Honduras' president has threatened to force U.S. troops from bases they built in the Central American country decades ago if President-elect Donald J. Trump carries out a mass deportation of illegal immigrants from the United States.
Honduran President Xiomara Castro, in a speech broadcast on television and radio on Wednesday, offered the first concrete pushback by a leader in the region against Mr. Trump's plan to deport millions of Latinos living in the United States. It became.
The threat came as foreign ministers were scheduled to meet later this month to address the deportation issue.
Regarding Honduras, Castro said: “Faced with a hostile attitude, including the mass expulsion of our compatriots, Honduras will have to consider changing its policy of cooperation with the United States, especially in the military field.”
“For decades, without paying a cent, they maintain military bases on our territory, and in this case they lose all reason to exist in Honduras,” she added.
Honduran Foreign Minister Enrique Reyna later said in a radio interview that Honduran leaders have the authority to suspend the decades-old agreement with the United States that allowed the construction and operation of Sotocano Air Base without Congressional approval. said. From there, America's largest military task force in Central America.
The move poses significant risks for the small country, which relies on the United States as its largest trading partner and source of humanitarian aid.
Will Freeman, a Latin American studies fellow at the New York Council on Foreign Relations, said of the Honduran president's statement that he was “a little surprised by the audacity of it.”
Brian Hughes, a spokesman for Trump's transition team, responded to Castro's warning in a statement: “The Trump Administration looks forward to working with our partners in Latin America to secure our southern border and return illegal immigrants to their home countries.”Countries of Origin. “
Trump promised to swiftly deport illegal immigrants when he took office, but his transition team has not shared any concrete plans, leaving Latin American governments to speculate as they prepare. Trump also vowed to impose 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada unless they stop immigration and fentanyl from entering the United States.
Most governments in Latin America, including Mexico, have sought to maintain good relations with Mr. Trump, even as they seek to emphasize the contributions of their citizens to the U.S. economy, regardless of their legal status.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum reiterated this week that the country “continues to demonstrate how Mexicans in the United States contribute to the U.S. economy in very important ways.” And if Mexicans were not in the United States, there would be no food on American tables. ”
Governments are also trying to reassure the American public that they are preparing for large-scale deportations. Honduras has announced it will set up a mobile consulate, and Mexico has created an online application to alert consular authorities if its citizens are in imminent danger of being detained.
On Friday, Mr. Sheinbaum, in an apparent shift from his previous goal of reaching a deal with Mr. Trump to avoid admitting such migrants, reiterated that the administration has not agreed to allow Mexico to expel them from other countries. He also suggested that there is a possibility of accepting people. With mass deportations.
“We will ask the United States to allow us to bring non-Mexican migrants to their countries of origin to the extent possible. If not, we can work together through a variety of mechanisms,” Sheinbaum said. spoke.
“If these deportations are really going to happen, it will be time to talk to the US government,” she added. “But we're going to embrace them here. We're going to embrace them well and we have a plan.”
Governments in the region rely on remittances from US immigrants. They account for as much as 25 percent of Honduras' economy. According to the Pew Research Center, it is estimated that more than 500,000 undocumented Hondurans (about 5% of the Honduran population) will be living in the United States by 2022.
Since the 1980s, American task forces have operated from Sotocano, a Honduran government-owned air base in Comayagua, a town about 80 miles from the capital Tegucigalpa. It was originally built by the United States in the 1980s to contain the communist threat in the region.
More than 1,000 U.S. military and civilians are currently in Soto Cano, a spokesman for Joint Task Force Bravo, the response force there, said Friday.
“We are guests of the Honduran government at the Honduran base,” said spokeswoman Col. Hilary Gibson.
Captain Gibson said the task force has played a role in counter-narcotics efforts, but has recently focused on managing disaster relief and humanitarian assistance.
The U.S. Embassy in Honduras did not respond to a request for comment.
U.S. troops also maintain a presence at bases in other countries in the region, including El Salvador, but these countries have fewer U.S. troops than in Soto Cano.
While many Hondurans praised Mr. Castro's comments, some elected officials sought to distance themselves from the president. Several members of Congress pointed to the need for dialogue with the Trump administration, pointing out that even removing U.S. troops from their bases will not stop Trump's mass deportations.
Foreign Minister Reyna said Thursday that Honduras intends to maintain good relations with the United States. But he stood by the president's comments, saying the country's leaders “have the right” to reconsider their relationship with the United States “if we end up with mass deportations that violate the rights of immigrants.”
Reyna also announced on social media that the leaders of Honduras and Mexico have convened a meeting of foreign ministers to discuss mass deportations. The post also included a photo of Mr. Castro holding hands with Mr. Sheinbaum.
Freeman, a Latin American studies fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the Honduran government's stance was surprising given that Castro had recently taken what he described as an openly confrontational approach to the United States. Ta. Ending a long-standing extradition treaty — behind closed doors, she was known to “feign friendly relations” with the U.S. ambassador in an effort to elicit continued U.S. support.
He said it was also surprising that Castro issued such a warning before Trump took office, especially in light of comments from Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, Trump's nominee for secretary of state. said.
Freeman said Rubio had warned that Honduras under Castro could become a “second Venezuela,” with the crisis deepening under Nicolas Maduro's authoritarian rule and mass It is said that immigration is occurring.
“I think it will worsen the relationship with the Trump administration, which was probably already souring,” Freeman said. “And I don't think these North and Central American countries are in a position to have much leverage with the United States on what immigration policy should look like.”
“Mexico today is a completely different story,” he added.
The United States does not have full diplomatic relations with some countries in the region, such as Venezuela and Cuba, which face tough U.S. sanctions. As a result, these countries are unlikely to receive large numbers of deportation flights.
Emiliano Rodríguez Mega contributed reporting.
