Yani Rosenthal - Political Career

Political Career

Rosenthal began his work as an activist for the Liberal Party at a young age.

Rosenthal was an alternate member of the Liberal Party's Central Executive Committee from 2001 to 2005 and a full member as Secretary of International Relations from 2005 to 2009.

When Mel Zelaya took office on January 27, 2006 as Honduras President, Rosenthal was appointed as Minister of the Presidency. Due to his lack of any public service experience, his appointment was criticized in the local media, since it was seen as a result of the political negotiations of his father. Jaime Rosenthal Sr. has backed Yani in the political arena in recent years. After the death of his younger brother Jaime in a gun accident, Yani was seen as the natural successor to his father.

His previous experience was very limited. He was advisor of San Pedro Sula municipality when Jerónimo Sandoval Sorto was mayor of the city (1986–1990). Also he was the coordinator of the presidential campaign of his father Jaime Rosenthal and in 2005 after an internal election within the Liberal Party, he was regional coordinator of Mel Zelaya presidential campaign.

In December 2006 Diario La Tribuna (La Tribuna newspaper) carried out a poll among a number of broadcasters. It showed that Rosenthal had the highest favorable opinion of all Ministers of Mel Zelaya Administration. The results have little statistical merit since the broadcaster's population polled was just over 100 and his family owns several broadcasting companies including television (Canal 11) and a newspaper (Diario Tiempo) which employ many of the polled broadcasters. On January 24, 2007 CID-Gallup published a public opinion poll. The results indicated that Rosenthal had a 24% favorable opinion.

In December 2006 and January 2007 he suffered severe criticism from his own party members, after he announced the results of an evaluation process of all government ministers and other executives of which he was in charge. Rosenthal was the only minister not evaluated. Several well-known members of the Partido Liberal failed the examination and only a few were removed from their posts. This internal dispute extended all the way to the Vice President of Honduras Elvin Santos, who declared publicly that Rosenthal was unfit to evaluate him.

Rosenthal also headed the process of adjudication of import rights of oil products into the country. This process was adjudicated in 2006 to ConocoPhillips. ChevronTexaco, Exxon and Shell were left out of the importing business in Honduras, in which they had operated for decades. This process which Rosenthal has led with other officials close to President Zelaya has been under constant criticism from the private sector in Honduras, as well as from the government of the United States. ConocoPhilips, despite winning the monopoly rights of importing oil in the country, lacks storage facilities. Chevron, Exxon and Shell have refused to lease to ConnocoPhillips or the Government their respective facilities. After this refusal President Zelaya pushed for an executive mandate to force multinational companies to lease their facilities under a price point set by the government.

On January 16, 2007, the US Ambassador in Honduras Charles Ford, expressed publicly his concern derived about the executive mandate to force a lease of oil storage facilities to the government.

On January 17, 2007, President Manuel Zelaya's legal advisor Enrique Flores said the government would not take control of the terminal owned by Chevron, but would take control of two oil storage terminals owned by Honduran company DIPPSA, including one in which Exxon Mobil owns a 50% stake.

On December 31, 2007, Yani Rosenthal resigned as Minister of the Presidency. He was running to be elected in the internal primary election within the Liberal Party to become the candidate for the 2010 Honduras Presidency, but joined his political movement with another candidate: Roberto Micheleti and on November 30, 2008 his movement lost the internal election.

Independent media in Honduras have been critical of Arcadia's methods, and reports appearing in independent newspaper La Tribuna and other news outlets have denounced Arcadia's declarations as false

Rosenthal participated in both the primary election in the liberal party in 2008 and the general election in 2009 and was elected congressman for the 2010-2014 period.

In March 2010, the newly elected Lobo government sent a package of new taxes to government, which have been opposed and denounced by Rosenthal as extremely onerous to the poorest people in Honduras. .