José Simón Azcona del Hoyo (January 26, 1927 – October 24, 2005) was 30th President of Honduras from January 27, 1986 to January 27, 1990 for the Liberal Party of Honduras (PLH). He was born in

La Ceiba La Ceiba () is a municipality, the capital of the Honduran department of Atlántida (department), Atlántida, and a port city on the northern Caribbean coast in Honduras. It forms part of the southeastern boundary of the Gulf of Honduras. With ...

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

Early life and career

Azcona spent the years from 1935 to 1949 living in

Cantabria Cantabria (, ; ) is an autonomous community and Provinces of Spain, province in northern Spain with Santander, Cantabria, Santander as its capital city. It is called a , a Nationalities and regions of Spain, historic community, in its current ...

, Spain with his maternal grandparents. He grew up there during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

. He returned to Honduras in 1949, working in his family's trading company. He then went to study in the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) graduating in civil

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

, with postgraduate studies from the University of Monterrey in Mexico.

President of Honduras (1986-1990)

As the PLH were unable to decide on a single candidate they ended up fielding four candidates, including Azcona, against the one National Party of Honduras (PNH) candidate Rafael Leonardo Callejas Romero. Because the PLH candidates gained 51.5% of the vote between them, and as Azcona gained the highest of the 4, he gained the presidency with only 27.5% of the vote, even though Callejas gained 42.6% of the vote. This was the first transfer of power from one constitutional, elected president to another since 1948, and the first time it happened democratically since 1932. Azcona's success as a president has been contested across the political spectrum. While his followers and a large proportion of the population would favour him due to the perceived honesty and integrity of his government, another group would challenge this view, arguing that he pursued a weak economic policy (artificially maintaining a 2:1

exchange rate In finance, an exchange rate is the rate at which one currency will be exchanged for another currency. Currencies are most commonly national currencies, but may be sub-national as in the case of Hong Kong or supra-national as in the case of ...

between the Honduran lempira and the US dollar), ran up large budget deficits and did little to develop investment opportunities in the country. Many people still remember the fuel supply problems, mostly in the last part of his government due to foreign credit issues. During his presidency, the Central American peace process took place, by the time he turned over the presidency to his successor on January 27, 1990 the Contra rebels in Nicaragua were demobilising. Less known is the relationship between

and the US Government covert operations to exchange arms for hostages in Iran and fund rebels, later known as The Iran Contra Affair.

Post-presidency

After leaving power Azcona concentrated on running his

construction Construction are processes involved in delivering buildings, infrastructure, industrial facilities, and associated activities through to the end of their life. It typically starts with planning, financing, and design that continues until the a ...

business. At the end of the nineties he had a heart attack. On 24 October 2005 at 12.30 a.m. (local time UTC−6) just as he was going to bed in his home in Tegucigalpa, Azcona died suddenly from another heart attack, at the age of 78.

Trivia

* Azcona's last trip was to

Pensacola, Florida Pensacola ( ) is a city in the Florida panhandle in the United States. It is the county seat and only incorporated city, city in Escambia County, Florida, Escambia County. The population was 54,312 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...

where he met with his wife's (Miriam Bocock de Azcona) side of the family before he died. * His son José Azcona Bocock is currently an elected Congressman. * His daughter Elizabeth Azcona Bocock was Minister of Industry and Commerce for the first half of Mel Zelaya's presidency.

References

External links

Biography by CIDOB
(in Spanish) {{DEFAULTSORT:Azcona Del Hoyo, Jose 1927 births 2005 deaths People from La Ceiba 20th-century presidents of Honduras Liberal Party of Honduras politicians Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras alumni Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education alumni