With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

Honduran strongman and twice-president Lopez Arellano dead at 89

Honduran strongman Oswaldo Lopez Arellano, who led two military coups and served as president for more than a decade, died on Sunday, his family said. He was 89.

His family released a statement saying the former general and twice-president died of prostate cancer at a private hospital in Tegucigalpa.

With armed forces backing, then-Col. Lopez Arellano ousted President Ramon Villeda Morales in 1963 and two years later held a constitutional assembly that formalized his position as president of Honduras, then a banana-producing country under the sway Washington.

Read entire article at AP