President of Honduras. A member of the Honduran Liberal Party, he served as president from 21 December 1957 to 3 October 1963, Prior to becoming president, he studied medicine at the National University of Honduras, where he served as president of the federation of university students. His specialty was pediatrics. In 1938 he attended graduate school in Germany. Returning to Honduras in 1940, he opened a pediatric clinic in Santa Rosa de Copan and then opened a private clinic in Tegucigalpa. He helped to reorganize the Honduran Liberal Party becoming it's chairman in 1949. Because of his successful management of municipal party elections, he received his party's presidential nomination in 1953. However, he was not elected. Forced into exile for promoting a strike against the incumbent dictator, a military coup in October 1956 led to the ouster of the president, thus permitting him to return to Honduras. He then became president. He is best remembered for development programs to modernize Honduras' highways, ports, and air terminals and to improve public health and education. On June 1, 1959, he signed into law the Labor Code, which guaranteed workers rights in the areas of wages, hours, working conditions, vacations, workmen's compensation, severance pay, and maternity leave. It also covered labor-management relations, the right to strike, and the settlement of labor conflicts. In July 1959, a new social insurance law went into effect dealing with coverage of unemployment, health, old age, maternity, work accidents, disability, and death. After leaving the presidency because of another revolt, he was sent to New York in 1971 as the Honduran representative to the United Nations. Shortly after his arrival, he died of a heart attack.