Reluctant Strongman

"My government will act like a magnificent sun which illuminates everything and burns no one." promised Julio Lozano, who last week--reluctantly--became the strongman of Honduras. Such rounded oratorical periods came as a surprise from Lozano, a onetime bookkeeper; only a month before, at what seemed the peak of an undramatic 25-year career in politics, he had been simply his country's able Vice President, serving out the last weeks of his term. Then ailing President Juan

Manuel Galvez' abrupt departure for the Panama Canal Zone "for medical treatment" thrust Lozano into the presidency, just in time to meet a major political crisis out of which he emerged as boss.

In a three-way presidential election in October, Candidate Ramon ("Little Bird") Villeda Morales had won, but he fell short of an absolute majority (TIME, Oct. 25). Under the constitution, that threw the decision to Congress. But when Congress convened, only Villeda Morales' supporters took their seats; his opponents, by heading off the needed quorum of two-thirds, prevented congressional ratification of his election. This left Lozano no choice under the law but to assume the technical powers of a dictator.

Villeda Morales, freed from the time-honored obligation of leading what would have been Honduras' 135th revolution, said in relief: "The presidency is not worth the life of a single Honduran." President Lozano converted Congress into a Council of State to draft a new constitution under which another, and more decisive election can be attempted -- but probably not before 1956.

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