Marco Aurelio Soto and The Liberal Reform
The man credited with beginning the modernization of Honduras was Dr Marco Aurelio Soto , a Liberal who was elected president in 1876. He and his successor Luis Bogran reformed the powers of judiciary and Church, professionalized the armed forces and put communications and education infrastructures into place. What was created, in short, were all the elements, above a common language and religion, necessary to make Honduras a unified state capable of taking its place in the world. Recognizing the need to participate in the international economy, Soto also instigated agricultural reforms in order to develop the coffee and sugar cane industries for export. Believing that foreign capital was the key to economic development, he encouraged foreign investment by US, British and European companies on extremely favourable terms, conversely laying the basis for the country's enduring economic problems. In the mining industry, for example, investors had an obligation to do little more than employ workers, while the government undertook to build roads, ports and any infrastructure necessary to get equipment in and the finished product out. At the El Rosario mine near Tegucigalpa - at one point the most productive mine in the western hemisphere - which accounted for 45 percent of the country's export income at the turn of the century, ninety percent of shares were in foreign (mainly US) hands.
Your Tip for Honduras
Help other backpackers! Write your own guides and backpacking tips to Honduras - they will appear instantly on this page - Please only write a tip/guide to Honduras - visit the main Honduras forum to ask a question!
Please do not post links to your site here (they won't work) - please use the Honduras webguide section below! Thanks.
|
