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José Manuel Zelaya Rosales, was born into a wealthy family in the city of Catacamas, department of Olancho, on September 20, 1952. His parents were Hortensia Esmeralda Rosales Sarmiento and José Manuel Zelaya Ordóñez. Manuel Zelaya is a Honduran politician and is married to Xiomara Castro Sarmiento, with whom he had four children: Zoe, Héctor, Hortensia and José Manuel. President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales better known as Mel Zelaya Who is Mel Zelaya? He was elected President of Honduras after winning the 2005 elections as a member of the Liberal Party, defeating his opponent from the National Party, Porfirio Lobo Sosa. He assumed office on January 27, 2006, succeeding Ricardo Maduro for the term that would last until 2010. However, on June 28, 2009, he was removed from office and subsequently expelled from the country, with Roberto Micheletti assuming the presidency. Zelaya’s removal was ordered by the Supreme Court of Honduras due to alleged serious crimes, such as treason and others. Meanwhile, his supporters claimed that he was illegally expelled by the military and the Court. These events were condemned by a large part of the international community, including the Organization of American States and the United Nations, which advocated for Zelaya’s reinstatement. He acted as a president in exile while staying at the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa from September 22, 2009, after clandestinely returning to the country. On January 27, 2010, he left the country and headed to the Dominican Republic with a safe conduct signed by President Porfirio Lobo Sosa, where he stayed as a “distinguished guest.” On May 28, 2011, Zelaya returned to Honduras after almost 2 years, this time to continue his political life and to facilitate Honduras’ return to the OAS after being suspended in 2009. Education. Zelaya Rosales received his primary education at Niño de Jesús de Praga and Luis Landa schools, and at the Salesian Institute San Miguel in Tegucigalpa. He began university studies in civil engineering and completed 6 years and 11 approved courses. However, in 1976, he abandoned his studies to take over the family business due to his father’s arrest, who was implicated in alleged murders committed on the accused’s property. According to his Minister of the Interior, Víctor Meza, this episode “shaped him.” Political Career. Manuel “Mel” Zelaya joined the Liberal Party of Honduras (PLH) in 1970 as the coordinator of organization and departmental adviser in Olancho for the Rodista Movement (MLR). In 1983, engineer José Azcona del Hoyo broke away from the MLR. This split gave rise to a new faction within the Liberal Party, which was called the “Azconista Movement,” and Manuel Zelaya Rosales joined it. In November 1985, José Azcona del Hoyo won the presidential elections, and ‘Mel’ Zelaya obtained his first seat as a deputy (representing the department of Olancho) in the Honduran Congress. During his first term as a deputy, Manuel Zelaya also served as the President of the Natural Resources and Oil Committees of the National Congress. He also held the position of Secretary of the Board of Directors of the National Congress. In 1990, during the presidency of the nationalist Rafael Leonardo Callejas, Zelaya was re-elected as a deputy to the National Congress. Again, in 1994, under the presidency of Carlos Roberto Reina, he served as the Minister and Executive Director of the Honduran Social Investment Fund (FHIS). He was also a Deputy for the Department of Francisco Morazán from 1998 to 1999, an advisor to President Carlos Roberto Flores Facussé in 1998, Secretary of Organization and Propaganda of the Central Executive Council from 1999 to 2004, and a member of the National Convergence Forum (FONAC), among other important public positions. In 2005, the Liberal Party presented Manuel Zelaya Rosales as its candidate for the presidential elections. ‘Mel’ emerged victorious, defeating the candidate of the ruling National Party, Porfirio Lobo Sosa. On January 27, 2006, Manuel Zelaya Rosales assumed the presidential office, succeeding Ricardo Maduro. Halfway through his presidential term, and contrary to members of his own party, Zelaya took an unexpected turn in national politics by announcing that his government would lean towards leftist and socialist tendencies. In 2009, Manuel Zelaya acted as a double agent between the United States and the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), shortly before the coup d’état on June 28, 2009, according to the leaked State Department cable number 210866 released by WikiLeaks. In this cable, it narrates the details of the OAS summit held on June 2 and 3, 2009, in San Pedro Sula. At this meeting, the ALBA countries presented a draft called “our text” for the approval of Cuba’s admission to the OAS. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented a proposal: to lift the ban on Cuba as long as Havana adheres to the principles of the OAS. Zelaya, according to the cable, mediated between the US and the ALBA countries. Zelaya informed the US about his difficulties in convincing his new partners (from ALBA), whom he threatened to withdraw from the Alliance. Zelaya even made a phone call to Fidel Castro to secure his agreement to the compromise text. The former Cuban leader gave his approval, which allowed the other countries to accept the draft. What the cable reveals is that the draft accepted by Castro, Chávez, and Ortega was drafted by the US using Zelaya as a mediator. On January 31, 2011, Manuel Zelaya denied the WikiLeaks website’s claims and denied being a double agent for the US. “What is noteworthy about the imperial diplomats’ diplomatic cables is how seriously they take their mission to ‘interpret’ things that other countries do from their own benefit. They end up confusing day with night, black with white, and in general, any attitude that is adverse to them. They will never understand the right-wing factions of the continent that as sovereign countries, we have every right to fight our battles with the perspective of winning them, and that is precisely what we achieved with the annulment of resolutions against Cuba and our opening towards southern socialism,” said the former president. That same year, the Appellate Court of the Supreme Court of Justice of Honduras annulled all corruption trials against him that were pending since his removal from the presidency in 2009. According to his defense attorney, the resolution was made considering that “due process had been violated as he was in a state of defenselessness.” In response to the ruling, Zelaya expressed his willingness to return to Honduran soil, which he did on May 28 from Managua, Nicaragua, accompanied by the Foreign Ministers of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro; the Dominican Republic, Carlos Morales Troncoso; the Venezuelan ambassador to the Organization of American States, Roy Chaderton; and Colombian senator Piedad Córdoba. The return was facilitated by the “Agreement for National Reconciliation and the Consolidation of the Democratic System in the Republic of Honduras,” signed by President Porfirio Lobo and Zelaya himself, with the mediation of the governments of Venezuela and Colombia. Presidency. Before taking office, he demanded that the national congress approve the law on citizen participation, and the law was passed on the same day of Manuel Zelaya’s inauguration. This law follows the principles of liberalism, which believes that the people should participate in public decisions, in contrast to conservatism, which believes that the people do not have the capacity to govern themselves. 2006. In his first year of government, President Manuel Zelaya was marked by a wave of protests from different social groups. The Zelaya government faced pressure from the teachers’ union, which demanded the fulfillment of the teacher’s statute as an acquired right and labor conquest, but the president reiterated the statute and described it as fair, reasonable, and deserving for the educators of Honduras. Meanwhile, the US government announced that this was due to acts of corruption carried out by the National Registry of Persons, which distributes the National Identification Card. However, many observers saw this as a way for the US government to pressure Manuel Zelaya and somehow prevent his relationship with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. On October 27, 2006, the visa application appointment process was resumed by the US embassy. Despite all the problems he had to face during his first year in office, Manuel Zelaya expressed satisfaction with the progress of his administration in the field of the economy. “We are closing 2006 with better indicators than 2005, 2004, and 2003,” the president said to the press. And he added, “There is price stability that is allowing us to close the year with the lowest level of inflation recorded in the past 16 years.” This year, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) placed Honduras among the top countries in economic growth in the Central American region. 2007. In 2007, Manuel Zelaya Rosales began his program to protect the forests of Honduras, particularly in one of the very important areas: the Rio Plátano ecosystem in the Honduran Mosquitia. He then proceeded to reappoint most of his ministers to their positions; however, Minister of Education Rafael Pineda Ponce and the head of the Honduran Social Investment Fund (FHIS), former Mayor of Puerto Cortés Marlon Lara, were not as fortunate and were replaced. On January 21, Zelaya’s government benefited from the external debt forgiveness granted by the Inter-American Development Bank. Manuel Zelaya reacted with excitement and expressed gratitude to the organization for forgiving at least 1.4 billion dollars. Among Zelaya’s achievements in early 2007 was the reduction of fuel prices. On April 26, taxi drivers threatened the Honduran president with further strikes if a new reduction in fuel prices was not...