Secrets of the Honduran Armed Forces

Belen, thanks for the interesting and impartial article. Because of the lingering fears of leftists who were repressed before 1982, the Honduran military has been involved in civilian protection for decades, recognizing that the real threat of armed conflict with Nicaragua or El Salvador, which justified their existence, has diminished significantly.

I used to share in the distrust, although I am not leftist. What changed my mind was teaching a programming class to a mix of army, air force and naval officers. If you look at their uniforms and weapons they look forbidding and impersonal. But once you get to know them, the situation changes. Soldiers are people too. Many of them come from poor families. I taught captains, lieutenants, men, women, and became friends with a major and his son.

We (Honduras) were unsuccessfully invaded by El Salvador in the sixties and in the early eighties, a cold-war hotspot erupted in the Honduran and Nicaraguan jungle. But that is now very much out of the picture, except for occasional tension over fishing rights in the Gulf of Fonseca.