HONDURAS-DRUGS: US Base Could become Regional Anti-Drug Centre

By Thelma Mejía Reprint | | Print |

Thelma Mejia

TEGUCIGALPA, Jun 9 1997 (IPS) - The U.S. military base Palmerola in central Honduras, used in counterinsurgency operations during the 1980s, could be converted into a regional centre for anti-drug operations.

Installed in 1982, Palmerola housed thousands of soldiers trained in anti-guerrilla tactics. Roughly 100,000 troops passed through the base, which currently hosts some 800 soldiers involved in “humanitarian” tasks.

In 1995, the general accounting office of the U.S. Congress recommended that the base be closed, on the grounds that it was an unnecessary burden on taxpayers, costing 42 million dollars a year.

But Honduran President Carlos Reina has come up with an idea to keep the base open: its conversion into a centre for fighting drug trafficking in Central America.

The president’s initiative has drawn fire from human rights and social groups, as well as sectors of the armed forces. The president of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights in Honduras, Ramon Custodio, said that if the proposal were accepted, Honduras would remain an “enclave” at the service of foreign interests.

Furthermore, there are no guarantees that an anti-drug centre would not further corrupt the armed forces, he added.

Analyst Victor Mesa told IPS that mini drug cartels with links to sectors of the armed forces operated in Honduras, considered a transit point in the drug trafficking circuit.

Those are precisely the sectors that could be in contact with the agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration who would be posted in Palmerola, according to Custodio.

Honduras currently acts as a “warehouse” for drugs, with some 300 clandestine airstrips used by planes transporting the illegal substances, Mesa pointed out.

He added that there could be “ulterior and secret” motives behind the plans to convert Palmerola into a regional anti-drug centre.

Armed forces spokesman Colonel Mario Villanueva said Palmerola could be used to implement U.S. President Bill Clinton’s plan for a “supranational police force” in Central America.

Clinton launched that idea at a May summit with Central American heads of state and government in Costa Rica.

“The supranational police would be above any state policy, and would give the United States the authority to invade any country under the pretext of safeguarding U.S. interests,” said Villanueva.

The Honduran armed forces are critical of the reduction of U.S. military aid to a mere 50,000 dollars annually, down from 100 million dollars a year in the 1980s at the height of the fight against leftist guerrilla forces in the region.