HONDURAS: Honduran Women Reject US Military Presence

Date: 
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Source: 
Inside Costa Rica
Countries: 
Americas
North America
Central America
United States of America
PeaceWomen Consolidated Themes: 
Participation
Disarmament

Honduran women rejected on Wednesday the increased US military presence in the country and the installation of two new bases in the Caribbean.

"There are clear intentions by Washington to continue extending its operational range and to demonstrate from our territory its hegemony to wage a war that we, the peoples, do not want," warned the Visitacion Padilla Movement of Women for Peace.

According to a communiqué issued by the movement, the coup perpetrated last year was a move envisaged in the Yankee strategy to pave the way for the installation of new bases of the Pentagon in the country.

In April this year, Washington and Tegucigalpa inaugurated a base in the Gracias a Dios department, bordering Nicaragua, in which the US government invested $2 million.

The installation is coordinated by the Naval Force of Honduras, but advised by officials from the US Southern Command.

Another similar facility will be built in Guanaja Island, also in the Honduran Caribbean.

The United States also has here the Palmerola air base, in central Comayagua department, where President Manuel Zelaya was first taken in the wake of the coup on June 28, 2009.

According to the Movement of Women for Peace, the country is going through a re-militarization and an excessively increased US military presence without legal authorization or consultation with the people, turning Honduras into the backyard of the US.