Biography of Leon Alvarado
He was born in Comayagua (1818) and died in London (1870). In 1853, together with Justo Rodas, on behalf of the Honduran government, he signed the contract granting the American Ephraim G. Squier the concession for the construction of the Inter-Oceanic Railway that would connect the Caribbean coast with the Pacific coast.
In 1862, he was appointed as a mediator in the conflict between Guatemala and El Salvador. In 1863, the Honduran Senate recognized his merits and declared him a Meritorious Citizen of the Nation for his efforts to prevent war between those two nations and his efforts to resolve the country’s debt.
In 1866, he was appointed, along with Carlos Gutiérrez, to negotiate loans with European banks to finance the proposed Inter-Oceanic Railway. Due to his good faith, lack of experience in such matters, and a progressive illness, both Gutiérrez and Víctor Herrán, Honduras’ diplomatic representative in France, took advantage of Alvarado, arranging loans of six million pounds sterling, of which the Honduran government received just over half a million pounds sterling, creating the highest per capita debt ratio in the world.
Under the pseudonym «Un Hondureño,» he translated Squier’s work into Spanish with the title «Apuntamiento sobre Centro-América, particularmente sobre los Estados de Honduras y El Salvador» (Remarks on Central America, Particularly on the States of Honduras and El Salvador), published in Paris in 1856. His remains rest in the Church of Carmen in Comayagua. In 1893, Congress ordered the erection of a bust in his memory, and the secondary school in his hometown was named after him.
