Porfirio Lobo Sosa

Porfirio Lobo Sosa
President-elect of Honduras
Assuming office 27 January 2010
Vice President	María Antonieta de Bográn(1st Vice President) Samuel Armando Reyes (2nd Vice President) Victor Hugo Barnica (3rd Vice President)
Succeeding	Roberto Micheletti (Interim)
President of the National Congress
In office January 25, 2002 – January 25, 2006
Preceded by	Rafael Pineda Ponce
Succeeded by	Roberto Micheletti
Personal details
Born	(1947-12-22) 22 December 1947 Trujillo, Honduras
Political party	National Party
Alma mater	University of Miami

Porfirio Lobo Sosa (born 22 December 1947), known as Pepe Lobo, is a Honduran politician and agricultural landowner who is President-elect of the country. A member of the National Party, (a center-right conservative political party) and a deputy in the National Congress of Honduras since 1990, he was President of the National Congress of Honduras from 2002 to 2006. He came second to Manuel Zelaya with 46% of the vote in the 2005 general election. He was elected president in the 2009 presidential election and is scheduled to take office on 27 January 2010.

Family and early career

Lobo was born in Trujillo and grew up in the ranch of La Empalizada near Juticalpa, Olancho. His parents are Porfirio José Lobo López and Rosa Sosa Hernández de Lobo, both deceased. His father served as Deputy in the National Congress in 1957 and was a known political leader in the department of Olancho.His brother Ramón Rosa Lobo Sosa is a deputy in the National Congress for the department of Colón.

After attending a Catholic school in Juticalpa, he first furthered his studies in the San Francisco Institute of Tegucigalpa and then in the University of Miami in the United States. After obtaining his Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, he returned to Honduras to work in the family's agricultural business, and to teach Political Economics & English in the La Fraternidad Institute in Juticalpa for 11 years.

He also attended Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow, when Russia was still under communist rulership.

Political career

Porfirio Lobo's political career started at the age of 19 as a young political leader in Olancho. In the course of 31 years, he presided over the National Party's Youth in Olancho, Local Committee of Juticalpa and the Departmental Committee of Olancho.

He was in charge of the Honduran Corporation for Forestry Development from 1990 to 1994. He was elected to the National Congress in 1990, where he later served as President from 2002 to 2006.

2005 Honduran general election

Main article: Honduran general election, 2005

Lobo was the National Party of Honduras' candidate for the 27 November 2005 presidential election; Mario Canahuati was his running mate. His campaign was based on job security, a tough stance on crime, and for being in favour of reintroducing the death penalty. He came in second in the presidential election with 46.17% of the vote against 49.90% from his rival Manuel Zelaya of the Liberal Party of Honduras. He held the position of President of the National Party of Honduras.

2009 Honduran constitutional crisis and general election

Main articles: 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis and Honduran general election, 2009

In December 2008, he once again became the presidential candidate of the PNH and on 29 November 2009 he was elected as President of Honduras.

Following his victory, Lobo said his administration will begin the great national dialogue. On December 15 Lobo said he's ready to meet Zelaya and asked President Micheletti to resign, hoping that it would solve the conflict.

Lobo's critics say that Lobo could follow Hugo Chávez, noting Lobo's background in Moscow. Lobo has been a close friend of Zelaya. Lobo also gave comments that supported Zelaya's attempts to modify the constitution, despite court rulings.