Romeo Orlando Vásquez Velásquez (born 20 January 1957) is a Honduran politician and retired brigadier general. He was the head of the military of Honduras from January 11, 2005 to June 25, 2009.

Early life

He was born in

Siguatepeque Siguatepeque () is a city and municipality in the Honduran department of Comayagua. The city has a population of 73,480 (2020 calculation). History Founded by the Spanish in 1689 as a religious centre for retreats and monastic training, the p ...

Comayagua Department Comayagua () is one of the 18 departments ''(departamentos)'' into which Honduras is divided. The departmental capital is Comayagua. Geography The department covers a total surface area of 5,124 km² and, in 2015, had an estimated populatio ...

. In 1972, he joined the army, and he attended the

School of the Americas The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), formerly known as the School of the Americas, is a United States Department of Defense school located at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia, renamed in the 2001 National Defen ...

(SOA/WHINSEC) at least twice, in 1976 and 1984. He has a degree in economy and finances. He is married to Licida Zelaya Lobo, from Olancho, and they have two children. He also has six other ones.

2009 Honduran constitutional crisis

He was sacked by President

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 Fi ...

on June 25, 2009, for refusing to allow the armed forces to help in conducting a

Honduran fourth ballot box referendum The ''cuarta urna'' or fourth ballot box referendum was a plan by Honduran president Manuel Zelaya to run a non-binding referendum to consult the public regarding the administration of a second, binding referendum to convoke a constitutional assemb ...

proposed by President Zelaya. Vásquez stated that he had refused to help with the vote aimed at removing the constitutional one-term limit because the Honduras Supreme Court had ruled the vote illegal. Zelaya denied the referendum was intended to extend term limits but claimed that it was to ask the people if they wanted to add the question of a constitutional assembly to the November ballot. Later the same day, however, all five judges of the Supreme Court acted in favor of a ruling chief of staff, restoring him to office after they declared his removal unconstitutional. The resolution cited Article 40 of the Constitutive Act of the Armed Forces, Decree 39-2001: "The head of the Joint Chiefs will run for three years in office and only be removed by resignation, incapacity absolute disqualification from office for final decision and loss or suspension of citizenship decreed by competent authority in accordance with the law and by the end of his time on active duty in the armed forces. The military forcibly exiled Zelaya on June 28, 2009, precipitating the

2009 Honduran coup d'état The 2009 Honduran coup d'état, part of the 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis, occurred when the Honduran Army on 28 June 2009 followed orders from the Honduran Supreme Court to oust President Manuel Zelaya and send him into exile. Zelaya h ...

. The Attorney General charged the military leadership for this act, but the Supreme Court dismissed all charges.

Political career

On March 9, 2010,

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Porfirio Lobo Sosa Porfirio Lobo Sosa (born 22 December 1947), known as Pepe Lobo, is a Honduran politician and agricultural landowner who served as President of Honduras from 2010 to 2014. A member of the conservative National Party and a former deputy in th ...

appointed Vásquez Velásquez as head of the state-owned telecom company

Hondutel Hondutel (Empresa Hondureña de Telecomunicaciones), is the Honduras government's telecommunications company. It has a monopoly on international calls. History Creation The organization was created on May 7, 1976, as an autonomous organizat ...

. Vásquez Velásquez ran for president of Honduras in the

2013 Honduran general election General elections were held in Honduras on 24 November 2013. Voters went to the polls to elect a new President, the 128 members of the National Congress, 298 Mayors and vice-mayors and their respective councilors and 20 representatives to the Ce ...

, and again in 2017, for the

Honduran Patriotic Alliance The Honduran Patriotic Alliance ( es, Alianza Patriótica Hondureña) is a centre-right political party in Honduras. Romeo Vásquez Velásquez was the party's candidate in the 2013 Honduran general election General elections were held in Hondu ...

, formed in 2011.Romeo Vásquez presentará 90,000 firmas ''(in Spanish)''
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vasquez Velasquez, Romeo 1957 births Living people Honduran military personnel Honduran Roman Catholics Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education alumni People from Comayagua Department