Honduran political novice takes example from New York mayor

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras -- A businessman with little political experience is getting a political boost by citing Rudolph Giuliani's record as New York mayor. It's not Michael Bloomberg, but Ricardo Maduro, who hopes to win today's presidential race with a Giuliani-style "zero tolerance" anti-crime plan.

Maduro hopes he will benefit by invoking Giuliani, much as fellow political novice Bloomberg did earlier this month when he came from behind to win the New York mayoral race after Giuliani endorsed him.

Maduro, 54, hopes it will work in this impoverished, crime-ridden country. He vowed to attack traffic violations, littering, graffiti and vagrancy as well as robbery and murder.

"I saw how it worked in New York, and I liked how it worked," said Maduro, whose holdings include hotels and chain stores and whose only government experience was a stint as head of the country's central bank.

Maduro holds a comfortable lead in most polls over rival Rafael Pineda of the governing Liberal Party.

Meeting Giuliani's staff

Although Giuliani has not gotten involved in the election, Maduro met with Giuliani's staff and New York police officials earlier this year before he came up with his plan to give this nation of 6.5 million inhabitants its first traffic laws.

Currently, drivers seldom carry licenses or obey the few traffic signs that exist, turning the capital, Tegucigalpa, into a zone of permanent gridlock. He said littering, graffiti and vagrancy laws are also in the cards, as well as more accountability among police and government officials.

Maduro also says he's going to take on more serious problems, like the country's wave of murders. Maduro's own son Ricardo was gunned down in 1997. Nineteen Americans have been killed during the last three years and none of their killers has been convicted.

'One big school'

Maduro's opponent, Pineda, the 71-year-old head of Honduras' congress, says he would focus on improving education to fight crime.

"I want to make Honduras one big school," said the former school teacher and 20-year veteran legislator. He said he opposed the tough "zero-tolerance" approach. "Besides, I don't think you can transplant a program from one country to another."

But many of Honduras' problems -- and hoped-for solutions -- come from the United States, where hundreds of thousands of Hondurans have migrated in search of work. Some will even be voting special booths in New York, Miami and Los Angeles.

The country's "maras," or street gangs, imitate the styles of U.S. gangs and their tens of thousands of members include young Hondurans deported from the United States. An estimated 50 tons of cocaine moves annually through Honduras, most headed for the United States. But some of it stays here to supply a growing number of addicts.

Both candidates say Hondurans -- 80 percent of whom live in poverty and whose minimum wage is about $100 a month -- can benefit from increased U.S. investment, tourism, more generous immigration laws and forgiveness of the country's crippling foreign debt.