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Honduras The Upper Class
Although the upper class has enjoyed privileges and
wealth far
greater than the general population, the Honduran elite
has been
both economically and politically the weakest oligarchy in
Central
America. This relative lack of power is partly the result
of the
dominant role of foreign investment in Honduras since the
early
twentieth century. Until about 1900, the Honduran elite
was
involved in rural landholding in the interior highlands
and
valleys. To this day, some hacendados (large hacienda
owners)
continue to live on their rural estates. Until the arrival
of the
banana companies, Hondurans had avoided the
underpopulated,
inhospitable Caribbean lowlands infamous for their heat
and
pestilence. Even after banana plantations were established
in the
Caribbean lowlands at the turn of the century, the
interior
highlands elite largely maintained its status quo.
With the development of cotton and livestock export
businesses
following World War II, the traditional Honduran elite
became more
economically active. In response to the beef markets that
opened
after the war, commercial production of cattle also became
quite
profitable. Between 1950 and 1980, cattle production more
than
tripled in Honduras. This period witnessed a marked
acceleration in
the concentration of land holdings and wealth. These
changes took
place mostly at the expense of lands formerly used for
food
production. As land title disputes and seizures
proliferated,
social tensions in rural Honduras increased drastically.
With wealth its only defining criterion, the upper
class in
Honduras is not particularly cohesive and has often split
into
divergent groups over political and economic issues.
Competing
business associations have served as vehicles for the
disputing
factions. Certain factions of the elite are more
conservative,
whereas others advocate a more liberal and open path to
economic
development. As a result of their differences, members of
the upper
class are willing to participate in an open dialogue and
form
alliances with other sectors and classes. In the 1950s,
business
interests supported striking workers in foreign-owned
corporations.
At times, factions of the elite have supported social
change while
their conservative counterparts have fiercely opposed it.
In the
1970s, the military, labor, and peasant organizations
joined forces
with the more progressive faction of the elite to support
a
military regime with a reform platform. Probably because
all
sectors keep a stake in the system, Honduras has avoided
fundamental challenges to its social structure and
overthrow of its
political system.
The twentieth century has seen the military become a
part of
Honduras's elite. In the mid-1950s, the armed forces in
Honduras
underwent a transformation. With aid and training
primarily from
the United States, the military went from being what was,
in
effect, an array of provincial militias to a modern
national
institution. Because the military in Honduras had never
been an
institution favored by the traditional elite, the military
has
emerged as an independent member of the upper sector of
society.
Data as of December 1993
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