US embassy cable - 05TEGUCIGALPA2355

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TEGUCIGALPA 002355 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR WHA, WHA/PPC, WHA/USOAS, AND WHA/CEN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, KDEM, ECON, KCRM, PINR, HO 
SUBJECT: HONDURAN ELECTIONS: SAN PEDRO SULA MAYORAL RACE A 
TOSSUP BETWEEN NEWCOMER AND VETERAN POLITICIAN 
 
REF: TEGUCIGALPA 2346 AND PREVIOUS 
 
1. (SBU) Summary:  In recent meetings with the two leading 
mayoral candidates in San Pedro Sula, the second largest city 
and economic center of Honduras, the candidates gave PolOff 
an overview of their background, political goals, and 
perspective on the upcoming November 27 election.  The race 
is a tossup in the polls between a National Party political 
newcomer and a Liberal Party veteran politician, with a large 
undecided vote.  The winner will be vaulted to national 
prominence.  End Summary. 
 
National Party: Arturo "Tuky" Bendana Pinel 
------------------------------------------- 
 
2. (U) Arturo "Tuky" Bendana Pinel is running for mayor in 
San Pedro Sula (SPS) on Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo's National Party 
ticket.  He defeated the relatively unpopular incumbent 
mayor, Oscar Eduardo Kilgore Lopez, in the February 
primaries, in a surprisingly easy upset.  Bendana, born 
September 8, 1953 in SPS, is a doctor (gynecologist).  He 
comes from a family of doctors that founded Hospital Bendana. 
 Bendana is married and has three kids.  During the four 
years that Bendana was director of Hospital Mario Catarino 
Rivas (the largest hospital in SPS), he claims there were 
never any strikes, which is unusual given the high rate of 
labor protests by doctors and other medical personnel. 
Bendana has also been heavily involved in professional sport 
as the president of Club Marathon (a successful Honduran 
soccer team). 
 
3. (SBU) This is Bendana's first time running for any 
political position.  He stated that his main reason for 
running for mayor was because he was tired of injustices to 
the citizenry of SPS and frustrated with indifference in many 
sectors of society on many levels.  His basic platform is 
three-fold: security, employment, and cleanliness, Bendana's 
slogan is "Manos Limpias, Manos Seguros" (Clean Hands, Safe 
Hands), tying directly into his professional medical 
background for which he is well known for in SPS, and Lobo's 
Work and Security platform.  He is a supporter of CAFTA. 
 
4. (SBU) Bendana strongly supports Lobo's stand on crime, 
especially since he feels that outside investment needs to 
feel sure and safe.  He thinks that the crime rates are so 
high in SPS because of the lack of employment.  He feels that 
employment in the SPS area can only get better when there is 
better security and a stronger alliance between the municipal 
and national governments. 
 
5. (SBU) Bendana would like to push for better security by 
having better-equipped police teams and posts in vulnerable 
sectors of SPS.  He insinuated that private businesses and 
the Chamber of Commerce have money for police assistance but 
use it improperly.  Therefore, he wants to create one fund 
for police and a separate fund for firefighters (the latter 
of which are dependent on donations) that would provide 
needed training, equipment, etc. 
 
6. (SBU) Bendana would also like to promote eco-tourism in 
SPS.  He envisions the Merendon Mountains outside SPS with 
the potential of the La Tigra park outside Tegucigalpa.  He 
admits that the fear of crime prompts people to stay in SPS 
only in passing and then travel to the Caribbean coast. 
Additionally, Bendana said he wants more women to be involved 
in all sorts of sports, and said he would like to see more 
emphasis given to culture, arts, and music as well. 
 
7. (SBU) Bendana's own assessment of the presidential 
elections was that they are very close but that ultimately 
Lobo will win because his platform is stronger on security. 
As to his mayoral opponent, Bendana feels that he has a 
"leg-up" on Padilla since Padilla has long been involved in 
politics but in Bendana's view has never changed anything for 
the better. 
 
8. (SBU) Comment: Bendana appeared to be sincere, 
intelligent, articulate, and seems to connect with the 
people, but his idealism may be difficult to implement given 
the challenges of Honduran politics.  End Comment. 
 
Liberal Party: Rodolfo Augusto "Fico" Padilla Sunseri 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
9. (U) Rodolfo Augusto "Fico" Padilla Sunseri is running for 
mayor in SPS on Manuel "Mel" Zelaya's Liberal Party ticket. 
Padilla is an American citizen born February 11, 1960 in 
Massachusetts who attended preparatory school in Boston.  He 
has an undergraduate degree from the National Autonomous 
University of Honduras (UNAH) in social and legal sciences. 
He comes from a family based in agriculture.  Padilla is a 
SPS city councilman (first elected in 1997) and lost the 2001 
mayoral race to Kilgore.  He is married with at two children 
from his current marriage and another child from a previous 
marriage. 
10. (SBU) Padilla's believes that the National Party is 
meddling too much in small business (with fees, rules, 
regulations, etc).  He wants to leave the business sector 
alone and deal with the problems of the neighborhoods and 
communities, primarily in infrastructure which he thinks is 
the key element to a better neighborhood.  Padilla said he 
feels that people get elected and then back off from their 
duties; he wants to stay connected to voters to prevent that 
from happening.  On Padilla's list of "to do's" is organizing 
more sports competitions and helping out the arts. 
 
11. (SBU) On the topic of transparency, Padilla said he wants 
to be honest and to combat corruption.  He believes there are 
two elements needed to combat corruption: (1) a notables' 
commission, and (2) a law for municipalities.  He feels that 
in order to successfully combat corruption, Honduras needs to 
simplify the bureaucracy and to analyze corruption.  Padilla 
considers that development is affected by too many middlemen 
and that there is a "corruption line". 
 
12. (SBU) On the subject of citizen participation, a 
prominent campaign theme of Zelaya, Padilla said he wants 
people to take more action in government.  He wants 
decentralization at the municipal level as well.  Padilla 
wants to work with various civil society organizations and 
draft a development plan in three sectors: health, security, 
and community.  He recognizes that there is a lack of 
participation by the working class and by youth. 
 
13. (SBU) Padilla blames the problems of SPS on the 
politically powerful closing doors, the media being difficult 
to deal with, and expensive government undertakings.  He, 
therefore, wants to revitalize SPS by improving public 
services, simplifying municipal administration, and helping 
smaller businesses (mostly via training).  He is worried 
about too many GOH ministers involved in the political 
parties and their positions.  He made it a point to mention 
his and the Liberal Party's dislike of the involvement of 
Minister of Defense Federico Breve and Minister of Public 
Security Oscar Alvarez in National Party politics. 
 
14. (SBU) When asked about crime, Padilla says that Honduras 
cannot develop without decreasing the crime rate.  He feels 
crime is a difficult subject to tackle and believes that it 
would require an integrated program.  Padilla believes that 
municipal police are needed in addition to national police. 
 
15. (SBU) He stated that he supports CAFTA and wants to 
create a micro-business to deal with CAFTA and help existing 
micro-businesses. 
 
16. (SBU) Comment:  Padilla answered many questions with 
general positions, and is clearly more a politician than 
Bendana.  He brought to the meeting two Liberal Party 
candidates for city council Jacobo Jose Regalado Weizemblut 
and Juan Miguel Lopez Erazo, both of whom he defeated in the 
February primary.  He delegated many questions for his 
colleagues to answer.  End Comment. 
Ford