Word: holds
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...holds his handy lead in the polls, Porfirio (Pepe) Lobo will be the next President of Honduras. Problem is, the last man elected to that office, Manuel Zelaya, was ousted last summer in a military coup. That makes it unlikely that any nation - except maybe the U.S. - will recognize Lobo if he wins the Nov. 29 election. But as he relaxes in his opulent house near Honduras' capital Tegucigalpa after a day of campaigning, Lobo sounds unfazed. "I practice Taekwondo for serenity," he says with his trademark Cheshire cat smile. "We have to hold this election, and the world...
...richest 10% owns more than 40% of the wealth. But measures like a minimum-wage hike irked the political and business élite who fear Zelaya's ties to firebrand Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. Zelaya overreached in June when he defied a Supreme Court order not to hold a referendum asking if a constitutional-reform assembly should be held. But instead of trying him legally for that crime, Zelaya's foes committed their own - flying him off to exile at gunpoint. (They rationalized the move by insisting Zelaya was plotting to lift Honduras' own ban on presidential...
...gains of the past decade or so, the same few families and business groups continue to control the region's economy. The 14 clans that commanded El Salvador's vital coffee industry, for instance, have morphed into eight conglomerates in recent years, but they still have a choke hold on the country's finances. In Honduras, such tycoons as José Rafael Ferrari and Freddy Nasser monopolize sectors like broadcasting and energy - and, say analysts, continue to exert incredible influence on the government. Little will change, says Rosenberg, unless those local élites "step up and assume a greater sense...
...world, the dispute presented a golden opportunity. The Middle East didn't waste time, stepping in with loans and development projects - or as one Western observer put it, "a rain of dollars." In June, the Islamic Development Bank - a lender in which Saudi Arabia, Libya and Iran hold the three largest stakes - agreed to build a railroad connecting Turkmenistan and Iran, the first direct rail link between the Islamic Republic and Central Asia. "As of today, our relations with the Islamic bank have really been activated," Tuvakmammed Japarov, the country's deputy prime minister for the economy, tells TIME...
...blasts - for which no one has claimed responsibility - are one more sign that the republic of coffee and banana plantations is in no condition to hold an election, says Zelaya, who has been holed up in the Brazilian embassy since sneaking back into the country in September. With the coup's de facto government muzzling the Honduran media, cracking down on protests and locking up dissidents, a fair vote is impossible, Zelaya argues. "This is the first time in history that the executioners are being allowed to oversee a so-called transition back to democracy," he told TIME by telephone...