Enrique Ortez Colindres, Honduras
Who is he? On 29 June, Enrique Ortez Colindres (77) was appointed 'foreign minister' by the interim administration led by Roberto Micheletti following the ouster of the elected president, Manuel ('Mel') Zelaya, on 28 June.
Why watch him? A lawyer (and expert in international law), former minister and UN ambassador, Ortez was the first cabinet appointee by the Micheletti administration, which is not recognised by any country or international organisation.
A former advisor to Zelaya, he has roundly defended the legality of Zelaya's removal by congress, on the grounds that Zelaya had breached the constitution by seeking to go ahead with a plebiscite - ruled illegal by the electoral court, the supreme court, the public prosecutor and congress - on whether to invoke a constituent assembly alongside scheduled general elections on 29 November.
Ortez has been at the forefront of the new administration's efforts to gain international recognition and last week led a delegation of former government ministers, diplomats and private business sector representatives to Washington in an effort to put their case there. They were not received by any US government officials.
Following a tense weekend over 3-5 July that led to the formal suspension of Honduras from the Organization of American States (OAS), as well as the first deaths on the ground, today (7 July) a second delegation comprising former foreign ministers will travel to Washington, where they may formally meet OAS representatives for the first time.
Ortez's undiplomatic and derogatory comments on 5 July, when he simultaneously managed to offend the US president, Barack Obama, Spain's president, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and El Salvador, won him instant international notoriety.
Born: 1932, Honduras.
Ortez is from a wealthy traditional legal family and as such is considered one of the local Honduran elite (or the 'oligarchy'). His lawyer grandfather, Ernesto Colindres Zúniga, pushed a young Ortez to follow in his footsteps and left him his small legal library (100 books) in his will.
Ortez was born in Honduras but his father was exiled in Guatemala during the government of Tiburcio Carías Andino (1924, 1932-1949) and the young Ortez spent time in France. He duly studied law, first in Honduras and then in France, from where he graduated. He is thus licensed to practice in both countries.
He is actually a distant relative of Zelaya (Zelaya's grandfather was his mother's first cousin) and was a business partner and close friend of Zelaya's father. He says he considers Mel family and has known him since he was a boy growing up in Juticalpa, in the province of Olancho.
He has been married twice and has four children.
His son, Enrique Ortez Sequeira, is also a well known lawyer with his own practice and in May 2009 was elected to the Supreme Electoral Court, where he replaced the outgoing Augusto Aguila. He was previously the president of the National Electoral Court under the government of Carlos Flores Facussé (1998-2002).
Notably, in late 2008 Ortez Sequeira also became the general secretary of the ruling Partido Liberal (PL)'s central executive council at a time of increasing flux in the party (over heavily disputed party primaries for the 2009 presidential race and Zelaya's continued radicalism). At the time, his father was also rumoured to be in the running for the position.
Education: 1954, Law
Public life: A long standing member of the PL, Ortez claims his formative experience and education in France helped shape a 'liberal, independent' political outlook. He was the third president of the Central American Integration Bank (BICE in the Spanish acronym) and also served as a foreign minister and minister of governance under President José Simón Azcona del Hoyo (1986-1990). He also served as Honduran ambassador to the United Nations (UN).
He acted as an advisor to Mel Zelaya for five years before and after his narrow election victory in 2005. He allegedly turned down Zelaya's offer to become foreign minister and was reportedly very miffed not to be re-appointed as UN ambassador in July 2007, when Zelaya instead appointed a controversial left-winger, Jorge Arturo Reina (labelled a terrorist by the US in the 1980s), to the post.
Then, as the formerly conservative centrist Zelaya began to accelerate his shift towards the radical left and moved to ally Honduras with Venezuela's Hugo Chávez , Ortez rather prophetically commented, “Zelaya is installing an anti-yankee government and that will provoke divisions in Central America".
After this point, Ortez and others in the ruling PL became increasingly critical of Zelaya. For much of the political elite in Honduras, Zelaya's cardinal sin is to have betrayed his roots as one of the oligarchy.
Strengths: Ortez is an experienced lawyer, veteran politician and diplomat and in his recent interviews has expressed a firm conviction in the legality and constitutionality of Zelaya's removal. In one interview he suggested that the armed forces had consulted him ahead of the coup and he allegedly counselled them that Costa Rica would be a suitable and safe destination for the president.
Weaknesses: The entire interim administration remains on shaky legal ground. While most observers accept the argument that Zelaya had defied every state institution by seeking to press ahead with his illegal plebiscite, there is little understanding as to why his opponents didn't use the impeachment procedures in place to censure Zelaya (they began the process but ended it abruptly in the two days before the coup) and why they opted to violently oust a president who was only months away from ending his non-renewable term in office.
There is not a lot of evidence for their counter claim that Zelaya planned to use the results of his planned 28 June consultation to immediately call a constituent assembly, dissolve congress and postpone the scheduled November general elections. Zelaya has since said that he has no intention of running again and that any constitutional reforms would apply only to his successor.
Ortez won't have won himself many friends in Washington (or the OAS) with his tasteless (racist)comments about President Obama and his arrogant attitude towards the international community in general.
Prospects: For the OAS, the only resolution is the restitution of Zelaya, however, the situation in Honduras is now so polarised, and the interim administration so adamant that he will not be allowed to return, that this may not be possible. On 6 July, ahead of the expected talks in Washington, Ortez said that Zelaya's return was “not negotiable". A pacted new administration and early elections is the most likely outcome. The current provisional authorities, including Ortez, will likely require some form of amnesty for their actions as part of any negotiated solution. In their eyes, that might represent a victory.