November 13, 2012
(photo by Karen Spring July 2012)
A US Forward Operating Base (FOB) or a temporary military outpost outside of
Puerto Lempira, La Moskitia, Honduras. Locals and communities have repeatedly
reported that US soldiers come and go and are present on the base that housed a
large rotating satellite, various military tents and vehicles.
Within one day of arriving in
Tegucigalpa, members of the Honduras Solidarity Network human rights delegation
were instantly reminded of the strong US military presence and authority in the
country. Upon stopping at the Soto Canal Air Base in Comayagua on November 13,
2012 (day one of the delegation), two US military soldiers – one identified as
a US Joint Task Force Bravo soldier – came out accompanied by two Honduran
soldiers and threaten to arrest us for taking pictures in the visitor parking
lot outside the base.
US soldier Matos with his hand on
his gun strapped to his leg wearing a uniform with a US flag on his shoulder
walked over to the delegation and aggressively ordered us to stop taking
pictures and that we would be arrested if we did not delete them from our
cameras.
Within five minutes of our exchange
with soldier Matos, US soldier Gonzalez with a leather armband with ‘JTF-B US’
on his arm and a Honduran soldier asked our contracted driver for his identification,
vehicle registration, name and phone number of the transportation company for
which he works. There was no identification of the US soldiers’ rank on the
uniform.
The delegation is concerned about
the role of the United States government and military in Honduras. During a
delegation in June2011 at the entrance of Palmerola, a human rights delegation,
upon requesting a meeting with an US officer in charge, was told that US
soldiers are invited guests by the Honduran government and that Palmerola is
not a US military base (1). We are unclear why US soldiers were enforcing
Honduran law at the entrance of a Honduran military base despite having
Honduran soldiers at their side. For
many members of the delegation that have visited Honduras consistently for the
last five years, it is the first time they have been confronted in such an
aggressive manner by US soldiers.
The US military presence and
authority in Honduras has previously been questioned particularly since the participation
in the deaths of four indigenous Miskito peoples in La Moskitia on May 11, 2012
in a ‘drug interdiction mission’. Despite the role of US personnel and US State
Department helicopters in the mission, no US investigation has been conducted
to clarify US participation in the mission or why four innocent Hondurans were
killed (2).
Indeed, the growing US presence in
Honduras is concerning to us. Since the June 28, 2009 military coup in
Honduras, the US has increased its presence in Honduras including funding the
expansion or construction of two new military bases in Caratasca (in Puerto
Lempira, Gracias a Dios) and Guanaja (Honduran island off the Caribbean coast);
the establishment of three Forward Operating Bases in the country; and the reported
citing of heavily armed US soldiers accompanying Honduran soldiers in
communities in La Moskitia.
- Group exchange with Honduran soldier outside the Soto Canal Air Base, Comayagua, Honduras. June 28, 2011. The same statement has also been repeated by various US officials when question about US bases in Honduras.
- Bird, Annie and Main, Alex. Collateral Damage. Available at: www.cepr.com
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