Chelato Uclés

In August 2015 Chelato Uclés, who was suffering from diabetes, was hospitalized to undergo a foot operation. He was granted a monthly 2200 dollar pension by Honduran Congress to challenge his disease and financial problems. He had been a member of Congress from 2006 to 2010. He died on April 28, 2021, at the age of 80.

"Chelato Uclés" died on April 28, 2021, fighting diabetes. Death was confirmed by his son.

In May 2012, he was made technical director of Real España for a second time, only to resign at the end of September 2012 citing internal problems and bad results.

In 2010, Chelato Uclés was appointed national team manager of Belize in a bid to qualify for Brazil 2014.

The process of Germany 2006 had the direct and indirect participation, of Jose de La Paz Herrera. Most of which was to a large extent negative, for the interests of the Honduran soccer.

After the elimination of Honduras from Germany 2006; Chelato stayed in control of the Honduras. The country did not want to know nothing of soccer, after so much frustration the people retired from the stadiums. Chelato noticed that and quietly prepared the team for next tournament; (Copa UNCAF 2005).

For this competition Ucles called a mixture of young and experienced players like: Wilmer Velásquez, and Milton Núñez, as well as; Carlos Moran and Marvin Chávez among others. In this tournament Chelato did a lot better than in the previous one; taking Honduras to the championship game against Costa Rica. He lost the final through penalty kicks, but qualified to the Gold Cup 2005 nonetheless.

In the 2005 Gold Cup played in the United States, Honduras beat teams like: Colombia, Panama, and Costa Rica, arriving at semifinal instances. Nevertheless, the Catrachos were defeated by the United States by score of 2–1, finishing in third place of the tournament. This was the last soccer competition for Chelato Uclès. Then he retired and dedicated himself to politics.

The first test for Chelato in this new process was Copa UNCAF of Panama in 2003. This was also a qualifier tournament for the 2003 Gold Cup. But Ucles’ new process with the national team did not start well, Honduras lost 3 out of 5 matches in the tournament, finishing fourth. This forced the team to play off games against Trinidad & Tobago and Martinique. The team was supposed to win these two matches, if it were to participate in the upcoming Gold Cup.

By 2001, "Chelato" took charge of C.D. Marathón. At the moment of his arrival he declared that "It would be pretty to leave Marathón being a champion." Those were very optimistic words for team that at that moment was going through a very difficult stretch; fighting to not being relegated to second division. Nevertheless, at the end of the season, "Chelato" kept his word, and the team became the new champs of the Honduran National League.

He took C.D. Olimpia, to win the championship title in 1992. Later, he added two more championships with Olimpia, in 1996–97 and 2003–04.

After the Spanish experience, the efforts of Chelato Uclés, for returning to a World Cup with the Honduras national team ended in failures. The first one of these; was for Mexico 1986; where Chelato's team was eliminated by Canadian national team. The following elimination of Honduras with Chelato in command was in the qualifying rounds of Italy 1990. In that opportunity, was Trinidad and Tobago who knocked out Honduras. The last elimination of Honduras with Chelato as coach was in the qualifiers for Germany 2006.

In spite of all the triumphs obtained with big teams, Chelato never could carry a small team to win a championship title. In 1983, he left Club Universidad at the doorstep of the title. And later, in the 1990s the disappointment was for Platense.

In this tournament Honduras had as its rivals the following teams: Mexico, El Salvador, Haiti, Cuba and Canada. In the inaugural match against Haiti, Honduras won by the score of 4–0, then beat the Cubans for 2–0, as well as the Canadians for 2–1. Honduras assured its classification to the World Cup with a tie (0-0) to El Salvador. In the final match, Honduras tied against Mexico 0-0. This signified the elimination of the Mexicans from the 1982 FIFA World Cup, and El Salvador would accompany Honduras to Spain.

In 1981 Herrera became the only Honduran coach to carry Honduras to the World Cup. For that task, Chelato and his players had to overcome two different phases in the qualifying rounds. The preliminary phase was long and grueling. The second and last was relatively easy; once in the World Cup, Honduras had an acceptable tournament.

For the pre World Cup tournaments Chelato used as his base; the players from Real C.D. España, and the members from the 1977 Youth World Cup played in Tunisia. Among them were: Jaime Villegas, Anthony Costly, and Julio Cesar Arzu among many others.

The first part of Chelato's history in National League begins in 1974, when he won his first title with C.D. España. With it, Chelato also delivered to the city of San Pedro Sula their first championship ever, after defeating F.C. Motagua of Tegucigalpa by the score of 1–0 in their final match.

He made his debut as manager on 14 December 1969, when he replaced "Popo" Godoy as manager of Motagua.

He played the 1965–66 season in the national league for Atlético Español.

José de la Paz Herrera Uclés, commonly known as Chelato Uclés, (21 November 1940 – 28 April 2021) was a Honduran footballer and coach.