Manuel Zelaya

José Manuel Zelaya Rosales (born 20 September 1952) is a Honduran politician who served as the 35th president of Honduras from 2006 until his forcible removal in the 2009 coup d'état; and as the inaugural first gentleman of Honduras from 2022 until 2026. He is the eldest son of a wealthy businessman, and inherited his father's nickname "Mel". Before entering politics he was involved in his family's logging and timber businesses. Elected as a liberal, Zelaya shifted to the political left during his presidency, forging an alliance with the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas known as ALBA. On 28 June 2009, during the 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis, he was seized by the military and sent to Costa Rica in a coup d'état. On 21 September 2009, he returned to Honduras clandestinely and resurfaced in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa. In 2010, he left Honduras for the Dominican Republic, an exile that lasted more than a year. He now represents Honduras as a deputy of the Central American Parliament. Since January 1976 Zelaya has been married to Xiomara Castro, the former President of Honduras, elected in the 2021 general election. Upon his wife's inauguration, Zelaya became the first "First Gentleman" in Honduran history.