A general election (Spanish: Elecciones generales de Honduras de 1954) was held in Honduras on 10 October 1954. The elections took place, with relative honesty.[1]
Spanish or Castilian is a Romance language that originated in the Castile region of Spain and today has hundreds of millions of native speakers in the Americas and Spain. It is a global language and the world's second-most spoken native language, after Mandarin Chinese.
Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. In the past, it was sometimes referred to as "Spanish Honduras" to differentiate it from British Honduras, which later became modern-day Belize. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, and to the north by the Gulf of Honduras, a large inlet of the Caribbean Sea.
The split among the Nationalists enabled the Liberals to win a plurality (48 percent) in the national elections, but without an absolute majority the election was thrown into the National Congress, where the distribution of seats favored the Nationalists and the MNR.[2]
The National Party of Honduras is a political party in Honduras founded on February 27, 1902, by Manuel Bonilla Chirinos. Historically it has been one of the two most influential parties in the country. The party's platform is based on Christian humanist doctrine, and its five main principles are common wealth, dignity of the human person, equality, solidarity and subsidiarity.
The Liberal Party of Honduras is a centre-right liberal political party in Honduras that was founded in 1891. The party is a member of the Liberal International. The PLH is identified with the color red and white, as the flag Francisco Morazan used in most of his military campaigns during time of the Central American Federal Republic.
José Ramón Adolfo Villeda Morales served as President of Honduras from 1957 to 1963.
In November the election was thrown into Congress. “Unfortunately, two-thirds of the deputies was necessary to constitute a quorum and when the National and Reformist deputies boycotted the proceedings (in a ploy designed by US Ambassador Whitting Willauer), a stalemate ensued”.[4]
In the midst of this crisis, President Juan Manuel Gálvez, stricken by illness, turned over the power of the presidency to his vice-president.[1]
Juan Manuel Gálvez Durón was President of Honduras from 1 January 1949 until 5 December 1954. His election, for the National Party of Honduras (PNH), ended the 16-year dictatorship of Tiburcio Carías Andino.
On 16 November 1954 Vice President Julio Lozano Díaz assumed the presidency during a constitutional crisis occasioned by an anarchic election. His ostensible purpose was to save the country from descending into chaos. Once in power, however, he decided to stay there.[5]
Julio Lozano Díaz, was first Vice President of Honduras (1949–1954) and then President of Honduras, from 5 December 1954 until 21 October 1956.
Owing to the failure of Congress to agree on a winner, the country seemed about to plunge into a civil war, which no one wanted. Thus there was almost relief when, on 6 December, Lozano moved decisively, declaring himself dictator. It was the same old story of someone assuming strong-man rule in order to avoid the imaginary ‘chaos’ that would result from democratic rule. Soon Lozano even uncovered the obligatory ‘communist plot,’ allegedly backed by Guatemalan ex-president Juan José Arévalo, which allowed him to tighten the screws even more. Villeda and other Liberal leaders were exiled from the country.[1]
President Lozano, asserting his independence, dissolved congress and appointed a State Advisory Council (59-member) with representatives from the Liberal, National, and MNR Parties. It was to write a new constitution, labor code, social security law, and act merely in an advisory capacity to the president.[6]
Authoritarian General Tiburcio Carias Andino controlled Honduras during the Great Depression, until 1948. In 1955—after two authoritarian administrations and a general strike initiated by banana workers—young military reformists staged a coup that installed a provisional junta and paved the way for constituent assembly elections in 1957. This assembly appointed Ramón Villeda Morales as President and transformed itself into a national legislature with a 6-year term.
The Revolutionary Nationalist Movement was a Honduran political party. It was formed when moderate members of the National Party of Honduras split from the party after Tiburcio Carías Andino secured the PNH nomination for the 1954 Honduras presidential election. The MNR nominee for president that year was former vice president Abraham Williams Calderón; he received approximately 53,000 of 260,000 votes.
A general election was held in Honduras on 27 November 1993. Voters went to the polls to elect a new President of the Republic and a new Congress.
A legislative election was held in Honduras on 20 April 1980. The people elected 71 deputies to the Constituent Assembly.
A general election was held in Honduras on March 28, 1971. Voters went to the polls to elect a new President of the Republic and a new Congress.
A legislative election was held in Honduras on 16 February 1965. The people elected 64 deputies to the Constituent Assembly.
Direct popular general elections were scheduled in Honduras for 13 October 1963.
A legislative election was held in Honduras on 22 September 1957. The people elected 58 deputies to the Constituent Assembly.
A presidential election was held in Honduras on 16 November 1957.
Although Ramón Villeda Morales had expressed a preference for presidential elections, the November meetings of the Constituent Assembly felt otherwise, and Villeda was not reluctant to accept their mandate as chief executive. On 16, after nine hours of rancorous discussion, he was named to begin a six-year term on 1 January 1958. The final vote was thirty-seven to twenty.
To offset accusations by the opposition that Villeda’s election to the presidency by a simple majority of the assembly was totally ‘undemocratic,’ the Liberal party agreed to a form of coalition government whereby cabinet portfolios were distributed on a 6:2:1 ratio among the Liberal, National, and MNR parties. Even so, after Villeda’s election on 16 November 1957, the National and MNR parties staged protest demonstrations in the streets of Tegucigalpa, and it was not until late that night, when the military junta confirmed the election, that the possibility of armed conflict disappeared.
A legislative election was held in Honduras on 7 October 1956. The people elected 58 deputies to the Constituent Assembly.
A general election was held in Honduras on 10 October 1948. Voters went to the polls to elect a new President of the Republic and a new Congress.
A general election was held in Honduras on 28 October 1932. Voters went to the polls to elect a new President of the Republic and a new Congress.
A legislative election was held in Honduras on 28 January 1936. The people elected 59 deputies to the Constituent Assembly.
A presidential election was held in Honduras on 28 March 1936.
A legislative election was held in Honduras in October 1930.
A general election was held in Honduras on 28 October 1928. Voters went to the polls to elect a new President of the Republic and a new Congress.
A general election was held in Honduras on 28–30 December 1924. Voters went to the polls to elect a new President of the Republic and a new Congress.
General elections were held in Honduras between 27 and 29 October 1923. Tiburcio Carías Andino won the presidential election with 47.1% of the vote. However, as no candidate had received an absolute majority in the public vote, Congress would vote on the candidates. However, Congress did not meet again until 1 January the following year. In December President Rafael López Gutiérrez declared a state of siege, suspended the constitution, and announced that he would remain in office in order to keep the peace. Although Congress was dominated by the two liberal parties, they did not want Carías, but also could not agree on a common candidate.
The 1963 Honduran coup d'état was a military takeover of the Honduran government on 3 October 1963, ten days before a scheduled election. Oswaldo López Arellano replaced Ramón Villeda Morales as the President of the country and initiated two decades of military rule.
During the first half of the 20th century the economy of Honduras was dominated by American companies such as the United Fruit Company, the Standard Fruit Company and the Cuyamel Fruit Company, which established enormous banana plantations along the north coast. These companies quickly made bananas the primary export of the country in return for large land grants from conservative politicians. Foreign capital, life in the banana plantations, and conservatives determined the politics of Honduras from the mid-20th century to 1988.
References
1 2 3 Anderson, Thomas P. The war of the dispossessed: Honduras and El Salvador, 1969. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 1981. Pp. 59.
↑ Morris, James A. 1984. Honduras: caudillo politics and military rulers. Boulder: Westview Press. Pp. 11.
1 2 Parker, Franklin D. The Central American republics. Westport: Greenwood Press. Reprint of 1964 original. 1981. Pp. 190.
↑ Bowman, Kirk. “The public battles over militarisation and democracy in Honduras, 1954-1963.” Journal of Latin American studies 33, 3:539-560 (August 2001). Pp. 551.
↑ Schulz, Donald E. and Deborah Sundloff Schulz. The United States, Honduras, and the crisis in Central America. Boulder: Westview Press. 1994. Pp. 25.
↑ Dodd, Thomas J. 2005. Tiburcio Carías: portrait of a Honduran political leader. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. Pp. 229.
↑ Elections in the Americas: a data handbook / ed. by Dieter Nohlen, Vol. 1. [Oxford] [u.a.]: Oxford Univ. Press, 2005. Pp.415.
Bibliography
Anderson, Thomas P. The war of the dispossessed: Honduras and El Salvador, 1969. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 1981.
Bardales B., Rafael. Historia del Partido Nacional de Honduras. Tegucigalpa: Servicopiax Editores. 1980.
Becerra, Longino. Evolución histórica de Honduras. Tegucigalpa: Baktun Editorial. 1983.
Bowdler, George A. And Patrick Cotter. Voter participation in Central America, 1954-1981. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, Inc. 1982.
Dodd, Thomas J. Tiburcio Carías: portrait of a Honduran political leader. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. 2005.
Elections in the Americas A Data Handbook Volume 1. North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. Edited by Dieter Nohlen. 2005.
Euraque, Darío A. Reinterpreting the banana republic: region and state in Honduras, 1870-1972. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. 1996.
Fernández, Arturo. Partidos políticos y elecciones en Honduras 1980. Tegucigalpa: Editorial Guaymuras. Second edition. 1983.
Haggerty, Richard and Richard Millet. 1995. “Historical setting.” Merrill, Tim L., ed. 1995. Honduras: a country study. Washington, D.C.: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress.
MacCameron, Robert. Bananas, labor and politics in Honduras: 1954-1963. Syracuse: Syracuse University. Martz, John D. Central America, the crisis and the challenge. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 1959. 1983.
Martz, John D. Central America, the crisis and the challenge. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 1959.
Morris, James A. Honduras: caudillo politics and military rulers. Boulder: Westview Press. 1984.
Parker, Franklin D. The Central American republics. Westport: Greenwood Press. Reprint of 1964 original. 1981.
Political handbook of the world 1954. New York, 1955.
Posas, Mario and Rafael del Cid. La construcción del sector público y del estado nacional en Honduras (1876-1979). San José: EDUCA. Second edition. 1983.
Villars, Rina. “La conquista del voto: mociones legislativas (1949-1953) y percepción social sobre los derechos de la mujer.” Estudios de la mujer: una antología. 2004. Tegucigalpa: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras.
Weaver, Frederick Stirton. Inside the volcano: the history and political economy of Central America. Boulder: Westview Press. 1994.
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