US embassy cable - 05TEGUCIGALPA1431

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TEGUCIGALPA 001431 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA, WHA/PPC, WHA/CEN, AND WHA/PD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, HO 
SUBJECT: IT'S MY PARTY AND I'LL RUN IF I WANT TO: SMALL 
PARTY PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES IN HONDURAS 
 
 
1.  SUMMARY:  Some people say he is as crazy as the patients 
he attends to, but psychiatrist and Social Democrat Carlos 
Sosa Coello firmly believes he can win the Honduran 
presidency for his party, the Partido Innovacion y Unidad 
(PINU).  Sosa and 2 other minor party candidates--Juan 
Almendares Bonilla of the Partido Unificacion Democratica 
(UD) and Juan Ramon Martinez of the Partido Democratica 
Cristiano de Honduras (PDCH)--continue to campaign for the 
presidency despite Honduras' entrenched dual party 
presidential politics.  In the last presidential election 
(2001) the two major party candidates--current President 
Ricardo Maduro of the Partido Nacional (PN) and Rafael Pineda 
Ponce of the Partido Liberal (PL)--garnered 96.5% of the 
vote.  Sosa, Almendares, and Martinez represent parties who 
earned 1.5%, 1.1%, and 1% of the vote respectively. END 
SUMMARY 
 
2.  Carlos Sosa Coella (PINU):   Sosa, a Catholic and 
self-described Social Democrat, agrees with his Marxist and 
atheist father that capitalism is "a perversion of what it is 
to be human."  Sosa was one of the first PINU members to 
serve in the National Congress; he was first elected in 1990. 
 He sees in Honduras two countries: one poor, marginalized, 
and struggling to survive, the other conversely corrupt and 
opulent.  His PINU party currently holds only 4 of the 
National Congress' 128 seats, but Sosa speaks proudly of his 
party's opposition activities in the legislatures (often 
conducted in cooperation with the UD).  He criticizes the 
vague campaign promises of his rivals from the traditional 
Liberal and National parties and presents what he describes 
as more concrete, specific proposals for Honduras' future. 
The traditional parties, he claims, offer only "more of the 
same" and continue to win only because the desperate need of 
most Hondurans prevents them from considering the long-term 
future benefits of PINU's political platform.  Sosa has long 
been active in the field of counter-narcotics (from 
1994-1998, he served as Chair of the Congressional narcotics 
commission and Vice President of the National Council Against 
Narcotrafficking), served as Honduran Ambassador to Venezuela 
starting in 1999, and has a reputation for energy, intellect, 
and integrity. 
 
3.  Juan Almendares Bonilla (PUD):  A doctor, ex-rector of 
the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Honduras (UNAH), and 
director of the Center for Prevention, Treatment, and 
Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture, Almendares cites "a 
profound love for the cause of transformation and for the 
fight to change the situation of the poor" as his motivation 
to run for president.  He consistently condemns Honduras' 
internal human rights situation as one of the most violent 
and corrupt countries in Latin America and the world and 
hopes that PUD can pull out a "surprise" victory to start to 
combat those problems.   Almendares is the most left-leaning 
of the three minor party candidates--the only one to offer 
unqualified support for Honduran relations with both Cuba and 
China (see chart below for summary of selected positions). 
 
4.  Juan Ramon Martinez (PDCH):  Martinez, 63, is a founder 
of the PDCH.  Based on past elections, the PDCH can expect to 
garner the fewest votes of any party (only 1% in the 2001 
presidential election).  However, Martinez is part of an 
interesting new trend in Honduran politics--journalists 
seeking elected office.  Martinez and the UD candidate, 
Almendarez, have both been columnists for many years.  21 
journalists ran in the primary elections in February, marking 
a new phenomenon for Honduran politics. 
 
5.  CHART: Comparison of PINU, UD, and PDCH candidate 
positions on selected issues 
 
                  Sosa    Almendares   Martinez 
                 (PINU)      (UD)      (PDCH) 
============================================= ==== 
CAFTA           need 
                more       opposed    in favor 
                info 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
Sending troops  opposed    opposed    opposed 
to Iraq 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
Relations w/    in favor   in favor   in favor 
Cuba 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
Death penalty   opposed    opposed    opposed 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
Reforms to 
decrease        opposed    opposed    in favor 
autonomy of 
UNAH 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
 
 
Palmer