AZHARI, ISMAIL SAYYID ALdrug lord to the United States. Because Honduran law does not allow for such procedures, Azcona’s actions might constitute an abuse of presidential authority. Further Reading Hammond, Tony. “The Role of the Honduran Armed Forces in the Transition to Democracy.” Unpublished master’s thesis, University of Florida, 1991. Karl, Terry Lynn. Central America in the Twenty-first Century: The Prospects for a Democratic Region. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1994. Mahoney, James. The Legacies of Liberalism: Path Dependence and Political Regimes in Central America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. Millet, Richard. “The Honduran Dilemma.” Current History 86, no. 524 (1987): 409–412, 435–436. Schultz, Donald E. The United States, Honduras, and the Crisis in Central America. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1994. Tervo, Kathyrn H. “Honduras and the Contras: Effects of the U.S.-sponsored Contra War on the Central American Republic of Honduras.” Unpublished master’s thesis, Central Connecticut State University, 1998.
Azhari, Ismail Sayyid al- (1902–1969) president of Sudan Ismail Sayyid al-Azhari was born at Omdurman, Sudan, in 1902, the son of a noted Muslim cleric. He attended both Gordon College in Khartoum and American University in Beirut before returning home as a mathematics teacher. The Sudan at this time was administered by a joint British and Egyptian condominium government, and Azhari worked for them as an administrator. However, like many Sudanese, he resented poor treatment at the hands of foreigners and in 1938 he helped found the Graduates General Congress to agitate for independence. The onset of World War II caused the Sudanese nationalist movement to split, and Azhari took charge of the radical anti-British faction. By 1943 these efforts culminated in his founding of the Ashiqqa (Brothers) Party, the first such political organization in Sudan. As party president, Azhari espoused the two linchpins of Ashiqqa ideology: immediate independence from Great Britain and national unification with Egypt.
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Such agitation led to his arrest and jailing in 1948, but British authorities eventually yielded to creation of a Sudanese territorial legislature. This move angered Egyptian king FAROUK, who then claimed unilateral control over the entire Sudan and damaged Azhari’s platform for unification. But the move toward independence received greater impetus in 1952, when Farouk was overthrown by Arab nationalist GAMAL ABDEL NASSER. An antiforeign nationalist, Nasser was in complete sympathy with Sudanese aspirations and downplayed unification of the Nile region. Azhari also accelerated his political and nationalistic ambitions by founding the National Unionist Party (NUP) to seek independence from Great Britain at the earliest possible opportunity. National elections were held in 1953 and the NUP handily won, making Azhari Sudan’s first prime minister. With Sudanese independence virtually assured, Azhari made the most monumental political decision of his career. Having long touted unification of his country to Egypt as a precondition for severing ties to Great Britain, he suddenly did an about-face and opposed it. This reversal did little to diminish his political fortunes initially, and on January 1, 1956, Sudan became a sovereign nation with Azhari at its head. But soon after, intractable matters of governance manifested. Azhari’s faction of the NUP sought to maintain a British-style parliamentary system while others sought a stronger presidential mode of leadership. He faced an even more daunting challenge from southern Sudan. Unlike the northern reaches of the country, preponderantly Arabic and Muslim, the southern section is overwhelmingly black African and Christian. This made national rule and reconciliation difficult, if not altogether elusive, especially for such a newly improvised government. When civil war broke out in the south, Azhari’s inability to squelch it made him appear weak, and the NUP split up into feuding factions. Azhari tried reforming his administration into a coalition government “of all talents,” but much too late. In July 1956 he lost a vote of confidence and was forced to resign. Azhari nonetheless continued as head of the opposition in a new regime headed by Abdullah Khalil. Continued infighting between various factions led to the growth of instability and violence, so in November 1958 General Ibrahim Abboud overthrew the elected government and suspended all political