Honduras has expressed its intent to expel the US military from its territory if US President-elect Donald Trump pursues mass deportation of Central American refugees and asylum seekers.
The potential move, announced by Honduran President Xiomara Castro, follows Trump’s reiteration during last year’s campaign that he would launch the “largest deportation program in American history” upon entering the White House.
Castro highlighted in a national television speech that US military sites in Honduras, which have been operational for decades, will “lose all reason to exist” in the event that the large-scale deportations occur, Al Jazeera reported.
She then backed up her threat by commenting on the US military’s overstaying in the Latin American nation without payment to Tegucigalpa.
Currently, the primary US military presence in Honduras is located at the Soto Cano Air Base south of Comayagua, with soldiers stationed there since 1983 for humanitarian and anti-drug missions.
The installation also houses US Joint Task Force Bravo, which according to the US Department of Defense is a “temporary but indefinite” forward-based expeditionary presence.
“In the face of a hostile attitude of mass expulsion of our brothers, we would have to consider a change in our cooperation policies with the United States, especially in the military field, where for decades, without paying a cent, they maintain military bases on our territory, which in this case would lose all reason to exist in Honduras,” Castro stated.
Backlash From Presidential Election Candidates
Meanwhile, Jorge Cálix, a Liberal Party presidential candidate for the Honduran elections later this year, commented on Castro’s assertion, saying that it had put the Latin American country “in grave danger for personal and ideological reasons,” the Associated Press reported.
Olban Valladares, another candidate from the Innovation and Unity Party, said that Castro’s plan would negatively affect the Trump administration’s plans for Honduran migrants in the future.
“She knows we don’t have the ability to threaten the United States in any way, that the damages it would cause Honduras would be terrible,” Valladares said.
The Pentagon has not yet released its response to Castro’s threat, saying that it “pertains to campaign statements and not policy,” according to The Washington Post.
The US Embassy in Honduras has not released a statement regarding the potential Honduran strategy.