Roberto Micheletti

Roberto Micheletti
File:Roberto micheletti.jpg
President of Honduras Interim
Incumbent
Assumed office 28 June 2009
Preceded by	Manuel Zelaya
President of the National Congress of Honduras
In office January 2006 – 28 June 2009
Preceded by	Porfirio Lobo Sosa
Succeeded by	José Alfredo Saavedra
Personal details
Born	(1943-08-13) 13 August 1943 El Progreso, Honduras
Political party	Liberal Party
Spouse	Xiomara Girón
Manuel Zelaya was deposed on 28th June 2009 and the National Congress swore-in Micheletti.

Roberto Micheletti Bain (born 13 August 1943) became the interim President of Honduras after the eruption of the 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis on June 28, 2009 when the Honduran military was ordered by the Supreme Court to arrest former president Manuel Zelaya for violating the Honduran constitution. Until this date Micheletti was the President of its National Congress. A deputy in the Honduran Congress since 1982, Micheletti is a member of the Liberal Party of Honduras.

Family background

Born in El Progreso, Honduras, Micheletti was one of nine siblings. Micheletti's father was Umberto Micheletti who immigrated from the Bergamo province of Lombardy, Italy. His mother was Donatella Bain, born in El Progreso, Honduras.

He is married to Xiomara Girón. The couple have three children.

Political career

In 1963, Micheletti was a member of the honor guard of President Ramón Villeda Morales, who was toppled by the military; Micheletti was jailed for 27 days. In the 1970s he lived in Tampa and New Orleans for five years.

Deputy

In 1980 the Honduran government began drafting a new constitution and holding elections. Micheletti contributed to the drafting of the new 1982 Constitution of Honduras and won a Congressional seat which he has held since then, although he did at one time leave to run Hondutel, Honduras' state-owned national telephone company.

In 1985 Micheletti led a group of deputies calling for a National Constituent Assembly and the suspension of articles 373-5 of the Constitution, which forbid reform of the Constitution. According to the opposition, the proposal was aimed at enabling then-President Roberto Suazo Córdova to run for re-election in the 1985 Honduras presidential election. Micheletti was informed that the proposal was unconstitutional and given a chance to remove his signature from the bill, but he refused. Ultimately the proposal was dropped when Efrain Bu Giron called General Walter Lopez Reyes about it.

He has twice run for President, both times failing to win the nomination of his Liberal Party, most recently to Elvin Santos, who won the Liberal nomination for the November 2009 Presidential election.

President of the National Congress

Micheletti presided the National Congress of Honduras from January 2006 to June 28 2009. Although in the same Liberal Party of Honduras as former President Zelaya, there had been conflict between the two politicians before the 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis. In 2008, he sought his party's nomination to run for president in the November 2009 election, but was defeated by former Vice President Elvin Ernesto Santos.

Interim President of Honduras

See also: 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis

Micheletti was sworn in as president by the National Congress of Honduras after the Honduran Supreme Court ordered the military to arrest president Manuel Zelaya where he was taken to Costa Rica by the Honduran Army.

With demonstrations for and against Micheletti, international support for the Micheletti government remains scant; no foreign governments have recognized him as the president of Honduras,192 countries from the U.N. and all countries from the OAS (Organization of American states ) demanded to immediately re-instate Zelaya to finish his term without any conditions.

With President Zelaya absent following his arrest by the Honduras armed forces and forced exile by the Honduran Army in the early hours of 28 June 2009, the Constitution mandated that the head of Congress, Roberto Micheletti, act as provisional head of state as Vice-President Elvin Ernesto Santos had resigned in December 2008. Micheletti was sworn in by the National Congress on a show of hands on Sunday afternoon 28 June for a term that ends on 27 January 2010. The government has restricted domestic and foreign media, including the Venezuelan press. Demonstrations in support of the return of Manuel Zelaya have been suppressed by the police and Honduran army. Several protesters have been killed, jailed and injured, according to a preliminary human rights report.

Official reactions from many international leaders condemned the ouster of President Zelaya, many of them calling for his reinstatement. The Organization of American States (OAS) says it will not recognize any government other than that of Manuel Zelaya. The United States rejected the overthrow of Zelaya in statements by U.S. President Barack Obama, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Ambassador to Honduras Hugo Llorens. Cuban president Raúl Castro asked for the return of democracy in Honduras.. The European Union has also condemned the ouster of Zelaya. Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez stated that he has put his nation's armed forces on alert, and vowed to take military action if Venezuela's embassy or envoy to Honduras were harmed.

New elections are planned for 29 November 2009. Micheletti's government stated on 2 July 2009 that it is willing to hold this year's presidential election early. Costa Rican President, Oscar Arias was acting as a mediator between the coup leaders and President Manuel Zelaya to find a political solution and re-installment of the constitutional climax before the military coup. He presented a seven point agreement, which calls for the return of Zelaya as President - a condition deemed unacceptable to the interim government. Zelaya's representatives accepted the Arias proposal "in principle" but Micheletti's representatives balked at the key point of Zelaya returning to power in Honduras.

See also

• Xiomara Girón#Family background

• Estadio Humberto Micheletti

References

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