ABSTRACT
The self-styled "generals" and rural political bosses who struggled for power following Honduras's independence sometimes adopted Liberal or Conservative labels, but there were no organized parties in Honduras until very late in the nineteenth century. Honduras's defeat in the 1969 war with El Salvador intensified popular frustration with the corrupt and repressive Lopez-Zuniga regime. Without US inducements, in fact, democratic elections and party competition would not have been restored in 1980, nor would Honduras have assumed such a central role in US Central American strategy. Business influence is moderated to some extent in Honduras, however, by the existence of Central America's best-organized independent labor movement. Most Honduran generals are motivated by simple greed and a lust for power. It is also important to reemphasize that although the traditional parties continue to control the party system, the armed forces dominate Honduran politics.
