US Military Forces

Recently it has been announced that the United States military presence will be augmented in Honduras. In spite of different statements by the ministers of foreign affairs, the ministers of defense and the president clarifying the issue, 250 Marines will enter the country. Some sources indicate that this has to do with a contingent supporting humanitarian operations and helping after natural disasters. Another source claims they are just regular military exercises performed by armed forces, and others claim it is a contingent to combat drug trafficking. Within this variety of outcomes attributed to the military action, an effort is being undertaken to give an image of independence to the Honduran government; the U.S. embassy announced that it presented an official request and is waiting on the authorization of the Honduran government for the temporary military presence.

Whether we want it or not, if this action is made concrete it will involve us in some military logic that no one in this country can predict for certain, and is beyond the scope of what is publicly accepted in the U.S. and the extent understood by the Honduran government. Involving oneself with the armed forces of a country with an international presence can be a clear sign that Honduras would play a role in the future, a very risky one indeed, in the global strategies of the United States.

If that is the objective then decisions should not be made during secret negotiations, now that there nominally exist Honduran institutions that are constitutionally charged with exposing these issues. In recent history, we have had hard lessons in Central America and Honduras with regard to these types of compromises, assumed behind the national consensus, that sooner or later lead to a profound political and social crisis.

If this really is related to the war on drugs, it puts on the table issues related to the efficiency of the policies implemented so far. Government forces are evidently incapable of combatting the scourge of organized crime. Organized crime has not just become an international threat, but is also deeply ingrained in politics and business. Any attempt from these same institutions to fight it has been insufficient and counterproductive; any attempt to suffocate drug trafficking with the same national characters involved directly or indirectly with them would be absurd.

It is also known that corruption and negligence from the powers up high absorb multimillion dollar resources. News reports indicate that the multimillion-dollar sums or the security charge for combating organized crime has been invested mostly in vehicles. Everyone knows, in the end, who the real beneficiaries are. So now we have the government making an effort for us to believe that, through the military action of the greatest equipped military force in the world, the Honduran government will finally fight drug trafficking.

This does not end here. We continue to listen to contradictory and misleading statements. But what is certain is that the U.S. is lobbying the Honduran government, which has been lacking a defined foreign policy for a long time.