Matías Funes Valladares (24 March 1952 – 10 February 2015) was a Honduran academic, writer and politician. He taught philosophy at the

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras The National Autonomous University of Honduras () is the national public university of Honduras. Founded in 1847, it has over 140 programs from the Bachelor's level to the Doctorate, and is the largest and highest ranked university in Honduras. ...

for 34 years. He was a founder of the

Democratic Unification Party The Democratic Unification Party ( es, Partido Unificación Democrática; PUD) is a centre-left political party in Honduras. PUD was founded on 29 September 1992 by the merger of four leftist clandestine or semiclandestine political parties, in th ...

for which he was member of the

National Congress of Honduras The National Congress ( es, Congreso Nacional) is the legislative branch of the government of Honduras. Organization The Honduran Congress is a unicameral legislature. The nominal President of the National Congress of Honduras is currentl ...

between 1998 and 2002. He was also presidential candidate for the party in the

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

and

2001 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2001. Africa * 2001 Beninese presidential election * 2001 Cape Verdean parliamentary election * 2001 Cape Verdean presidential election * 2001 Chadian presidential election * 2001 Gabonese legislat ...

Early life

Funes was born on 24 March 1952 in the Honduran capital

Tegucigalpa Tegucigalpa (, , ), formally Tegucigalpa, Municipality of the Central District ( es, Tegucigalpa, Municipio del Distrito Central or ''Tegucigalpa, M.D.C.''), and colloquially referred to as ''Tegus'' or ''Teguz'', is the capital and largest city ...

, his father, was a writer also named Matías Funes. Funes studied Social and Judicial Sciences and later obtained a Master in Economy and Development Planning. He later studied Central American integration. During his time in university he was member of the university council. When he was 21 he led the newspaper Vanguardia Revolucionaria.

Political career

He was a founder and member of the

and served for that party in the

between 1998 and 2002. He was candidate for the presidency of Honduras in the 1997 elections and

. He had also served as member of the

Central American Parliament The Central American Parliament ( es, Parlamento Centroamericano), also known as PARLACEN, is the political institution and parliamentary body of the Central American Integration System (SICA). Its headquarters are in Guatemala City. History ...

. He retired from active political work for the party due to internal party issues.

Academic career

Funes worked for 34 years at the

, starting in 1978. He was a professor of philosophy until 2012, when he retired. He was considered to be an expert on Honduran history, specializing in the life of José Cecilio del Valle. Funes was a writer, analyst and columnist. Writing books amongst others on the history of the military in Honduras. Funes was also member of the National Electoral Tribunal, which would later become the Supreme Electoral Tribunal. In the final years before his death, between 2012 and 2014, Funes was member of the Commission for Reform of Public Security. He died on 10 February 2015 in Tegucigalpa, aged 62, from liver cancer which he had been diagnosed with on 22 December 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Funes, Matias 1952 births 2015 deaths Deaths from cancer in Honduras Deaths from liver cancer People from Tegucigalpa Democratic Unification Party politicians Deputies of the National Congress of Honduras Honduran philosophers Honduran columnists Honduran male writers Academic staff of Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras Candidates for President of Honduras 20th-century Honduran writers 21st-century Honduran writers