US embassy cable - 03TEGUCIGALPA558

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TEGUCIGALPA 000558 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR WHA/CEN, EB, AND INR/B 
STATE PASS AID FOR LAC/CEN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, EAID, PREL, SOCI, PHUM, PINR, HO 
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR DISCUSSES FUTURE OF AMHON EXECUTIVE 
DIRECTOR WITH HONDURAN MINISTER OF GOVERNMENT AND JUSTICE 
 
 
1. (U) SUMMARY:  Honduran Minister of Government and 
Justice, Dr. Jorge Ramon Hernandez Alcerro, hosted a lunch 
at his home for Ambassador Palmer on February 14.  Hernandez 
requested the meeting to discuss issues of bilateral 
importance but dominating the discussion was the effort 
underway to replace Guadalupe Lopez, Director of the 
Honduran Municipal Association (AMHON).  END SUMMARY. 
 
2. (U) Minister of Government and Justice, Dr. Jorge Ramon 
Hernandez Alcerro, hosted a lunch at his home for Ambassador 
Palmer on February 14.  Hernandez requested the meeting to 
discuss issues of bilateral importance.  Also attending the 
lunch were Vice Minister of Government and Justice, Cesar 
Gonzalez, Congressman Hugo Vasquez, and USAID Director. 
Dominating the discussion was the recent turmoil in the 
Honduran Municipal Association (AMHON) and the effort 
underway to replace its Executive Director, Guadalupe Lopez. 
 
3. (SBU) Over the past month, political pressure has been 
mounting from the Nationalist Party to remove Lopez, a 
former Liberal Party mayor, and replace him with an 
Executive Director that would be more amenable to the 
policies and programs being promoted by the Ministry of 
Government and Justice.  This has entailed active 
solicitation by Maduro administration officials to 
sympathetic AHMON board members to move forward with a 
replacement.  AMHON by-laws do provide for a mechanism to 
remove the Executive Director with a two-thirds majority 
vote of the Board of Directors (16 of the 24 the members). 
However this has never been done before. 
 
4. (U) The current AMHON board is configured as follows:  12 
board members are Nationalist Party (NP) mayors, 11 are 
Liberal Party (LP) mayors, and one is a Christian Democratic 
Party mayor.  The current president of the Board of 
Directors, Oscar Orlando Burgos (NP), Mayor of Yoro, is 
among the active partisan minority advocating the 
Nationalist party line to remove the Executive Director. 
The vice-president, Juan Carlos Elvir (LP), Mayor of Santa 
Rosa de Copan, is leading the opposition within the board, 
arguing for a competitive selection process to replace both 
the Executive and Deputy Director of AMHON. 
 
5. (U) Minister Hernandez noted that it was important for 
the Ambassador to understand the Ministry's version of the 
developments and made the point of reiterating the 
ministry's non-intervention in this or any AMHON issue.  The 
Minister did mention, however, that since last year several 
meetings have taken place with groups of mayors (most likely 
Nationalist Party mayors) who have stated their discontent 
with the Executive Director.  Specific mayoral complaints 
allegedly include fiscal irresponsibility, an accumulation 
of power and influence by the Executive Director, lack of 
transparency with the Board of Directors, and the supposed 
promotion of Mayor Elvir (LP) of Santa Rosa de Copan as the 
next AMHON president.  Congressman Vasquez mentioned that 
members of Congress have also participated in similar 
meetings with mayors.  He emphasized that they too were 
careful in respecting the independence of AMHON and were not 
involved in the particulars of recent decisions. 
 
6. (U) Although Minister Hernandez did not demonstrate an 
overt understanding of the procedures for selecting a new 
executive director, the Ambassador suggested that it would 
be important for the selection process to be an open and 
transparent competition.  The Mission Director noted that 
through USAID-funded technical assistance, 
PriceWaterhouseCoopers had already worked to develop terms 
of reference for the position and had already assisted AMHON 
in the contracting process for other positions.  The 
Ambassador added that it is common to undertake these hiring 
processes with the aide of a professional search firm. 
Minister Hernandez and other GOH representatives 
emphatically agreed that it would be important for this 
contracting process to be openly competed, to adhere to 
transparent procedures and technical criteria, and to 
include the participation of a professional search firm.  In 
relation to this, the Ambassador noted the importance of 
appearances, suggesting that it is not only important for 
one's conduct to be correct, but also to take care in 
appearing to conduct oneself correctly. 
 
7. (SBU) COMMENT: While Lopez has come under attack by 
Nationalist Party members, Post has found him to be a person 
of integrity representing the interests of all 
municipalities in AHMON.  If external political pressure is 
successful, the independence of AHMON will be threatened, 
potentially returning the organization to a de-facto 
extension of the central government, as it was pre-1992. 
The political independence of AHMON has been a goal of 
Post's support of decentralization efforts.  As such, USAID, 
in conjunction with the international donor community, has 
dedicated significant resources in an attempt to enable the 
organization to provide an alternative voice to the federal 
government at the municipal level.  Post also notes that 
Minister Hernandez's importance in the Maduro administration 
appears to be growing, as is his desire to exert more 
control over decentralization efforts.  END COMMENT. 
 
PALMER