Cruz Ucles, Ramón Ernesto (1903–1985)

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Cruz Ucles, Ramón Ernesto (1903–1985)

Ramón Ernesto Cruz Ucles (b. 3 January 1903; d. 1985), lawyer, president of Honduras (1971–1972). After a thirty-year career in law, much of it as a district judge and legal expert in Honduras's border disputes with Nicaragua, Cruz was nominated by the National Party as a compromise candidate in 1962. The elections were scuttled in 1963 by the coup of Oswaldo López Arellano. Cruz was again nominated for president of Honduras by the National Party when General López stepped aside to permit elections in 1971. Cruz won a bare plurality (49.3 %) and took office on 7 June 1971. During his brief eighteen months in office, he concentrated on foreign affairs, traveling widely and winning the return of the Islas de Cisne (Swan Islands) from the United States. This diplomatic master stroke, however, could not offset his rapid and total isolation from his own party. In the face of virtual economic collapse and the escalation of agrarian strife, cresting with the massacre of Olancho peasants at La Talanquera by angry cattle ranchers, President Cruz lost control. General López quietly removed him from office on 4 December 1972.

See alsoHonduras, National Party (PNH) .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

James A. Morris, Honduras: Caudillo Politics and Military Rulers (1984).

                                             Kenneth V. Finney

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Cruz Ucles, Ramón Ernesto (1903–1985)

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