Tiburcio Carías Andino
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Tiburcio Carías Andino (March 15, 1876 - December 23, 1969) was a lawyer, politician, professor, soldier, with the rank of division general and thirty-eighth president of the Republic of Honduras, constitutional period from 1924 and from then on in the form of a dictatorial regime from 1933 until 1949.
Biography edit
Tiburcio Carias Andino was born in the Republic of Honduras on March 15, 1876. His parents were Calixto Carias Galindo and Sara Francisca Andino Rivera.
In 1907 he took part in the war that Honduras waged against Nicaragua, which had as its origin a border problem. Honduras, which had the support of El Salvador, lost the war. Its president, Manuel Bonilla, a staunch defender of the territorial rights of his country, was forced to admit the new border, but despite this recognition, the intervention of the United States was necessary to sign peace.
General Carías Andino, deeply conservative, founded the National Party in 1916 and, as its leader, decided to stand for the presidential elections of October 1923. The result of the elections was favorable to him, since he was the most voted candidate, although he beat his competitors, Juan Ángel Arias and Policarpo Bonilla, by a narrow margin. President Luis Gutiérrez (1920-1924), dissatisfied with the results and determined to remain in power, declared martial law to prolong his presidency. In February 1924 his mandate expired, but Luis Gutiérrez proclaimed himself dictator to the discontent of the president-elect and the entire nation.
Gutiérrez's decision caused the outbreak of a new civil war, which annulled the chances of Carías Andino to rise to power. At that time, the situation became chaotic, but normality was restored after a short term in office by General Vicente Tosta, who became president after leading a coup d'état. Once Vicente Tosta's term ended, new elections were held, in which Miguel Paz Barahona (1925-1929) was the winner. During his mandate a certain calm was maintained in the political life of the country; after a new electoral call, Vicente Mejía Colindres (1929-1933) held the presidency.
Mejía Colindres called elections in October 1932, in order to hand over the presidency at the beginning of February 1933. The winner of these elections was Carías Andino, who on this occasion had no difficulties in occupying the presidency. His first decision, after coming to power, was to appoint Abraham Williams as vice president, who would remain with him throughout his term.
Apparently, Carías Andino planned to extend his mandate from very early on, so he began preparations for the elaboration of a new constitution in 1936. After calling elections to elect the members who were to form part of the Constituent Assembly, a to the elaboration of the new constitution, which was completed on April 15 of that same year, and in which the presidential mandate was extended from four to six years. Based on this clause, Carías Andino extended his mandate until January 1943.
In 1936 he had to face various attempts to overthrow him from power; as he himself stated in a speech before Congress on January 1, 1936, these were minor insurrections of no importance. For Carías Andino, the most important thing was to resolve the tremendous economic crisis in the country, as he expressed on several occasions, but he did not take significant measures in this regard. He always had the support of his party, which had become the only legal political force in the country. It was increasingly evident that the president intended to gain absolute control of the situation and exercise his power in an authoritarian and dictatorial manner.
In 1944 a serious insurrection broke out that, with the passing of days, took on overtones of civil war; The protests against the government of Carías Andino became widespread and several guerrilla groups entered the country with the intention of proclaiming Heliodoro del Valle, who was in exile in Mexico, president. But they were unsuccessful and, after once again declaring a state of emergency, Carías Andino managed to get out of the dangerous situation. The victory against the rebels encouraged the president to continue in power. Relying on new constitutional arrangements, he remained in power until 1949.
In the seventeen years that he remained in power, Carías Andino displayed an intense nationalism, despite which he did not take part in World War II. In 1941 he severed his relations with the Axis powers; It is possible that relations of economic dependency with the United States determined this decision. He carried out paternalistic measures; like most of the South American caudillos of the time, he liked to consider himself the father of the country. He maintained good relations with the dictators who successively occupied neighboring countries, such as Anastasio Somoza, dictator of Nicaragua, or Hernández Martínez, dictator of El Salvador.
He hardly carried out reforms to modernize the country's economy. The predominance of American companies in coastal farms was maintained and, given the lack of incentives, the entry of new capital was discouraged. With regard to social reforms, Carías Andino opposed women's suffrage and did not consent to the creation of unions. Those who disagreed with their way of governing were forced to do forced labor. There were very few advantages for Honduras from this long, clearly dictatorial government.
After calling elections, his departure from power took place, but he only temporarily withdrew from the world of politics, since fifteen years later, in 1964, he founded a new party, the Popular Progressive Party, which was declared illegal shortly before his death.
Crimes edit
The dictatorship of General Carias Andino, like other regimes in Latin America, was not exempt from having various human rights violations in its history. El Cariato was mainly characterized by strong media censorship as the government supervised the press and radio, and brutality against unarmed civilians by the armed forces. One of the ethnic groups most affected by the policies imposed during this period was the Garífuna community, being constantly silenced and attacked by the military forces. The massacre of Tela that occurred in 1937 against the Garífuna population ordered by Carías himself stands out. Another well-remembered crime was the so-called "San Pedro Sula massacre" that occurred on July 6, 1944 after the military forces brutally repressed unarmed citizens of San Pedro Sula who had started a protest in the streets of the city demanding his resignation. More than 70 deaths were recorded and an as yet undetermined number of hundreds wounded by military repression, including the elderly and women.[1]
Another aspect was the torture at the hands of the military in the different penal centers to prisoners, the majority of whom were political opponents, who became saturated with prisoners at one point during his mandate. Many of the workers in the plantations and mines lived in subhuman conditions with little electricity, water or enough food and their work was a condition of almost slavery and more than plantation and mining centers they were more similar to camps of concentration or forced labor, since some prisoners were also sent to these zones to work as an alternative option instead of staying in the penal centers. Much of the country's infrastructure was also built with the labor of prisoners, mostly political opponents and civilians.
American intervention edit
Concerned but willing to end these dictatorial demonstrations, the US began to pressure Carías to relinquish power and allow free elections after his term ended. Carías, who was in his seventies at the time, submitted to these demands and in October 1948 announced general elections promising that he would not participate, but on the other hand, he continued to manipulate the country's politics and that was how he forced the National Party to nominate his protégé and lawyer Juan Manuel Gálvez, who since 1933 had been acting as Minister of War, as a candidate for the presidency of the country. All the exiles were allowed to return, and the Liberal Party, trying to regain its position as a political force and the unity of its members, again nominated Zúñiga Huete, the same candidate that Carías had supposedly defeated in the disputed free elections in 1932. The lack of organization, the little time for propaganda, the scarcity of funds and leadership, convinced the Liberal Party that they could never win the elections against a party with all the advantages that the National Party had and, changing their strategy, they accused them of manipulating the electoral process and decided not to stand for election, which gave Gálvez a unanimous victory without opposition of any kind and in January 1949 he took office. country's presidency.