Ramón Villeda Morales

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Ramón Villeda Morales (November 26, 1909 – October 8, 1971) was a Honduran doctor and Liberal Party politician who served as President of Honduras from December 21, 1957, to October 3, 1963. Born in Ocotepeque, he trained as a pediatrician. After Honduras’s first free election in two decades in 1954, he lost to a divided National Party, and a coup followed. In 1957, the constituent assembly chose him to lead the government and guide the country toward democracy. As president, he introduced reforms to help the poor, including welfare benefits and a new labor code that favored workers. These measures angered the military and elite groups, who opposed him. In 1963, just ten days before the presidential election, a military coup removed him; Oswaldo López Arellano took control afterward. Villeda Morales died in New York City in 1971 at age 61 while serving as Honduras’s ambassador to the United Nations. He was married to Alejandrina Bermúdez Milla, and they had six sons: Ramón, Ruben, Alejandro, Mauricio, Leonardo, and Juan Carlos. He helped modernize Honduras by developing public health, education, and social security systems, and he supported the Alliance for Progress. San Pedro Sula International Airport is named in his honor. His son Mauricio Villeda Bermúdez later led the Liberal Party and ran for president in 2013.