Enrique Ortez Colindres is a Honduran

Honduras

Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...

 politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

 and member of the Liberal Party

Liberal Party of Honduras

The Liberal Party of Honduras is a centre-left liberal political party in Honduras that was founded in 1891. The party is a member of the Liberal International...

 who came to prominence during his time as Foreign Minister in the interim government of Roberto Micheletti

Roberto Micheletti

Roberto Micheletti Baín is a former de facto president of Honduras who served as a result of the 2009 coup d'état. The Honduran military was ordered by the Supreme Court to forcefully detain President Manuel Zelaya once the Court stated he was violating the Honduran constitution; Zelaya was exiled...

 in 2009.

Racial comments concerning Obama

During a television interview on June 29, 2009, Ortez commented that U.S. president Barack Obama

Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...

, who refused to back the coup or to recognize the interim government as legitimate, was "un negrito que no sabe nada de nada" (a little black man who knows nothing about nothing); he also referred to Obama as "el negrito del batey" (translated as a black plantation

Plantation

A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...

 worker). The US ambassador to Honduras, Hugo Llorens

Hugo Llorens

Hugo Llorens Acosta is a United States diplomat, and the current United States Ambassador to Honduras. Posted to a variety of countries in his thirty-year career, in 2002-03 he was the principal advisor to the President and National Security Advisor on issues pertaining to Colombia, Venezuela,...

, expressed outrage regarding Ortez's comments, and the anti-coup movement both in and outside of Honduras used Ortez's comments against the government. Ortez sent a letter of apology to the White House and was reassigned to the office of minister for justice on July 10.