Manuel Zelaya Politician
José Manuel Zelaya Rosales (born 20 September 1952) is a politician who was President of Honduras from 27 January 2006 until 28 June 2009. The eldest son of a wealthy businessman who inherited his father's nickname "Mel", he was, before entering politics, involved in his family's logging and timber businesses.Elected as a liberal, Zelaya shifted to the political left during his presidency, forging an alliance with the ALBA. On 28 June 2009, during the 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis, he was seized by the military and sent to Costa Rica and this was the cause of the 2009 Honduran coup d'état. On 21 September 2009 he returned to Honduras clandestinely and resurfaced in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa. In 2010 he left Honduras for exile in the Dominican Republic, an exile which lasted more than a year.He now represents Honduras as a deputy of the Central American Parliament. Since January 1976 Zelaya has been married to Xiomara Castro de Zelaya who was, with his full support, a presidential candidate in the Honduran general election, 2013, but lost to Juan Orlando Hernández.
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Office holder
| office | President of Honduras Deputy of the Olancho Department |
|---|---|
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| successor | |
| vice president |