Patriotic Alliance of Honduras

There's a new political party in town. It will take the baby steps needed to found a new party this coming Tuesday. The Patriotic Alliance of Honduras (Alianza Patriotica de Honduras), a party founded by ex-military officers to support the presidential candidacy of their candidate, retired general Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, submits their 55,000 signatures (La Prensa says 90,000 but everyone else says 55,000) to the Supreme Election Court (Tribunal Supremo Electoral). Vásquez Velásquez will be familiar to readers of this blog as a significant force behind the 2009 coup.

Participating in the handing over of the party charter and electoral materials will be the retired generals José René Oliva and José Barahona Pérez, and the retired coronels Jordi Montañola, Allan Castillo, Gilberto Rivera y Lima Bueso. Montañola told La Tribuna that one of the goals of the party is to "rescue Honduras from ruins, to put it on a road to progress for all Hondurans without exception." The new party claims the support of all reservists and like minded Hondurans. It did not publish its charter or goals.

Inside Honduras the headlines were informative. La Tribuna said "The party of Romeo Vasquez Velasquez will present 55,000 signatures to the TSE," and El Heraldo said "The Political Alliance of Honduras initiates its road to power;" but Proceso Digital was more tentative, titling it "General who participated in the exit of Zelaya will seek to be president." Outside of Honduras, coverage was more blunt, generally adopting the wording of sources like Univision and Estrategia y Negocios: "Golpista military officer will seek the presidency of Honduras in 2013."

This brings to 3 the number of new political parties registered this year for the 2013 elections.

Putting the "General" in General Election

It is (semi) official.

Romeo Vasquez Velasquez, infamous as the general who commanded the armed forces during the coup d'etat in June 2009 and throughout the de facto regime of Roberto Micheletti when the military brutalized the Honduran people, wants to be the next president of Honduras.

Prensa Latina reports that Vasquez will run at the head of the Alianza Patriótica Hondureña party. To be able to run, his advisers are reportedly telling him to resign this October from his post-military position as manager of Hondutel, a plum post given to him after he stepped down from the military.

The same advisers suggest that if he does run, he risks the re-activation of legal actions against him for the forcible (and illegal) removal from Honduras of José Manuel Zelaya Rosales. They are quoted as saying

"The politicians created the crisis, so it would not be strange if they exculpated themselves and for their political relaunching they would implicate the military".

Despite this danger, Prensa Latina reports that Vasquez will register as the candidate of the Alianza Patriótica Hondureña and start his run for president in October, the month of the Armed Forces. The article describes APH as "a military-civic organization that intends to 'rescue the country from underdevelopment'".

The new report comes shortly on the heels of stories in the Honduran press saying that the Christian Democrat Party was thinking of drafting Vasquez Velasquez as its candidate. These rumors were sparked by a birthday visit with Ramón Velásquez Názar, vice-president of the Christian Democrat Party.

A background in the armed forces has not, until now, been a recommendation for candidates for president under the constitution adopted in Honduras in the 1980s. But then, the coup and its aftermath clearly changed the role of the military in modern Honduras. Ex-army officers running for president probably goes along with the rest of the package.