Porfirio Lobo Sosa

In thisSpanish name,the first or paternalsurnameisLoboand the second or maternal family name isSosa.

Porfirio Lobo Sosa
Lobo Sosa in 2010
54thPresident of Honduras
In office 27 January 2010 – 27 January 2014
Vice President	María Antonieta de Bográn Samuel Armando Reyes Victor Hugo Barnica
Preceded by	Roberto Micheletti
Succeeded by	Juan Orlando Hernández
President of the National Congress
In office 25 January 2002 – 25 January 2006
Preceded by	Rafael Pineda Ponce
Succeeded by	Roberto Micheletti
Deputy of theOlancho Department
In office 25 January 1990 – 25 January 2006
Personal details
Born	(1947-01-22)22 January 1947 Trujillo,Honduras
Political party	National Party
Spouse	Rosa Elena Bonilla
Alma mater	University of Miami(BBA) Patrice Lumumba University(PhD)

Porfirio Lobo Sosa(born 22 January 1947) also known by his nickname,Pepe Lobo,is a former Honduran politician and agricultural landowner who served asPresident of Hondurasfrom 2010 to 2014. A member of the conservativeNational Partyand a former deputy in theNational Congress of Hondurasfrom 1990, he waspresident of the National Congress of Hondurasfrom 2002 to 2006. He came second toManuel Zelayawith 46% of the vote in the2005 general election.After the military ousted Zelaya in acoup d'état,Lobo was elected president in the2009 presidential electionand took office on 27 January 2010.

Early life and education

Lobo was born on 22 January 1947 inTrujilloand grew up on the ranch of La Empalizada nearJuticalpa,Olancho.His parents are Porfirio José Lobo López and Rosa Sosa Hernández de Lobo; both are deceased. His father served as deputy in the National Congress in 1957 and was a political leader in the department ofOlancho.His brother Ramón Rosa Lobo Sosa is a deputy in the National Congress for the department ofColón.

After attending aCatholicschool inJuticalpa,Lobo continued his studies at the San Francisco Institute ofTegucigalpaand then at theUniversity of MiamiinCoral Gables, Floridain the United States. After obtaining hisBachelor of Business Administrationfrom theUniversity of Miami School of Business,Lobo returned to Honduras to work in the family'sagricultural businessand to teachpolitical economyand English at the La Fraternidad Institute inJuticalpafor 11 years. He was granted a doctorate fromPatrice Lumumba UniversityinMoscow.He also obtained ablack beltintaekwondo.

Political career

Lobo's political career started at the age of 19 as a political leader inOlancho.For 31 years, he presided over the national party's youth in Olancho, local committee of Juticalpa and the departmental committee of Olancho.

He was in charge of the Honduran corporation for forestry development, from 1990 to 1994. He was elected to thenational congressin 1990, where he later served as president, from 2002 to 2006.

2005 general election

Main article:2005 Honduran general election

Lobo was theNational Party of Honduras' candidate for 27 November 2005presidential election;Mario Canahuatiwas his running mate. His campaign was based on job security, a tough stance on crime, and being in favour of reintroducing the death penalty.He came in second in the presidential election with 46.17% of the vote against 49.90% from his rivalManuel Zelayaof theLiberal Party of Honduras.He held the position of president of theNational Party of Honduras.

2009 constitutional crisis and general election

Main articles:2009 Honduran constitutional crisisand2009 Honduran general election

In December 2008, he once again became the presidential candidate of thePNHand on 29 November 2009 he was electedPresident of Honduraswith 56% of the vote against 38% for his rivalElvin Santos.

Following his victory, Lobo said his administration will "begin the great national dialogue". He also promised to encourage private investment to generate employment and to increase social benefits in a country where 70% of its 7 million citizens live in poverty.

Presidency (2010–2014)

Sosa with U.S. Vice PresidentJoe Bidenin Tegucigalpa, 6 March 2012

President Lobo dismantledManuel Zelaya's social reforms in favour of a moreliberal economicpolicy: derogation of Decree 18-2008, which gave land to peasants, suspension of the minimum wage, adoption of the Temporary Employment Law (which allows workers to be hired "by the hour", thus preventing their possible unionisation and access to social rights), reform of the status of teachers and partial privatisation of education, and a law on the concession of natural resources, which allows resources such as water to be auctioned off.

Human Rights Watchargued that "at least eight journalists and ten members of theNational Popular Resistance Front(FNRP)—a political group that opposed the 2009 removal from office of the then president and advocated the reinstatement of the ousted president, Manuel Zelaya — have been killed since Lobo assumed power on January 27, 2010 ".Human Rights Watch has also reported attacks on the independence of the judiciary and public prosecutors. TheObama administration,however, praised Lobo for his attempts at reconciliation, which include forming a truth commission to investigate events surrounding the removal from office as well as appointing a human rights adviser and political opponents to his government.His presidency was also marked by violent conflicts between landless peasants and large landowners. In Bajo Aguán, 35 peasants were murdered between January 2010 and July 2011 by militias financed by the landowners.

Honduras became the only country in the world to ban themorning-after pillin 2012.

The project of the American economistPaul Romer,which consists of building "private cities" on parts of the national territory where almost all the regulations would be given to investors and not to the Honduran state, is accepted by the government of Porfirio Lobo. The national constitution is amended to this effect in February 2011. In the event that a subsequent government wishes to revisit this project, a decree states: "The systems instituted in the REDs [special development regions] must be (...) approved by the National Congress with a qualified two-thirds majority", with the understanding that "this constitutional status may only be modified, interpreted or overturned by the same majority, after consultation by referendum of the population living in the RED". The management of theInter-American Development Bank(IDB) was enthusiastic and promised to support it.Following a complaint of "treason to the homeland" to the Supreme Court of Justice by opponents of the project, the project was finally declared unconstitutional and rejected by the Court.

According to the Mexican agency Consulta Mitofsky, Porfirio Lobo's popularity in 2012 was only 14%, which made him the second most unpopular leader in Latin America at the time, after Costa Rican then-PresidentLaura Chinchilla.

Porfirio Lobo's presidency has not brought an end to the country's problems of violence, where thehomicide ratein 2013 remains the highest in the world. According to the UNEconomic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean(ECLAC), Honduras is the country on the continent where poverty and inequality are growing the most.

U.S. drug trafficking case against Fabio Lobo

Lobo Sosa's son, Fabio Lobo (born in 1971), was arrested in Haiti in a U.S.Drug Enforcement Administrationsting operation in 2015 and was sentenced in September 2017 in the federal court for theSouthern District of New Yorkto 24 years in prison for conspiring to importcocaineinto the United States. He pleaded guilty in May 2016.

Corruption allegations

In July 2016, the National Anti-Corruption Council called for an investigation into the alleged misuse of public funds for the purchase of school materials by Rosa Elena de Lobo, wife of Porforio Lobo, and her private secretary. The former first lady is also facing charges of falsifying documents. She was incarcerated in February 2018 for diverting $4 million from the state to her personal account. This is the first time in Honduras that a high-ranking public figure has been placed in prison for corruption. Half a dozen properties of the presidential couple could be seized by judicial authorities.

On 2 October 2019, the trial in the United States of Juan Antonio Tony Hernández, former deputy and brother of Honduran PresidentJuan Orlando Hernández,arrested at Miami airport in November 2018, begins. Juan Antonio is accused of drug trafficking — specifically of exporting several tons of cocaine to the US — possession of weapons, and of being linked to the murders of two rival drug traffickers in 2011 and 2013; the scandal becomes political as President Juan Orlando Hernández and his predecessor ex-President Porfirio Lobo are suspected of having used drug money to finance their 2009 and 2013 election campaigns.

His name appeared in 2021 in thePandora Papers.He, his wife, and their son are mentioned as owners of companies registered in tax havens. Some of them were created while he was president of Honduras.

See also

• Honduran Social Security Institute
• Honduras portal

External links

• Biography by CIDOB Foundation(in Spanish)