It was his "New Agenda" platform that helped to sweep Carlos Roberto Flores Facussé (born 1950) into the presidency of Honduras in December of 1997.

Oscar A. Flores and his wife Margarita Facussé de Flores became parents for the first time on March 1, 1950. They named their son Carlos Roberto Flores Facussé. As was the custom in Honduras, he would have both his father's surname, Flores, and his mother's, Facussé. The future political leader of Honduras was born in the capital city of Tegucigalpa. Almost a half a century later, thousands would cheer for him in the same city as he took the presidential oath of office.

Like most of his nation, Flores was born into a Catholic family. He was not born into the same poverty, however, that had much of Honduras in its grip. Even by the 1990s, the average annual income for Hondurans was...