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Honduras Smaller Political Parties and Movements
Since Honduras's return to civilian democratic rule in
the
1980s, two small centrist political parties, the Pinu and
the PDCH,
have participated in regular national presidential and
legislative
elections. Neither party, however, has challenged the
political
domination of the two traditional parties. Both parties
have
received most of their support from urban centers of
Tegucigalpa
and San Pedro Sula, Choluteca, and La Ceiba. In the
presidential
elections of 1981, 1985, and 1989, Pinu received 2.5
percent, 1.4
percent, and 1.8 percent, respectively, and the PDCH
received 1.6
percent, 1.9 percent, and 1.4 percent. Both parties have
presented
presidential candidates for the 1993 national elections.
Pinu was first organized in 1970 by businessman Miguel
Andonie
Fernández as an effort to reform and reinvigorate the
nation's
political life. This urban-based group, which draws
support from
middle-class professionals, first attempted to gain legal
recognition (personería jurídica) in 1970, but the
PNH
blocked Pinu's attempts until the 1980 Constituent
Assembly
elections. Pinu won three seats in those elections,
important
because only two votes separated the two traditional
parties in the
National Congress. Pinu also held a cabinet position in
the
provisional government headed by General Policarpo Paz
García
(1980-82) in 1980. In the 1981 elections, Pinu acquired
three
legislative seats, whereas in the 1985 and 1989 elections
it won
only two seats. Pinu became affiliated with the Social
Democratic
International in 1988. In 1985 and 1989, Enrique Aguilar
Cerrato
was the Pinu presidential candidate, and in 1993
businessperson
Olban Valladares was the party's candidate.
The origins of the Honduras Christian Democratic Party
(Partido
Demócrata de Honduras--PDCH) date back to the 1960s, when,
in the
wake of Vatican Council II, the Roman Catholic Church
became
involved in the development of community organizations,
including
unions, and student and peasant groups. In 1968 lay
persons
associated with the Roman Catholic Church founded the
Christian
Democratic Movement of Honduras (Movimiento Demócrata
Cristiano de
Honduras--MDCH), which in 1975 became the PDCH. According
to Mark
Rosenberg, the party became more progressive than the
Roman
Catholic Church and maintained solid ties with peasant
organizations. Although the party applied for legal
recognition,
the PNH blocked the process, and the party did not receive
recognition until late 1980, too late to be part of the
Constituent
Assembly drafting a new constitution, but just in time to
compete
in the 1981 national elections. In those elections, the
PDCH earned
just one seat in the National Congress. In the 1985
elections, the
party won two seats in the National Congress, but in 1989
it did
not win any representation. Efraín Díaz Arrivillaga, who
reportedly
gave the party the reputation for being the "conscience"
of the
Honduran National Congress in the 1980s, was the PDCH's
1989
presidential candidate; the 1993 candidate was
businessperson
Marcos Orlando Iriarte Arita.
In the early 1980s, amidst the
Sandinista (see Glossary)
revolution in Nicaragua and the civil conflict in El
Salvador,
several radical leftist guerrilla groups that advocated
some type
of armed action against the Honduran government were
formed in
Honduras. The Honduran Revolutionary Party of Central
American
Workers (Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores
Centroaméricanos de Honduras--PRTCH) was formed in 1976 as
part of
a regional party. The Morazanist Front for the Liberation
of
Honduras (Frente Morazanista para la Liberación de
Honduras--FMLH),
first active in 1980, was named for Honduran national hero
Francisco Morazán, who had tried to keep the Central
American
states unified in the early nineteenth century. The
Lorenzo Zelaya
Popular Revolutionary Forces (Fuerzas Populares
Revolucionarias
Lorenzo Zelaya--FPR-LZ), founded in 1980 and named for a
communist
peasant leader who was murdered in 1965, traced its roots
to a pro-
Chinese faction of the PCH. The Cinchoneros Popular
Liberation
Movement (Movimiento Popular de Liberación
Cinchoneros--MPLC),
founded in 1981, was named for a nineteenth century
peasant leader.
With the exception of the MPLC which had about 300
members, the
groups had memberships of fewer than 100 participants
each.
In 1982 these new radical groups joined the Communist
Party of
Honduras (Partido Comunista de Honduras--PCH), under the
loose
umbrella of the National Unified Directorate-Movement of
Revolutionary Unity (Directorio Nacional
Unificado-Movimiento de
Unidad Revolucionario--DNU-MUR). The PCH, which was formed
in 1927,
had been the country's major leftist opposition group
through the
1970s, but had rarely resorted to violence before its
affiliation
with the DNU-MUR. An offshoot of the PCH that was not part
of the
DNU-MUR was the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of
Honduras
(Partido Comunista Marxista-Leninista de Honduras--PCMLH),
formed
in 1967 by PCH dissidents.
Guerrilla groups in Honduras were responsible for
numerous
terrorist incidents throughout the 1980s. These included a
successful plane hijacking in exchange for the freeing of
political
prisoners, the holding of hostages, bombings, and attacks
against
United States military personnel and advisers. Political
assassinations included the January 1989 murder of General
Gustavo
lvarez Martinez by the members of the MPLC. Nevertheless,
compared
with neighboring El Salvador and Nicaragua, these groups
were small
and did not attract much popular support. According to
analysts,
one fundamental reason is the conservative nature of
Honduran
society, which is not conducive to a revolutionary
uprising.
Moreover, according to political scientist Donald Schulz,
Honduran
society is characterized by a network of interlocking
interest
groups and political organizations that have reconciled
conflicts
that could have turned violent. Schulz also observes that
important
escape valves like agrarian reform, a strong union
movement, an
entrenched two-party system, and the restoration of
elected
democracy in the 1980s also enabled Honduras to escape the
revolution of its neighbors.
Some analysts maintain that another important factor
explaining
why revolutionary groups did not gain much ground in
Honduras was
the government's swift use of repression. In the early
1980s, when
General was military chief, the military waged a campaign
against leftist groups that included political
assassinations,
disappearances, and illegal detentions. Those leftist
political
leaders who escaped the military's campaign did so by
going into
exile. In the summer of 1983, the military struck against
the
PRTCH, which reportedly was moving a contingent of almost
100
guerrillas into the Honduran province of Olancho from
Nicaragua.
The Honduran military claimed that most of the rebels were
killed
in combat or died from exhaustion while hiding out from
the
military, but human rights organizations maintain that
most of the
rebels, including a United States-born Jesuit priest,
James Carney,
were detained and executed.
With the end of the Contra war in Nicaragua in 1990 and
a peace
accord in El Salvador in 1991, Honduran guerrilla groups
lost
important sources of support. By 1992 most guerrilla
groups,
including the six groups of the DNU-MUR, had largely
ceased
operating, and many political exiles had returned to the
country in
order to take advantage of an amnesty offered by the
Callejas
government. Some former exiles worked to establish new
political
parties. For example, the PCMLH formed the Party for the
Transformation of Honduras (Partido para la Transformación
de
Honduras--PTH), and the FMLH established the Morazanist
Liberation
Party (Partido Morazanista de Liberación--PML). Other
leftist
groups operating openly in the early 1990s included the
Honduran
Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario
Hondureño--PRH), the
Workers' Party (Partido de los Trabajadores--PT), the
Patriotic
Renovation Party (Partido de Renovación Patriótica--PRP),
and the
People's Democratic Movement (Movimiento Democrático del
Pueblo--
MDP).
These six parties, which reportedly planned to run
under a
united front in 1998 elections, presented a plan to
President
Callejas in 1992 to reform the country's electoral law in
order to
facilitate the participation of smaller parties in
national
elections; the plan included a reduction of signatures
required for
a party to be legally registered. In order to be legally
registered, a political party must complete a complex
process that
can be made even more complex by the politicization of the
electoral tribunal. A party seeking legal recognition,
according to
the nation's Electoral and Political Organizations Law,
must have
local organizations in at least half of the nation's
departments
and municipalities, and must present valid nominations of
at least
20,000 registered voters affiliated with the party asking
to be
registered.
Despite the incorporation of most leftist leaders and
groups
into the political system, there were still sporadic
terrorist
actions in Honduras in the early 1990s instigated by
remnants or
factions of the armed guerrilla groups of the 1980s. For
example,
although four top leaders of the Cinchoneros renounced
armed
struggle in May 1991, a faction of the group still wanted
to fight
and was responsible for the burning of an electric company
building
in 1992. Moreover, a small fringe group known as the
Morazanist
Patriotic Front, which appeared to be unrelated to the
FMLH, vowed
to continue armed struggle and claimed responsibility for
terrorist
attacks and several political killings in the early 1990s.
At various times during the 1980s, there were also
reports of
the presence of right-wing extremist groups, which were
associated
with the Honduran military. Most observers judged that the
military
and police were largely responsible for right-wing
extremism
throughout the 1980s. In the early 1980s, when the
military was
under the command of General Álvarez, reportedly more
than 140
disappearances of government opponents were carried out,
largely by
a secret army unit, or death squad apparatus, known as
Battalion 3-
16. For the balance of the 1980s, the military and police
were
reportedly involved in extrajudicial killings of opponents
and
torture, but not at the high level of the first part of
the decade.
In 1988 and 1989, a paramilitary group known as the
Alliance for
Anticommunist Action (Alianza de Acción
Anticomunista--AAA), which
human rights organizations contend was tied to the
military, was
involved in a campaign to intimidate leftist leaders and
human
rights activists. The AAA took credit for several
activities aimed
at intimidating the left and human rights groups,
including making
death threats, circulating threatening posters with the
AAA logo,
and defacing property.
Data as of December 1993
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