of Private Enterprise (COHEP), as well as of the National Association of Wood Processing Enterprises. The COHEP occupies a particularly important role in Honduran politics, as the Constitution delineates that the organization elects one of the seven members of the Nominating Board that proposes nominees to the Supreme Court of Honduras. Zelaya's father got a 20-year prison sentence for his role in the 1975 Los Horcones massacre, which took place on the Zelaya family ranch, Los Horcones. As a result of an amnesty, he served less than two. Political career Zelaya joined the Liberal Party of Honduras, Partido Liberal de Honduras, (PLH) in 1970 and became active a decade later. He was a deputy in the National Congress for three consecutive times between 1985 and 1998. He held many positions within the PLH and was Minister for Investment in charge of the Honduran Social Investment Fund (HSIF) in a previous PLH government. Under the administration of Zelaya the HSIF lost $40 million. Zelaya was accused of embezzlement but escaped prosecution. In the 2005 presidential primaries, his faction was called Movimiento Esperanza Liberal (MEL). He received 52% of the 289,300 Liberal votes, vs. 17% for Jaime Rosenthal Oliva and 12% for Gabriela Núñez, the candidate of the Nueva Mayoría faction. Zelaya won the general election of November 27 with 918,669 votes, which accounted for 49.9% of voters, defeating the National party candidate Porfirio Lobo Sosa, who received 46.22% of the votes. Presidency (2006–2009) During Zelaya's time in office, Honduras became a member of ALBA, an international cooperation organization based on the idea of social, political, and economic integration between the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. It marked his turning to left-of-center politics, the first such case of right to left policy switch as he had been elected in on a conservative platform. Political opponents, particularly business elites, opposed his foreign policy, including his alliance with Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, and friendship with Cuba's Raúl Castro. In spite of a number of economic problems, there were a number of significant achievements under Zelaya's presidency. Under his government, free education for all children was introduced, subsidies to small farmers were provided, bank interest rates were reduced, the minimum wage was increased by 80%, school meals were guaranteed for more than 1.6 million children from poor families, domestic employees were integrated into the social security system, poverty was reduced by almost 10%