorney Manuel Retureta to defend himself against criminal charges of illicit association, fraud and money laundering. On March 28, 2016, Callejas pleaded guilty to the charges against him.