Entre el marasmo. Análisis de la crisis del Partido Liberal de Honduras, 1933-1970

The Liberal Party of Honduras has become atrophied and obsolete, and in this short book, Contreras analyses the reasons for its failure and finds them in its ideology, its organization, and its leadership. Ideologically, the party has become sterile, relying for its support on the emotional ties of its bandera and on other outward symbols. The Supreme Council, its organizational head, has been a do-nothing group, unknown to most of the rank-and-file. The titular heads of the party, so-called ‘liberal caudillos,” have done no better for the party or country. Anecdotes about “liberal caudillos” Angel Zúñiga Huete, Ramón Villeda Morales, and Modesto Rodas Alvarado demonstrate their individual shortcomings as party leaders, with Villeda Morales earning particularly bad marks for failing to take advantage of the Liberals’ one recent term in office (1957-63). Contreras’ judgment for the future rejects a resurrection of this Liberal Party and suggests instead, without much optimism, that a fresh third party, if young, energetic, and possessed of a relevant, conscientious, broadly appealing ideology, might succeed. But Contreras has given us just a beginning. His sketchy research based on a thin bibliography leads to generalizations which can only be considered suggestions. These suggestions need testing in a full-scale institutional study in which it may be discovered that they have application far beyond the Liberal Party of Honduras.