Enrique Ortez Colindres (29 October 1931 – 30 March 2022) was a Honduran

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

and member of the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

who came to prominence during his time as

Foreign Minister In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...

in the

interim government A provisional government, also called an interim government, an emergency government, a transitional government or provisional leadership, is a temporary government formed to manage a period of transition, often following state collapse, revolut ...

Roberto Micheletti Roberto Micheletti Baín (born August 13, 1943) is a Honduran politician who served as the interim and 36th president of Honduras from June 28, 2009, to January 27, 2010, as a result of the 2009 Honduran coup d'état. The Honduran military o ...

in 2009.

Racial comments concerning Obama

During a television interview on June 29, 2009, Ortez commented that U.S. president

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

, who refused to back the coup or to recognize the interim government as legitimate, was "un negrito que no sabe nada de nada" (); he also referred to Obama as "el negrito del batey" (translated as a black

plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...

worker). The US ambassador to Honduras,

Hugo Llorens Hugo Llorens (born September 7, 1954) is a retired American diplomat. He is a former U.S. Special Chargé d'Affaires of the Afghanistan–United States relations, U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, (2016–17) and United States Ambassador to Ho ...

, expressed outrage regarding Ortez's comments, and the anti-coup movement both in and outside of Honduras used Ortez's comments against the government. Ortez sent a letter of apology to the White House and was reassigned to the office of minister for justice on July 10.

Death

He died on 30 March 2022 at the age of 90.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ortez, Enrique 1931 births 2022 deaths Ministers of foreign affairs of Honduras Government ministers of Honduras Liberal Party of Honduras politicians