Carlos Roberto Reina Idiáquez (13 March 1926 – 19 August 2003) was a Honduran politician, lawyer and diplomat who served as the President of Honduras from 1994 to 1998. He was a member of the Honduran Liberal Party. Background He was born in the city of Comayagüela, Honduras. His wife, Bessie Watson, was an American citizen with whom he had two daughters. He completed university studies in the National Autonomous University of Honduras where he earned a bachelor's degree in Juridical and Social Sciences. Later, Reina continued his postgraduate studies in the cities of London and Paris. Political career Throughout his long political career Reina held a number of political governmental and international jobs, including judge in the court of Tegucigalpa, peace member of the international court of The Hague, Ambassador of Honduras to France, and president of the Central Executive Council (CCE) of the Liberal Party, among other important positions. Reina was arrested several times for his political activities in opposition to the military governments during his younger years. The first time was in 1944 for protesting against dictator Tiburcio Carías. Later in the 1960s he was sent to prison twice by General Oswaldo López, who had taken over the Honduran government through the use of military force. This led Reina to become a fierce defender of human rights throughout the rest of his life. In 1979, he was nominated president of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of the Organization of American States. President (1994–1998) Carlos Reina became president in November 1993, with the Liberal Party of Honduras (PLH, Partido Liberal de Honduras), after defeating Oswaldo Ramos, the candidate of the National Party of Honduras with 56% of the vote. He was accompanied by his vice presidential candidate: retired General Walter López, the politician Juan de la Cruz Avelar and the lady Guadalupe Jerezano Mejía. On 27 January 1994, Reina replaced president Rafael Leonardo Callejas. Reina inherited a relatively difficult economic situation from the existing nationalist administration. Foreign debt weighed heavily on the economy of the country: debt service represented 40% of Honduran exports. Even though approximately 700 million dollars were condoned to Honduras, the debt 'was' still higher than that it had been at the beginnings of 1990. In his first presidential speech Reina launched his moral revolution: " I pledge my word of honor before God, before the people and before history, that we will go