US embassy cable - 05TEGUCIGALPA1614

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TEGUCIGALPA 001614 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR WHA/CEN, WHA/PPC, INL/LP, DRL/PHD, EB, AND INR/B 
STATE PASS USTR 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, ETRD, KCRM, PHUM, PINR, HO 
SUBJECT: MUSICAL CHAIRS: WHO'S IN AND WHO'S OUT IN HONDURAN 
CABINET IN LAST SIX MONTHS OF MADURO ADMINISTRATION 
 
REF: A. TEGUCIGALPA 1376 
 
     B. TEGUCIGALPA 1349 
 
1.  (SBU) Summary:  With Honduran national elections 
approaching on November 27, the Maduro administration has 
been shaken up in recent months by a number of high-level 
cabinet changes.  Turn-around in cabinet positions, whether 
due to scandal or less scintillating circumstances, will 
affect the remaining six months of Maduro's administration 
and may impact the political dynamics of the November 
presidential election.  End Summary. 
 
2.  (SBU) Below are descriptions of the recent Honduran 
cabinet changes and short bio sketches of new ministers. 
While no other cabinet changes are currently foreseen, in the 
lead-up to the November 27 national elections, Post does not 
discount the chance of more changes for political reasons. 
 
3.  (SBU) New Minister of Foreign Affairs Mario Alberto 
Fortin Midence (DPOB: 09 January 1954, Honduras):  FM Fortin 
replaced ex-Foreign Minister Leonidas Rosa Bautista in a very 
high-profile change.  Rosa Bautista (DPOB: 4 February 1947, 
Honduras) became Attorney General (Fiscal General) after 
Ovidio Navarro (DPOB: 17 September 1938, Honduras) was dealt 
a death blow by the recent corruption scandal in the Public 
Ministry (see ref B).  A long-standing close contact of the 
Embassy, Minister Fortin is a career diplomat.  He served 
previously as Honduran ambassador to Germany and as Honduras' 
permanent representative to the United Nations.  Most 
recently, Minister Fortin was Vice-Minister for Foreign 
Affairs after serving for several years as Director General 
for Foreign Policy.  After Fortin's elevation to Minister, 
Juan Alberto Lara Bueso (also a career diplomat; DPOB: 17 
November 1946, Honduras) was promoted to the position of 
Vice-Minister. 
 
4.  (SBU) New Minister of the Presidency Ramon Medina Luna 
(DPOB: 18 November 1948, Honduras): Most recently a 
presidential advisor on strategic affairs and communication 
with the rank of minister (effectively the National Security 
Advisor), Minister Medina also served as Minister of Industry 
and Commerce in a previous administration.  He replaces 
ex-Minister of the Presidency Luis Cosenza (DPOB: 15 July 
1943, Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras), who is now Executive 
Director of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). 
Medina Luna holds a master's degree from the University of 
Chicago, has served in government off and on for 30 years, 
managed the 2001 presidential campaign of current President 
Ricardo Maduro, and is known to have an especially close 
relationship with President Maduro. 
 
5.  (SBU) New Minister of Industry and Commerce Irving 
Guerrero Cubas (DPOB 01 June 1963, Tegucigalpa, Honduras): 
Minister Guerrero succeeded ex-Minister of Industry and 
Commerce Norman Garcia (DPOB: 17 February 1943, San Pedro 
Sula, Honduras).  Guerrero is U.S.-educated, with a 
bachelor's degree from the University of South Carolina and a 
master's of business administration from Wake Forest 
University.  He was formerly Vice Minister of Industry and 
Commerce for Economic Integration and Foreign Commerce. 
Ex-Minister Garcia was tapped by President Maduro to serve as 
a special envoy in Washington, DC, lobbying for U.S. 
congressional passage of CAFTA.  In one of his final acts as 
Minister, Garcia insisted on the resignation of his other 
vice-minister, Salvador Melgar, who would otherwise have been 
his likely successor.  Minister Guerrero has announced his 
intention to continue the work started by the first Maduro 
Administration Minister of Industry and Commerce, Juliette 
Handal (DPOB: 10 August 1952, Yoro, Honduras), including in 
the areas of small business development, alternative fuels, 
and pricing of basic goods. 
 
6.  (SBU) New Minister of Governance and Justice Jose Roberto 
Pacheco Reyes (DPOB 15 April 1939, Valle, Honduras; possibly 
may have been born in El Salvador, along the 
Honduran/Salvadoran border):  Minister Pacheco replaces 
ex-Minister Jorge Ramon Hernandez Alcerro (DPOB: 29 August 
1948, Honduras).  Pacheco is a lawyer by training whose 
career began as a judicial advisor to the National Congress 
and then as a judge in Puerto Cortes.  He has most recently 
been director of Banco Uno, Aval Card (a credit card 
company), and again a judicial advisor to the Congress. 
Pacheco, although from the same Department of Valle as 
Congressman Jose Pacheco Leon (whose brother, congressional 
candidate Angel Pacheco Leon was murdered November 23, 2001), 
claims not to be related to Congressman Pacheco.  Though 
ex-minister Hernandez's resignation was ostensibly triggered 
by the 2004 Electoral Law (the law requires sitting cabinet 
ministers to resign six months before an election in which 
they are running for the National Congress), his last few 
weeks as minister were troubled by allegations of involvement 
in the recent passport scandal.  Hernandez and his vice 
minister were investigated.  The Prosecutor for Organized 
Crime filed a criminal charge against Hernandez for allegedly 
allowing a minor to leave the country without parental 
permission (see ref A and previous).  That charge was 
recently dropped when a court ruled that the prosecutor had 
acted without direct instructions from the attorney general. 
The prosecutor is appealing that decision and the case 
continues. 
Tuebner