José Azcona Hoyo was born on January 26 1927 in La Ceiba in Honduras (though this was disputed by opponents claiming he was born in Spain). He was President of Honduras from January 27 1986 to January 27 1990 for the Liberal Party of Honduras (PLH).

Career

He spent the years from 1935 to 1949 living in Cantabria, Spain with his maternal grandparents. He then illegally crossed the frontier into Portugal in order to escape being conscripted into the Spanish army. He then went to study in the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) before graduating in civil engineering from the University of Monterrey in Mexico. He joined the PLH, and in 1962 became Director of the Liberal Action Front faction within the party, and was standing for the National Congress in October 1963 when the election was cancelled by Colonel Oswaldo López Arellano who took the presidency in a coup. In 1973 he became head of the Rodista Liberal Movement faction within the PLH, named after Modesto Rodas Alvarado and demanding an end to the military dictatorship of Arrellano. The movement wanted a return to democracy, but offered a conservatism in terms of policy that would not offend the military. In 1980 the military allowed elections to the Congress, in which he won a seat and the (PLH), under the leadership of Roberto Suazo Córdova, won a majority in Congress. In 1982 Suazo took power and Azcona was made Minister of Communications, Public Works and Transport. Right from the beginning the possibility of his being the PLH candidate in the ensuing 1985 elections led Suarez to reject him as a possible successor. This led Azcona to resign from Suarez' cabinet in August 1983.

President

As the PLH were unable to decide on a single candidate so they ended up fielding 4 candidates, including Azcona, against the one National Party of Honduras (PNH) candidate Rafael Leonardo Callejas Romero. Because between them the PLH candidates gained 51.5% of the vote, and as Azcona gained the highest of the 4, he gained the presidency with only 27.5% of the vote, even though Callejas gained 42.6% of the vote.

External link

Biography in Spanish