Rafael Pineda Ponce (August 18, 1930 – January 24, 2014) was a Honduran professor and politician in the

Liberal Party of Honduras The Liberal Party of Honduras ( Spanish: ''Partido Liberal de Honduras)'' is a centrist liberal political party in Honduras that was founded in 1891. It is the oldest extant political party in the country, and one of the two main parties that ...

and President of the National Congress of Honduras from 1998 to 2002.

Early life and education

Rafael Pineda Ponce was born to Juan Rafael Pineda López and María Ponce on August 18, 1930, in a small house built by his grandparents, Caridad López Morales and Juan Rafael Pineda Flores. The house was located between Liber de Agua Zarca and Los Arrayanes next to Rio Tocó in the municipality of San Miguelito (now called San Miguel Guancapla), in the Department of Intibuca. He lived here for the first six years of his life. Pineda Ponce had one older sister, Consuelo, and two younger brothers, Rafael and Carlos (called Carlitos). Carlitos was murdered as a child between San Miguelito and El Liber while returning home after selling dulce de rapadura.21-24 January 2018, details confirmed in oral communications with Juan Pineda Chávez, Norma Pineda Chávez, Blanca Pineda Chávez (brother and sisters of Rafael Pineda Ponce) When Rafael was six, his mother, María Ponce, went back to her childhood home in Guatemala with her family, where she died soon after. After their mother left, Juan Pineda López placed Rafael and his siblings to live with relatives. Rafael first went to the city of La Esperanza, Intibucá. Afterwards he went with his sister Consuelo to live with their uncle, Filadelfo López Morales, in the village of Villa de Cofradía, in the department of Cortes. Rafael completed his elementary school education alternating between three schools "Lempira" in Cofradía, and "Juan E Flores" and "Valero Meza", both in La Esperanza. In all three schools he was highly regarded by his teachers. Rafael began his secondary education at the Instituto Departamental de Occidente (subsequently the Escuela Normal de Occidente, now the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional Francisco Morazán). He transferred to the Escuela Normal de Varones in

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 ...

, where he received the certificate of Maestro de Educación Primaria. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Science and Letters at the Instituto José Trinidad Reyes in San Pedro Sula. In La Esperanza, during the third and fourth years at normal school, Pineda Ponce was elected ''President of the Procultural Society'' (Presidente de La Sociedad Pro-Cultural), which constituted the most honorable position that a student could obtain at that time. When he graduated he was awarded the ''Father Trino Gold Medal'' (Medalla de Oro Padre Trino) as the most outstanding secondary-education student, presented at the Municipal Palace in San Pedro Sula. In 1965, Pineda Ponce went to the Universitária Armando de Salles Oliveira, in

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

to specialize in education of teachers (Especialista en Formación de Maestros). This period exposed him to some of the most distinguished educators in Latin America. There, on April 14, he was selected as the principle orator at the

Pan American Day Pan American Day is a holiday observed by several countries in North and South America. It commemorates the First International Conference of American States which concluded on April 14, 1890, creating the International Union of American Republ ...

, where he gave a lengthy speech. In life he would become known as a prolific writer and a great orator of Honduras.

Family life

Rafael Pineda Ponce was married to María Lidia Espinoza, who bore their four children, Alicia, Rafael, Octavio y Mario Pineda Espinoza.

Political life

Rafael Pineda Ponce was a member of the

or PLH . In 1980 he was appointed Secretary in the Ministry of Public Education during the provisional government of

Policarpo Paz García Policarpo Juan Paz García (7 December 1932 – 16 April 2000) was a Honduran military leader who served as President of Honduras from 7 August 1978 until 27 January 1982. Biography Paz Garcia was born in 1932 in La Arada, Goascoran, Vall ...

. Pineda Ponce was an ideologue for the Liberal Party of Honduras. As well as encouraging many people to run for office after the return to democracy in 1980, he participated in many legislative initiatives, including the following: * Childhood and Adolescence Code * Honduran Teachers Statute * Establishment of the Voluntary Military Service * Fourteenth month of salary for public employees * Law of the Banking and Insurance Commission * Law on Financial Institutions * Law for the Promotion of Production * Law for the Protection of Coffee * Law on Tax Equity * Reforms to the Framework Law of the Electric Sub-sector * Promotion of Production and Social Compensation * Budgetary increase to the Family Allowances Program ( PRAF) * Constitutional reform for the creation of the National Police * New Penal Code * Elevation to the category of constitutional figure to the Commissioner of Human Rights * Organic Law of the Police, Law of Concessions * Law of Incentives to the Tourist Activity * New Code of Criminal Procedure On November 30, 1997, after the general elections in Honduras, in which

Carlos Roberto Flores Carlos Roberto Flores Facussé (born 10 March 1950) is a Honduran politician and businessman who served as the President of Honduras from 1998 to 2002. A member of the Liberal Party, Flores was previously the President of the National Congre ...

won the presidential election, Pineda Ponce was named president of the National Congress of Honduras for the period 1998-2002. In the next primary election, Pineda Ponce was selected to be the Liberal candidate for the presidency. During general elections held on November 25, 2001, the Liberal Party won 55 of the 128 parliamentary seats in the National Congress of Honduras, although Pineda Ponce received only 30% of the votes and lost the election to the National Party candidate,

Ricardo Maduro Ricardo Rodolfo Maduro Joest (born 20 April 1946 in Panama) is a Honduran politician who served as President of Honduras from 2002 to 2006. A member of the National Party, Maduro was previously chairman of the Central Bank of Honduras. He gra ...

. Pineda Ponce attempted to mount another presidential campaign in 2004, but participated in and supported the presidential campaign of

Manuel Zelaya José Manuel Zelaya Rosales (born 20 September 1952)Encyclopædia BritannicaManuel Zelaya/ref> is a Honduran politician who was President of Honduras from 27 January 2006 until 28 June 2009, and who since January 2022 serves as the first Fir ...

after Zelaya became the Liberal Party candidate in 2005. After the election, Pineda Ponce served as Minister of Education in the Zelaya government from 2006 to 2007. During his tenure as minister of education, he oversaw reactivation of the normal school system to train teachers that had been discontinued by the previous administration. This measure was taken to cover a deficit of thousands of teachers, especially for thousands of children between four and six years who had no access to kinder and preparatory education. After more than a year, Pineda Ponce realized that he was no longer able to work effectively in the Zelaya government, and after 17 months he resigned from his ministry post. In a 2008 interview, he observed that the government of Mel Zelaya "had no direction, compass, or goals" and that "improvisation, appearances and theatricality prevailed rather than the serene, judicious and accurate analysis of national problems."

Later life and death

Pineda Ponce retired from government to the role of elder statesman in 2007, only to return temporarily to serve as Minister of the Presidency in the

interim government A provisional government, also called an interim government, an emergency government, or a transitional government, is an emergency governmental authority set up to manage a political transition generally in the cases of a newly formed state or f ...

of Roberto Micheletti, which arose out of the removal from power of Manuel Zelaya in the 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis. Subsequently, in a 2010 interview he opined that the Liberal Party leaders, including the ousted Zelaya, needed to unify the party to rescue power and "defend democracy." However, the embittered followers of Zelaya contested the subsequent election within the newly formed Libre Party. After the opposing National Party took control of both the presidency and congress, Pineda Ponce questioned the subsequent productivity of the government and the congress, observing that much of their legislation violated the constitution. It was during this final period of his life that Pineda Ponce coined the expression "tilín, tilín" ('' cha-ching, cha-ching'') that has entered the political lexicon of Honduras in reference to politicians compromising principle and party for the jingle of money. After an illness that caused Pineda Ponce to depart from public life, the Congress met in a plenary session and voted on a decree to extend financial help to its former head and presidential candidate. Pineda Ponce died on January 24, 2014.

Early life and education

Family life

Political life

Later life and death

Data

Notes

References

Bibliography

Further reading