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Honduras Business Organizations
According to Mark Rosenberg, the private sector in
Honduras has
historically been one of the weakest in Central America
because of
the economy's domination by foreign-owned banana
companies. The
private sector, however, got a boost in the 1960s with the
creation
of the Central American Common Market (CACM--see Appendix B). In
1967 the Honduran Private Enterprise Council (Consejo
Hondureño de
la Empresa Privada--Cohep) was established to serve as an
umbrella
organization for most private-sector business
organizations.
In the early 1980s, a short-lived business
organization, the
Association for the Progress of Honduras (Asociación para
el
Progreso de Honduras--Aproh), was formed during the
presidency of
Suazo Córdova; it was headed by armed forces commander
General
lvarez. Aproh, which was made up of conservative business
leaders,
had an anticommunist bent, and appeared to be a means for
General
lvarez to establish a power base outside the military. It
received
a US$50,000 contribution from a front group for the
Unification
Church, led by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, which had
begun to
proselytize in Honduras. The existence of Aproh appeared
to be
directly tied to the fate of General Álvarez, and as a
result, when
he was ousted in 1984, Aproh lost its source of support
and fell
into disarray. Moreover, the Roman Catholic Church in
Honduras
denounced the dangers posed by the Unification Church
(whose
members were referred to as Moonies), a measure that was a
further
setback to the fate of Aproh. In the 1993 presidential
elections,
Aproh received media attention because PNH presidential
candidate
Osvaldo Ramos Soto had been a prominent member of Aproh,
coordinating its Committee for the Defense and Support of
Democratic Institutions. Human rights groups in Honduras
claimed
that Aproh was associated with the political killings and
disappearances of leftist activists during the early
1980s.
In the early 1990s, Cohep was the most important
businesssector interest group, representing about thirty
private-sector
organizations. Essentially an organization of the business
elite
that tries to influence government policy, the group has
often been
used as a business sounding board when the government is
considering new policy initiatives. Within Cohep, several
organizations stand out as the most powerful; they often
issue
their own statements or positions on the government's
economic
policy. Among these, the Cortés Chamber of Commerce and
Industry
(Cámara de Comercio e Industrias de Cortés--CCIC), which
represents
the private sector of San Pedro Sula, was originally
formed in
1931, but was restructured in 1951 and since then has
served as a
strong development proponent and vocal advocate for the
northern
coastal region of the country. Another body, the National
Association of Industrialists (Asociación Nacional de
Industriales-
-ANDI), was a vocal critic of the Callejas
administration's
liberalization program designed to open the Honduran
market to
outside competition. Another group, the Tegucigalpa
Chamber of
Commerce and Industry (Cámara de Comercio de Industrias de
Tegucigalpa--CCIT), supported the government's trade
liberalization
efforts.
Overlapping with Cohep membership is the National
Federation of
Agriculturists and Stockraisers of Honduras (Federación
Nacional de
Agricultores y Ganaderos de Honduras--Fenagh). Founded in
the
1960s, it has been an active opponent of land reform, and
in 1975
was responsible for the killing of several people,
including two
priests, in a peasant training center in Olancho
department. Fenagh
strongly supported a new agricultural modernization law
approved by
the Honduran National Congress in 1992 that was opposed by
most
peasant organizations. Another organization that overlaps
with
Cohep's membership is the Honduran Federation of Chambers
of
Commerce and Industry (Federación de Cámaras de Comercio e
Industrias de Honduras), founded in 1988, which functions
largely
as a service organization for its members throughout the
country.
The private sector in Honduras is divided by a variety
of
rivalries. These rivalries include the traditional
competition
between Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula and the animosity
between
turco (Arab immigrants who arrived early in this
century
carrying Ottoman Empire--Turkish--travel documents)
entrepreneurs
and native-born Honduran entrepreneurs. Divisions were
also
apparent in the early 1990s, in conjunction with the trade
liberalization efforts initiated by the Callejas
government. Those
business sectors able to compete with imported goods and
services
supported liberalization measures, whereas those producers
more
dependent on government protection or subsidies opposed
the trade
liberalization program.
Data as of December 1993
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