Honduras coverage 1986

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Jan 2 1986
^AM-Honduras-Refugees
^TODAY'S FOCUS: Refugees Strain Resources of Impoverished Nation
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   JACALEAPA, Honduras (AP) _ Last spring, 2,700 Nicaraguans fleeing war in their own country lived in tattered tents in a refugee camp here. Now they live in simple wood-frame huts, paid for by international relief agencies and built by themselves.
   However, now that the homes are built, a 41-year-old refugee who had eagerly picked up a saw, hammer and nails finds himself idle and depressed.
   "It's always sad here," he told a recent visitor. "We don't have the freedom to go into the countryside and work."
   "We can't even leave to go walking in those hills," he said, waving an arm toward the green, piney countryside 40 miles east of Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital.
   But the man, who asked not to be identified, said he would rather remain here than risk endangering his family by returning to Nicaragua.
   "I left because there are too many battles, and there was no safety," said the man, who came to Honduras with his family from the northern Nicaraguan town of Jalapa three years ago.
   Honduras, considered the second-poorest nation in the hemisphere after Haiti, is easily accessible for civilians seeking to escape the wars in neighboring El Salvador and Nicaragua. To a much lesser extent, people also have fled here from Guatemala to the north.
   Officials say about 38,000 of them have settled in refugee camps run by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and perhaps as many as 100,000 more have moved into the country illegally.
   The illegal aliens are competing for jobs in a country of 4.4 million people where unemployment is estimated at 30 percent.
   The registered refugees are prohibited from entering the job market and are cared for by international relief agencies at an annual cost of $9.8 million, according to United Nationas figures.
   The refugees create political strains, too.
   Honduran government officials say the U.N. refugee camps which are home for 20,000 Salvadorans have become sanctuaries for leftist guerrillas fighting to overthrow the U.S.-supported government of El Salvador. Plans surface periodically to move the camps from border areas into the interior.
   And Hondurans are worried, as a recent editorial in the centrist newspaper El Heraldo put it, that the unchecked refugee flow may represent "a systematic penetration of our territory (to) prepare young Hondurans to set up guerrilla movements in the interior of the country."
   The editorial said President-elect Jose Simon Azcona Hoyo, who will be inaugurated Jan. 27, must consider the refugee issue an important one because it "creates an immense danger for Honduras, a danger of social disorder, of fratricidal struggle, of spilled blood and violence."
   The problem of the refugees was not a major issue in the fall campaign here, which focused almost exclusively on personalities. The transfer from one civilian elected president to another would be the first since 1929 in this country with a history of military intervention in politics.
   Even though the presence of the refugees causes problems for Honduras, "we can't put up a barrier against them," said Abraham Garcia Turcios, the chief of the government's refugee office.
   "We don't have enough men to patrol our long borders to keep them out, and furthermore, Honduras has said in international forums that we will take anybody trying to escape violence in their own country," Turcios said in an interview in Tegucigalpa.
   Commanders of the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, the largest rebel force fighting their country's leftist Sandinista government, have come to the gates of the Jacaleapa refugee camp to recruit young refugees for their forces, refugees at the camp say.
   "One commander came here last September and 150 refugees left with him," said a camp resident. "He promised them nothing and said they would suffer, that they would receive no pay and would be fighting a dangerous war. But he told them, 'If you think you are a man, then come with me.'"
   The majority of the Nicaraguan refugees are Miskito Indians living in camps on the remote Atlantic coast, where Indian rebels are known to operate.
   Meanwhile, Salvadoran guerrillas use the Salvadoran refugee camps to rest and recuperate after battles, Turcios said.
   "We're not saying all the refugees in the (Salvadoran) camps are guerrillas, but the guerrillas use them," he said.
   Albert Depienne of the U.N. refugee office in Tegucigalpa called inevitable the accusations that camps harbor guerrillas, whether they are leftist or rightist.
   "The Honduran government says we are helping the FMLN," he said, referring to the Salvadoran guerrilla coalition known as the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front. "Meanwhile, the Nicaraguan government says we are helping the Contras. No matter who we help, someone is going to point a finger at us."
   "But really, we don't care why they're here," he said. "We only know the refugees fled their countries because of a conflict, and that they are in a strange land and need help."
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Jan 12 1986
^AM-US-Honduras
^U.S. troops building outpost in Honduras
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   CAMP BIG BEAR, Honduras (AP) _ National Guard troops from Missouri are building Camp Big Bear in mountainous northern Honduras as part of another joint military exercise that will bring about 5,000 guardsmen from nine states here.
   A U.S. military official said the outpost is a "physical demonstration of U.S. commitment" to the region. He spoke of possible combat if Nicaragua's left-wing government brought in Soviet jet fighters or Cuban troops.
   "The image of American soldiers walking through villages down here (in combat) is abhorrent to me. A direct invasion would be a catastrophe for all involved. It would be successful, however," said the offical, who spoke to reporters at Palmerola Air Base in central Honduras where 1,100 U.S. military personnel are stationed.
   According to the guidelines set for the news conference the official could not be further identified.
   "To intervene in the internal affairs of Nicaragua is not in our best interests, but if they bring in MiG-23s or put a Cuban battalion in there, that's a different story," he said.
   The guardsmen landed Saturday at Palmerola in four U.S. military aircraft and then came to Camp Big Bear, located 100 miles north of the capital of Tegucigalpa and about 150 miles northwest of the Nicaraguan border.
   No more than 500 U.S. guardsmen will be in Honduras at any one time during the exercises that will continue into May, and they will serve for two-week periods, according to Alaska Air National Guard Maj. Carl Gidlund, the public affairs officer at Palmerola.
   He said about 5,000 guardsmen from North Dakota, Arizona, California, Maine, Alabama and Missouri will participate in the U.S.-Honduran training exercise called "Terencio Sierra '86."
   Some 200 guardsmen frm Arkansas, Pennsylvania and Michigan and 200 U.S. Army soldiers from Ft. Bragg, N.C., will participate in other artillery exercises beginning about Feb. 1, Gidlund said.
   One major purpose of "Terencio Sierra '86" is to give the guardsmen, most of whom are combat engineers and heavy equipment operators, experience in building roads in a developing country, officials said. They are scheduled to improve a 15-mile stretch of a washed out road between the villages of Puentecita and Jocon.
   The 34-foot-wide gravel road will become an extension of a similar road that U.S. forces built in this rugged area last summer.
   Guardsmen also will drill four water wells for villages in the area and provide medical services for the residents, said Maj. Charles Friend, a Missouri guardsman who is Camp Big Bear's operations officer.
   The Missouri troopers erected large canvas tents on the muddy valley floor that will be their home for the next two weeks.
   "It'll be good to get to sleep - we've been on the go since Friday," said Capt. Harry Woehrle, 31, a mechanical engineer from St. Louis, as he threw his duffel bag into a tent.
   U.S. officials said the joint exercises will not only provide training for American troops in a difficult environment but also will help buildup Honduras.
   "If we fail to produce economic progress, the consequences are predictable," said the U.S. offical in Palmerola. He said Nicaragua's Sandinista government "means to destabilize the region, to take advantage of its economic underdevelopment and then to impose military garrison states a la Cuba, and that's their plan."
   The U.S. economic assistance program to Honduras is the third largest in the Western Hemisphere. U.S. economic and military assistance to Honduras will total $214.7 million for the current budget year.
   U.S. forces have been conducting military exercises in Honduras almost continously since 1982. Last year more than 5,000 American soldiers participated in maneuvers that included tank exercises less than three miles from the Nicaraguan border.
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Jan 13 1986
^PM-Honduras
^U.S. Troops Arriving for Exercises in Rugged North
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   CAMP BIG BEAR, Honduras (AP) _ The first of 5,000 U.S. National Guardsmen, most of them combat engineers and heavy equipment operators, have arrived for four months of military maneuvers and construction work aimed at stabilizing a main U.S. ally in Central America.
   A U.S. military officer told reporters that they will work on development projects aimed at countering the leftist Sandinista government of neighboring Nicaragua, and that if they fail, "we're going to have to send our kids down here with guns."
   Under conditions set for the news conference, the military official could not be identified.
   The Americans will help build roads in this rugged country, starting with a 15-mile extension of a road built by U.S. forces last summer, officials said. The new stretch of gravel road will connect two villages in northern Honduras.
   "Terencio Sierra '86" is the latest in the almost continuous joint exercises conducted by U.S. and Honduran troops since 1982. U.S. officials said 500 guardsmen at a time will rotate into the country for two-week stays.
   A Missouri contingent arrived Saturday at Palmerola Air Base in central Honduras, where 1,100 U.S. military personnel are stationed, and then came to Camp Big Bear. The camp, still being built, is located 100 miles north of the capital of Tegucigalpa and 150 miles northwest of the Nicaraguan border.
   Guardsmen also will drill four water wells for villages and provide medical services for area residents, said Maj. Charles Friend, a Missouri guardsman who is Camp Big Bear's operations officer.
   The construction work is a critical part of the exercise because it will help build Honduras' road and health systems, a U.S. military official said at a news conference at Palmerola.
   Nicaragua's Sandinista government "means to destabilize the region, to take advantage of its economic underdevelopment and then to impose military garrison states 'a la Cuba,' and that's their plan," the official said.
   "We must create stability that will contribute to both parties' self- interest," possibly including industrial development, said the official.
   "If we fail to do all this, we're going to have to send our kids down here with guns," he added.
   U.S. economic assistance program to Honduras is the third largest in the Western Hemisphere. U.S. economic and military assistance to Honduras will total $214.7 million for the current budget year.
   Camp Big Bear is a "physical demonstration of U.S. commitment" to the region, the official at Palmerola said.
   Alaska Air National Guard Maj. Carl Gidlund, the public affairs officer at Palmerola, said the exercise will involve about 5,000 guardsmen from North Dakota, Arizona, California, Maine, Alabama and Missouri.
   About 200 guardsmen from Arkansas, Pennsylvania and Michigan and 200 U.S. Army soldiers from Ft. Bragg, N.C., will participate in other artillery exercises beginning about Feb. 1, Gidlund said.
   Last year, more than 5,000 American soldiers participated in maneuvers that included tank exercises less than three miles from the Nicaraguan border.
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Jan 14 1986
^AM-Nicaraguan Indians
^Leader of Indian rebels claims attacks intensifying
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ Indian rebels have stepped up their attacks against Nicaragua's Sandinista army, killing 201 soldiers and wounding 31 in battles during December, according to their military commander, Adan Artola.
   He said 15 Miskito Indian guerrillas were killed in the clashes and 20 were wounded.
   Most of the fighting occurs in remote areas and Artola's claims could not be verified independently.
   Artola, in an interview Monday, said the Indians usually use ambushes to engage their enemy, and that accounted for the disproportionate ratio of casualties.
   In one battle, Indian forces attacked a Sandinista garrison 25 miles north of Puerto Cabezas, killing 15 soldiers and destroying the facility, Artola said. He reported the Indians suffered two killed.
   Puerto Cabezas is on the Caribbean coast, 300 miles northeast of Managua, the Nicaraguan capital.
   Artola is the military chieftain of KISAN - Nicaraguan Coast Indian Unity - and he claims he has 4,000 fighters. Some independent observers believe that figure is exaggerated.
   He said about 2,500 are armed, mostly with Soviet-made AK-47 automatic rifles captured from the Sandinstas.
   They operate out of bases in Honduras and Nicaragua and one objective is to regain their traditional autonomy.
   Artola said the Sandinistas have posted about 5,800 soldiers along the Coco River, which runs betweend Honduras and Nicaragua and where most of the skirmishes with the Indian insurgents have occurred.
   In 1982, the government began forcibly removing the Miskito Indians from their homelands along the Coco River. Their crops and homes were burned to create a free-fire zone and remove civilian support for the rebels.
   Artola said that last year the government began moving the Indians back, and by the end of the year, 12,500 Miskito Indians had returned to the Coco River area on the Nicaraguan side.
   "There are serious problems out there," he said. "They have no food or medicine. There is no source of work or circulation of money."
   "The Sandinistas are putting the Indian back ... and giving him a machete," he added. "But how can he attain his previous level? How can he get back his cows, his schools, his property? The Sandinistas have put us back 50 years."
   Last year, the U.S. Congress authorized $27 million in "humanitarian assistance" to the Nicaraguan rebels, and Artola said some of that aid has been received and is helping provide the guerrillas with food, medicines and other staples.
   He said Indian rebel leaders have been talking with private sources in Europe and in the United States, and they expect to receive money to buy weapons. He refused to name the sources, but said some important ones are in Spain and in France.
   The largest anti-Sandinista rebel group is the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, which claims to have 20,000 fighters.
   Both the Democratic Force and KISAN have offices in Tegucigalpa and are members of the United Nicaraguan Opposition.
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Jan 27 1986
^AM-Honduras
^New President Takes Office in Honduras
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ President Jose Azcona Hoyo was inaugurated Monday in the first peaceful transfer of power between civilian governments in Honduras in more than a half-century.
   He vowed to improve the economic and social standards of the nation's 4.5 million people, most of whom are desperately poor peasants.
   Azcona Hoyo, a 59-year-old civil engineer, took the oath of office in the capital's national sports stadium before about 40,000 spectators.
   "To the United States of America, we reaffirm our friendship, and we vow to work for a pluralistic, participatory democracy," he said, as a cold wind ruffled his silver hair.
   Azcona Hoyo's administration is expected to smooth ruffled relations with the United States, which hopes to strengthen Honduras as a bulwark against communism in Central America. Vice President George Bush led the U.S. delegation at the inauguration.
   The new president also pledged his administration's support for the so- called Contadora process, a multinational effort to negotiate a peace treaty to end regional conflicts in Central America. The effort was begun by Mexico, Panama, Venezuela and Colombia in a 1983 meeting of their foreign ministers on the Panamanian island of Contadora.
   Azcona Hoyo said Honduras would repay its $2.3 billion foreign debt, but would attempt to renegotiate it, if necessary, in concert with other Latin American countries.
   He added: "Although we do not disavow the previous (loan) agreements, it would not be fair if the payment of the foreign debt aggravates the situation of hunger and misery that afflicts our people.
   "We begin today a term of difficult work with innumerable, complicated problems, some of them perhaps without possible solution," Azcona Hoyo said.
   "But I pledge that I will not rest in the battle that we are beginning at this moment against poverty and backwardness in all their forms."
   Honduras is the third poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, after Haiti and Guyana. It has an unemployment rate of more than 40 percent, an illiteracy rate of 40.5 percent and a foreign debt of $2.3 billion. Its infant mortality rate is the highest in Latin America.
   It also has been one of the hemisphere's most unstable nations. In its 165 years of independence, it has suffered 385 armed rebellions and changed its government 126 times. Azcona Hoyo is the 75th president.
   Since 1981, two years after the leftist Sandinistas came to power through revolution in neighboring Nicaragua, the United States has given Honduras more than $750 million in economic and military aid.
   But Washington's relationship with outgoing President Roberto Suazo Cordova, 70, began souring two years ago when he started maneuvering to extend his four-year term.
   Washington worked quietly to thwart Suazo Cordova's ambitions, and he retaliated last fall by reportedly blocking U.S. aid shipments to the anti- Sandinista guerrillas trying to overthrow the government of Nicaragua.
   The guerrillas, known as Contras, maintain offices in Tegucigalpa and a string of camps along Honduras' southern border with Nicaragua - facilities that Suazo Cordova's government consistently denied existed.
   Diplomatic sources in Washington and Tegucigalpa believe that one of Azcona Hoyo's first acts will be to quietly lift the embargo on aid shipments.
   Lifting the embargo has become even more important to the Reagan administration as it prepares to ask Congress for a new Contra aid package, reportedly as much as $l00 million for military hardware and other supplies.
   Bush, at a news conference following the inauguration, denied reports that the United States has an agreement with Azcona Hoyo to remove the embargo.
   "I can't discuss the way in which humanitarian aid is sent to the Contras, but I do not detect any shift in policy on the part of the host government in terms of U.S. support for the Contras," Bush said.
   "I can't help you with the mechanics on how we are going to continue to do what we have been doing. But I think they understand here quite clearly, one, our support for democracy in the hemisphere, and, two, our support for the Contras."
   Bush was asked about Azcona Hoyo's comments on debt payments and he replied, "I heard what the president said today, but I'm not sure what it means.
   "We recognize that there is a big burden in the foreign debt, and nobody is suggesting that repayment will be easy."
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Jan 28 1986
^PM-Honduras
^New President Vows War on Poverty
^Laserphoto NY6
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ Newly inaugurated President Jose Azcona Hoyo began his term with a vow to fight the desperate poverty of his Central American nation and to seek new terms from lenders on repayment of its foreign debt.
   Standing in a chilling wind Monday before 40,000 spectators in the national stadium, Azcona Hoyo, 59, donned the blue and white presidential sash to become the first freely elected president to succeed another in Honduras since 1929.
   Vice President George Bush, who led the U.S. delegation, hailed the inauguration as a triumph for democracy and said it was "an occasion for celebration."
   The United States has encouraged democracy in Central America and U.S. officials have said continuation of current levels of U.S. assistance to Honduras - more than $750 million since 1981 - would be tied to a smooth, democratic transfer of power.
   Azcona Hoyo focused on economic issues in his address, saying Honduras would repay its $2.3 billion foreign debt, but would attempt to renegotiate it, if necessary, along with other Latin American countries.
   Honduras is the third-poorest country in the Western Hemisphere after Haiti and Guyana. It has an unemployment rate of more than 40 percent, and the annual income of its 4.5 million people averages about $600.
   "Although we do not disavow the previous (loan) agreements, it would not be fair if the payment of the foreign debt aggravates the situation of hunger and misery that afflicts our people," he said.
   "We begin today a term of difficult work with innumerable, complicated problems, some of them perhaps without possible solution," Azcona Hoyo said.
   "But I pledge that I will not rest in the battle that we are beginning at this moment against poverty and backwardness in all their forms," he said.
   Honduran coffee growers and Azcona Hoyo's administration will benefit from higher coffee prices due to the recent freeze in Brazil that cut the world's coffee crop, and lower oil bills caused by the world oil glut.
   Inflation, running at an annual rate of 4.6 percent, is among the lowest in Latin America.
   The new president affirmed Honduras' friendship with the United States, and vowed to work for "a pluralistic, participatory democracy."
   In a news conference after a 40-minute meeting with Azcona Hoyo, Bush reiterated Washington's determination to help Honduras "defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity against Communist aggression."
   Cooperation of the Honduran government is an integral part of U.S. assistance to rebels trying to overthrow the leftist Sandinista government of neighboring Nicaragua. The rebels, known as Contras, operate mostly from bases in Honduras and have an office in Tegucigalpa.
   Outgoing President Roberto Suazo Cordova blocked U.S. aid shipments to the guerrillas last fall after U.S. officials worked against his maneuvering to remain in office longer than his four-year term.
   Bush denied reports that the United States had reached an agreement with Azcona Hoyo to lift the aid embargo.
   "I can't discuss the way in which humanitarian aid is sent to the Contras," he said. "But I do not detect any shift in policy on the part of the host government in terms of U.S. support for the Contras."
   The Reagan administration is preparing to ask Congress for more aid for the rebels, reportedly up to $100 million for military equipment and other supplies.
   Azcona did not mention the Nicaragua issue in his inaugural address, but said he supports the effort by the Contadora countries - Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia and Panama - to negotiate a peace treaty for Central America.
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Jan 30 1986
^AM-Contra Aid
^Nicaraguan Rebel Leaders Sees No Progress Without U.S. Aid With US-Nicaragua, Bjt
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ Nicaraguan rebels will be unable to defeat the leftist Sandinista government unless ample aid is provided by the United States, the military commander of the largest guerrilla group said Thursday.
   Enrique Bermudez, military commander of the U.S.-supported Nicaraguan Democratic Force, said that without military aid, "there will be no other resource for the United States than direct military intervention" to overthrow the Sandinistas.
   He was interviewed on condition that his location not be disclosed.
   "We have been fighting this war at a total disadvantage, because the Sandinistas receive thousands of tons of military supplies from Cuba and the Communist bloc," Bermudez said.
   "Meanwhile, we, since June 1984, have been fighting with contributions from private sources, which is not enough," he said.
   Bermudez claims to lead 20,000 troops.
   The Nicaraguan government says Contra activity is in preparation for a U.S.-backed invasion and says its military buildup is necessary for defense purposes.
   Bermudez said Contras would buy surface-to-air missiles, airplanes, boats, small arms and possibly helicopters if direct American military aid were resumed.
   The U.S. Congress ordered covert aid to the Nicaraguan rebels, known as Contras, cut in 1984 after controversy over CIA involvement. Last year, $27 million in non-lethal aid was authorized.
   It is expected that the Reagan administration will seek up to $100 million, including resumption of direct military aid, for the Contras for use after the earlier appropriation runs out at the end of March.
   Bermudez said his men have been relatively inactive recently because of a lack of supplies. He said many lack even such basics as boots.
   Deliveries of the so-called humanitarian aid have been slow because the administration of President Roberto Suazo Cordova, whose term ended Monday, refused to allow direct deliveries to Contras based in Honduras.
   The flow of American aid is expected to be easier under the new administration of President Jose Azcona Hoyo.
   Bermudez said boots, medicine, uniforms and other supplies expected with the approval of the non-lethal aid last year have not reached his troops, but he declined comment on the U.S.-Honduran controversy over deliveries because it was "politically sensitive."
   He said "proper aid" is needed to overthrow the Sandinista government.
   "This war can be shortened, we can avoid spilling more blood if we receive all the war materiel we need," the FDN leader said. "We don't need to kill the last Sandinista soldier to win. Instead, we will provoke a crisis with our military actions, and social, political and economic actions, so that the Sandinistas will have no choice but to hand over their power and flee to Cuba or the Soviet Union."
   In recent months the rebels have been launching sporadic attacks, without much success, from the sparsely populated volcanic mountain ranges that run through the center of Nicaragua.
   FDN spokesman Frank Arana said the rebels should be able to outfit at least 30,000 fighters if a $100 million appropriation is approved in Washington.
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Feb 13 1986
^AM-Honduras
^U.S. Legislators Inquire about National Guard Exercises in  Honduras
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TAMARA ARMY BASE, Honduras (AP) _ Officials from several U.S. states are traveling to this Central American country to find out why U.S. National Guardsmen are taking part in war games conducted with Honduras.
   Politicians from Oregon and Mississippi have arrived in recent days, and more are due from Arkansas and Michigan.
   Oregon state Sen. Jeanette Hanby, a Republican, said she sees the maneuvers as a form of pressure on the government of Nicaragua, which borders Honduras.
   "I don't believe in military intervention in a country that has had a popular election, has elected a president and wants their own sovereignty," Ms. Hanby said, referring to Nicaragua.
   Oregon state Rep. Bill Markham, a Republican, disagreed.
   "If the Guard were ever nationalized (sent to war), heaven forbid, they would be better prepared if they train in the terrain, language and customs of where they may be sent," said Markham as he watched guardsmen and Honduran airborne soldiers storm a hill while firing automatic weapons.
   This week, about 950 National Guardsmen are in Honduras, a country that U.S.-supported rebels use as a base of operations for their efforts to overthrow Nicaragua's Sandinista government. Guardsmen are being trained here in large numbers for the first time.
   Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbit, a Democrat who recently agreed to let 65 guardsmen from his state help build a military highway in Honduras, earlier this week in Phoenix criticized the idea of having guardsmen take part in military exercises.
   "The issue here is our soldiers are being placed in a position where they may be killed in order to create a pretext for a war," he said.
   The United States maintains a permanent force of about 1,100 active duty troops at Palmerola Air Base in central Honduras to help coordinate the military exercises, conducted almost without interruption since 1982.
   More than 15,000 Americans have participated in the maneuvers since 1983.
   The Americans have practiced rappelling, laying ambushes and conducting assaults, U.S. military officials said.
   Oregon recently sent 177 Army National Guard troops, who were working alongside 150 Honduran paratroopers, for two weeks of exercises in the sun- baked mountains 50 miles northwest of the Nicaraguan border.
   Troops from Texas conducted war games five miles from Nicaragua's border last year.
   The U.S. Congress last year approved $27 million in so-called non-lethal aid for the Nicaraguan rebels, known as Contras. The Reagan administration reportedly will push for approval this year of $100 million, inclduing military aid.
   The Reagan administration says the aid to the Contras is justified because of the Sandinistas' close ties to Cuba and the Soviet Union since coming to power in July 1979, and their alleged efforts to promote revolutionary movements elsewhere in the region.
   The Oregon legislators questioned U.S. military officers about why the maneuvers involving their guardsmen were held in Honduras, not in Oregon.
   Lt. Steven Muhr, a company commander of the Oregon contingent, said the exercise provided training unattainable in Oregon because soldiers could be sent thousands of miles away on short notice and operate in an "austere, remote environment."
   Recently, about 150 National Guardsmen from Arkansas were conducting war maneuvers in eastern Honduras near Mocoron, about 15 miles from the Nicaraguan border, said Air Force Capt. Felicia Tovares, a U.S. military public relations officer.
   Miskito Indian guerrillas trying to overthrow Nicaragua's Sandinista government launch raids into Nicaragua from jungle-covered eastern Honduras near the Caribbean coast.
   Eight miles north of Tamara, about 150 National Guardsmen from Pennsylvania were conducting artillery exercises. The exercises will involve 2,000 guardsmen and active-duty troops, according to Ms. Tovares.
   National Guardsmen from Arkansas, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Oregon and active-duty U.S. Army soldiers from North Carolina, California and Georgia will take part in the exercises, said Arthur Skop, U.S. Embassy spokesman.
   In a separate exercise called "Terencio Sierro '86," which began in January, guardsmen began a road-building project in north-central Honduras that eventually will involve 5,000 Guardsmen from Missouri, North Dakota, Arizona, California and Alabama, officials have said.
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Feb 27 1986
^AM-Honduras-US
^Deny Allegations of Chemical Warfare Experiments
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ Allegations that the U.S. government is conducting chemical warfare experiments here are part of a disinformation campaign intended to increase opposition to the American military presence, a U.S. official said Wednesday.
   The Honduran congress announced Tuesday night it would investigate a report that U.S. planes had been dropping chemical weapons onto villages in northern Honduras.
   The U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity for what he said were security reasons, said the report of chemical weapons was first "planted" in a local newspaper, was picked up by the Soviet news agency, Tass, and then was carried by other Honduran newspapers.
   The official said the allegations are false and called them a "classic case of disinformation tactics."
   He said he had no proof as to who was involved in the disinformation campaign. He said it's purpose was to "build opposition to U.S. forces in Honduras and to build opposition to U.S.-Honduran military collaboration."
   The centrist newspaper El Heraldo quoted residents of Villanueva, 100 miles northwest of the capital, as saying they received chemical burns after a substance was dropped from airplanes flying at night.
   The United States has been regularly conducting military exercises since 1983 in this Central American country, which is Nicaragua's northern neighbor. They are considered a clear sign of warning to the Nicaraguan government.
   At least 7,000 U.S. National Guard soldiers and regular U.S. Army troops will be participating in exercises scheduled here for the first half of the year.
   Pentagon sources said Tuesday in Washington that the United States is about to launch a new series of large-scale military exercises in Honduras, including an engineering project to carve out a new airstrip on the Caribbean coast near the Nicaraguan border.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mar 3 1986
^AM-Honduras-Exercises
^US Troops Arrive to Build Airstrip 15 Miles from Nicaragua
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   MOCORON, Honduras (AP) _ About 100 U.S. Army engineers parachuted into Honduras Monday with bulldozers and equipment to build an airstrip 15 miles from Nicaragua. The U.S. ambassador said Nicaragua's Marxist government should "take note" of the project.
   About 300 additional U.S. Army engineers will arrive later to join Honduran soldiers in building a 4,700-foot gravel runway capable of handling heavy transport aircraft.
   When the airstrip is finished, it will be the base for exercises in May and June involving some 1,600 U.S. airborne and Special Forces troopers.
   U.S. Ambassador John Ferch and Honduran President Jose Azcona Hoyo sat in metal chairs beside a dirt road watching the paratroopers, bulldozers and equipment drift to earth after a three-hour flight from Ft. Bragg, N.C.
   Ferch said Nicaragua's Sandinista rulers should realize that the United States is able to send troops and heavy equipment into Honduras within hours "if the need arises."
   "Tactically, I think it demonstrates to the Sandinistas, or at least they should take note of it, we are quite capable of coming to the aid of Honduras, if need be, in remote areas," he said.
   "We don't have to rely upon sea-borne transportation. We can bring heavy equipment in right where it's needed."
   The paratroopers of the 27th Airborne Engineering Battalion arrived shortly after dawn at the airstrip site, 15 miles north of the Nicaraguan border. It is seven miles southeast of the village of Mocoron and about 200 miles east- northeast of the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa.
   From mid-May through June, the U.S. airborne and Special Forces units will conduct maneuvers within seven miles of the Nicaraguan border, said Alaska Air Guard Maj. Carl Gidlund. He is the public affairs officer for the 1,100 U.S. military personnel in Honduras, with most stationed at the Palmerola Air Base.
   In that phase of the exercise called "Cabanas '86," the U.S. troops will carry live ammunition, according to Gidlund.
   U.S. Embassy spokesman Arthur Skop refused to comment on the conditions in which they would be allowed to engage in combat, but said they could use their weapons to defend themselves.
   There have been sporadic border clashes involving Honduran and Nicaraguan troops and U.S.-backed Nicaraguan rebels who have camps along the border.
   U.S. officials said the airstrip was not intended for use by the rebels, who have used another airstrip improved by U.S. forces to resupply their fighters inside Nicaragua.
   Azcona Hoyo said the new airstrip would have both civilian and military uses, but the main purpose would be to supply Honduran troops.
   "Cabanas '86" is one of several exercises that will bring about 11,000 U.S. military personnel to Honduras in the first half of 1986.
   About 2,000 U.S. troopers will be in Honduras from March 13 to April 20 for operation "Ahuas Tara '86," to be based at Palmerola Air Base 75 miles northwest of the Nicaraguan border.
   In a series of exercises that began in January, 7,000 U.S. National Guardsmen and regular military personnel are being rotated into Honduras for two-week periods in maneuvers scheduled to last through mid-summer. U.S. officials have said those exercises will place no more than 1,000 U.S. troops in Honduras at any one time.
   U.S. military units have been holding exercises in Honduras since 1983.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mar 11 1986
^PM-Nicaragua-Indians
^Guerrillas Welcome in Indian Villages An AP Extra
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
^    EDITOR'S NOTE - Andrew Selsky, a reporter for The Associated Press in Honduras, recently accompanied a group of Miskito Indian rebels to their Nicaraguan homeland by boat on the Coco River and on foot. Here is his report.
   SAKLIN, Nicaragua (AP) _ About 25 heavily armed Miskito Indian guerrillas crossed a partially destroyed wooden bridge, walked past the charred ruins of several houses, and entered this Indian village just across the border from Honduras.
   Villagers wearing tattered clothing greeted the rebel column with smiles, embraces and slices of cool watermelon, even though they barely had enough food to feed themselves.
   The villagers told a reporter accompanying the guerrillas on a three-day trip inside Nicaragua that they would happily share anything they own with the rebels because they consider them their only protection against government troops.
   In 1982, soldiers of the leftist Sandinista government forced 40,000 Indians from their homes along the Coco River in northern Nicaragua, destroyed their livestock and crops and burned entire villages to the ground in an effort to remove civilian support for the Indian rebels and to create a free- fire zone.
   The government agreed last year to allow the Indians to move back to their isolated, remote homelands along the Coco. Amnesty was offered to the Indians who fled, and an autonomy program is being drawn up to meet Indian demands.
   Residents of some of the six villages visited said they had received wooden planks for walls and corrugated-metal sheets for roofing from the Sandinistas, others complained that they received no building supplies and had to scavenge for material.
   The villages are in the northernmost strip of Nicaragua, none more than five miles south of the river and about 200 miles northeast of Managua.
   "They promised to give us houses, food, clothes, blankets - all the things we lost," said Margarita Williams, a 31-year-old mother of six. "But it's a pure lie. You can see it."
   Ms. Williams, who was interviewed in the village of Wasla, about 10 miles from Saklin, said she had to rebuild her home from debris she found scattered around the ruins of her village.
   "When we came back to Wasla, we found only bush, there was no village anymore," said Ms. Williams' brother, David Williams. "We didn't get any houses. We had to sleep on the ground like animals."
   The government has said it is interested in providing ample supplies to residents returning to their homelands and that they need fear no reprisals. But it charges that the guerrillas operating in the area are impeding the program.
   Sandinista soldiers maintain garrisons in the region, but have generally kept away from the villages since the Indians returned from their forced relocation, the residents said.
   The villages the Indians left in 1982 had grass lawns that were cropped by the cattle most of the families owned. The Indians lived in simple but sturdy wooden houses perched on stilts to keep them dry during the rainy season. Groves of fruit trees kept them nourished, along with pigs, chickens and other farm animals.
   When the Indians began returning last year, they found their homes, schools, churches, crops and fruit trees burned to the ground. The livestock was gone. The ruins were covered with jungle growth.
   Some of them now are using plastic sheets for roofing.
   "The rains will come in June, and those roofs will not last then," said Bepio Sandino Tobu, a resident of Saklin. "How will the people keep themselves dry then? They will have no protection."
   Tobu said the government has given villagers seeds to grow rice, beans and grains, as well as allotments of sugar, lard, soap and salt. But he said the rations are scheduled to be cut off early this summer.
   Adan Artola, the military commander of Kisan, the group of Indian guerrillas that operates in northeastern Nicaragua, said about 10,000 Indian civilians have returned to the Coco River area since last summer. About 14,000 Indians who formerly lived here remain in refugee camps in Honduras, and others are elsewhere in Nicaragua.
   Kisan stands for Nicaraguan Coast Indian Unity, in the Miskito Indian language.
   The memory of the relocation programs leaves little fondness here for the Sandinistas, and the guerrillas usually have relatives among the civilians.
   "The boys are fighting for us," said villager Edison Washington Diaz, referring to the rebels. "I hope that one day we will be in peace and live like Indian people."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mar 13 1986
^AM-Habib
^Reagan's Special Envoy Pursues Central American Trip
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ U.S. special envoy Philip Habib said Thursday he is in Central America to explore prospects for regional peace negotiations, not to discuss proposed U.S. military aid to rebels fighting in Nicaragua.
   "This is only the beginning of my efforts to explore ... negotiations which we hope will bring about the desirable objections - peace, democracy, and stability in this part of the world," he said after meeting President Jose Azcona Hoyo.
   President Reagan has been pressing the U.S. Congress to approve $100 million in aid for the Contra rebels fighting the leftist Nicaragua government.
   Habib, when asked if he had tried to seek Honduras' support for Reagan's Contra aid proposal, replied: "These are not the kinds of questions I am here to discuss, I assure you."
   He also declined to elaborate on his more than one-hour discussions with Azcona Hoyo, saying: "I am here to listen, and not to speak publicly."
   Hondruas, a key U.S. ally in Central American, previously cooperated with U.S. aid programs to Nicaraguan rebels based here.  But the previous administration of Roberto Suazo Cordova declined to allow further aid shipments to the Contras after October, and there has been no indication it has resumed since Azcona's inauguration in January.
   Habib arrived in the morning from El Salvador, his first Central American stop.  His next stop was Guatemala, where he was expected to meet with Costa Rican President-elect Oscar Arias on Friday.
   The veteran diplomatic trouble-shooter met Salvadoran President Jose Napoleon Duarte on Wednesday.
   His itinerary excludes Nicaragua.
   Habib publicly endorsed Duarte's proposal to meet with leftist guerrillas fighting his U.S.-supported government if Nicaragua agreed to talks with the Contras.
   As an inducement, Habib offered to resume the direct U.S.-Nicaraguan talks the Reagan administration suspended in January 1985 if Nicaragua would start negotiations with the Contras.
   In rejecting the U.S. proposal Wednesday, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said Reagan is using Habib's trip to try "to impress on intrnational public opinion that he is interested in a negotiated solution, but what he really wants to do is complement his policy of war and terrorism against Nicaragua."
   Nicaraguan leaders have said repeatedly they will not speak with the Contras, but only with the U.S. government they consider responsible for the armed fight against them.
   On Wednesday, Ortega announced he accepted an invitation from Guatemalan President Vinicio Cerezo to attend a regional summit in Guatemala sometime in May.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mar 19 1986
^PM-Contras
^Rebels Lying Low in Honduras With PM-Contra Aid-Poll, Bjt
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ While the U.S. House prepares to vote on President Reagan's proposal to send $100 million in aid to Nicaraguan rebels, most of the guerrilla fighters have retreated to base camps in this country, a source said.
   An estimated 60 percent to 80 percent of the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, the largest of the Contra groups, has pulled back, according to the source, who has direct knowledge of their activities.
   The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Contras "are bad off. ... In one sense that is the best argument against helping the Contras - how poorly they have been doing. But the other case is that since they are doing so badly, they need assistance."
   Reagan in his intense lobbying campaign has said repeatedly that the rebels, whom he calls "freedom fighters," are struggling to bring democracy to Nicaragua and eliminate the communist threat represented by the leftist Sandinista government.
   The source said the $27 million in non-lethal aid authorized for the Contras last year only has "kept them fed here (in Honduras) and not fighting there." U.S. aid to the rebels was cut off in 1984 after a controversy over CIA involvement in the mining of Nicaraguan harbors.
   Access to Contra camps, known to exist near the Nicaraguan border, is tightly restricted by the Honduran military.
   A Contra leader said in a recent interview here that some units still operating inside Nicaragua have not been resupplied in more than a year.
   "With aid from the United States, we can get air transport and boats to supply our forces deep inside," said Indalecio Rodriguez, one of seven directors of the Democratic Force, known as the FDN.
   The FDN claims to have 20,000 soldiers, but other sources here estimate the number at 16,000. Capt. Rosa Pasos, a Sandinista military spokeswoman, said in Managua recently that only about 1,500 Contras are inside Nicaragua and 7,000 more in their camps in Honduras.
   Rodriguez said the rebels will win the war whatever the outcome might be of the debate in Washington, but it will be "slower, more bloody and more costly" without.
   In light of the crucial vote in Washington, the Contras are in a position where in certain ways it is to their advantage to appear to be doing poorly in their fight against the Soviet bloc-equipped Sandinista military.
   On Tuesday, rebels attacked an electrical substation with mortar fire, leaving two northern Nicaraguan provinces bordering Honduras without electricity and two guards dead, officials said. It was one of the Contras' most visible actions in recent weeks.
   The Honduran government has said that its military does not have enough manpower to patrol the entire border with Nicaragua and cannot prevent Contras from maintaining camps in its territory. Much of the mountainous area is remote and rugged.
   Contras also operate in southern Nicaragua on a more limited scale, where three groups are generally evaluated as being weak, dispirited and ill- equipped.
   The largest there is the Revolutionary Democratic Alliance, or ARDE, headed by dissident Sandinista Eden Pastora.
   Pastora, who has received no U.S. aid since early 1984, still claims to lead a force of about 3,000 fighters. He admits they are desperately short of guns, ammunition, food, clothing and medicine.
   Other estimates of his force from analysts in San Jose, Costa Rica, range as low as 500.
   Many of ARDE's base camps and supply posts in southern Nicaragua were overrun by a Sandinista offensive in the spring and summer of 1985. Nicaraguan military officials in Managua now claim that Pastora's group no longer is an effective fighting force.
   There has been no action on the southern front in recent months that would dispute that claim.
   The United States long has sought to bring the various rebel organizations together under a unified command. It is believed that one outcome of stepped up U.S. military aid would be an effort to strengthen the southern front.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mar 20 1986
^AM-Honduras-Nicaragua
^Rebel spokesmen disappointed by House vote, hope for compromise
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ Spokesmen for Nicaraguan rebels said Thursday they were disappointed by the House of Representatives vote against President Reagan's proposal to send them $100 million in aid, but they expressed hope for a compromise later.
   "We are sure that once a bipartisan compromise is made, it will be approved by the whole Congress and by the American people," Frank Arana, spokesman for the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, said in a phone interview. His group, based in Honduras, is the rebel army fighting the leftist Sandinista government.
   "The whole of Congress is aware that the Sandinistas are a totalitarian Marxist-Leninist regime that threatens the region and the United States," he said. "We wait with optimism for the vote of the Senate next Tuesday and believe an amendment will be accepted by the entire Congress."
   A Nicaraguan Indian rebel leader said the United States "will suffer" if the Sandinistas overwhelm the rebels.
   "What a shame," said Roger Hermann, political director of a Miskito Inidan armed opposition group, when The Associated Press told him of the vote.
   "We will keep going on, but it will be very difficult for us. We will continue to fight as guerrillas for democracy." he said.
   His group, called KISAN, is a member of the United Nicaraguan Opposition, a coalition of rebel organizations formed at U.S. urging that also includes the Democratic Force.
   "The United States will suffer the consequences if we lose the war," Hermann said. "Yesterday Cuba, tomorrow Nicaragua, and then the rest of Central America will be consumed by communism - right up to the borders of the United States."
   His comments echoed the essence of Reagan's argument.
   KISAN, an acronym in the Miskito Indian language for Nicaraguan Coast Indian Unity, claims to have 2,000 guerrillas, most of them fighting in remote parts of northeastern Nicaragua. The Democratic Force says it has about 15,000 fighters, but most currently are believed to be in Honduran camps along the 500-mile border with Nicaragua.
   A Honduran military intelligence source said his government rushed about 5,000 troops to the border Wednesday in what he called preventive response to a buildup on the Nicaraguan side.
   The source, who asked not to be identified for security reasons, said the soldiers were sent to the southern and southeastern parts of the country after there was "an unusual movement of Nicaraguan troops" and Nicaraguan soldiers closed the customs house at El Espinal border crossing.
   A company of U.S. Army soldiers of the 197th Infantry Brigade from Fort Ord, Calif. have been firing live ammunition from automatic weapons in an exercise about 20 miles from the border near Choluteca in southwestern Honduras, said Arthur Skop, a U.S. Embassy spokesman.
   "There is no intention to use U.S. combat troops" in the Honduran action, he said. "U.S. troops are not here to participate in combat. They are here to participate in exercises."
   About 400 Army combat engineers from Fort Bragg, N.C., are building an airstrip 15 miles from the border in eastern Honduras.
   The Honduran military source said closing of the El Espinal post was "without justification or explanation." El Espinal is 100 miles southeast of Tegucigalpa on the highway between Tegucigalpa and the Nicaraguan capital, Managua.
   He claimed the Nicaraguan troops brought heavy equipment, including anti- aircraft guns and tanks, close to the border.
   There was no official comment Thursday from Managua on the Honduran action, and no announcement about the closing of the border crossing.
   Jose Gonzalez, Nicaragua's deputy army commander, said Wednesday that the Sandinista military would begin an offensive against Indian and other rebels it said were planning to seize territory and set up a provisional government in northeastern Nicaragua. He didn't specify when the government might attack, but said it woould begin if the rebels didn't lay down their arms in the next few days.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Apr 2 1986
^AM-Honduras-Nicaragua
^U.S. Pilots Ferrying Honduran Troops
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ U.S. Army helicopter pilots ferried Honduran troops and weapons Wednesday to an area where Nicaraguan soldiers battled rebels last week, said U.S. Embassy spokesman Arthur Skop.
   Skop said the helicopters transported about 150 Honduran soldiers from one location to another near the border area known as the Las Vegas salient, a rugged triangular-shaped mountain area that juts into northern Nicaragua.
   Honduran and U.S. officials say about 1,500 troops of Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista government crossed into the area last week in a failed attempt to wipe out bases of the U.S.-backed rebels, known as Contras. The rebels are fighting to overthrow the Nicaraguan government.
   The Honduran government refused to allow reporters to travel into the area to verify the invasion report.
   Officials say almost all of the Sandinista soldiers, 200 of whom were reported killed, have returned to Nicaragua.
   But a Honduran military source said skirmishes between government troops and small Sandinista patrols have continued up to Wednesday.
   The source, who spoke on condition he not be identified, said there have been no reports of casualties from either side.
   U.S. helicopter pilots also transported Honduran troops to the border area during the reported invasion.
   On Tuesday, U.S. Army pilots flew 160mm mortars out of the region in Chinook helicopters, Skop said, adding that the number of Honduran forces in the salient is being slowly reduced.
   U.S. Army pilots will continue to fly for the Honduran armed forces "until they say they don't need our assistance anymore," Skop said. He said he did not know how many flights the American pilots had made Tuesday and Wednesday.
   Meanwhile, a force of about 2,300 American troops from the U.S. Readiness Command based at McDill Air Force Base near Tampa, Fla., began a "command and control" exercise at Palmerola Air Base, 50 miles northwest of Tegucigalpa, said Col. Tom Jones, a spokesman for the exercise. The base is 80 miles northwest of the are where the reported fighting occurred between the rebels and Nicaraguans.
   The American soldiers, who are prepared to be sent anywhere in the world on short notice, are simulating a war action at the command level, Jones said. There will be no simulation of actual ground troop movements.
   The action being simulated is classified, Jones said, but added that it has nothing to do with last week's hostilities near the border.
   "This has been on the books for at least a year," he said in a telephone interview.
   Most of the soldiers for the exercise, called Ahuas Tara '86, are here as support troops, he said. The exercise is scheduled to end Friday.
   In all, there are 3,800 U.S. troops in Honduras, including the 1,000 normally stationed here, Skop said. The rest are participating in military exercises.
   About 400 U.S. Army combat engineers are completing a gravel airstrip about 12 miles from the Nicaraguan border in eastern Honduras - an area far from last week's fighting but close to where U.S.-backed Nicaraguan Indian guerrillas operate.
   U.S. National Guard troops are also participating in a road-building exercise in northern Honduras, about 120 miles northwest of the Nicaraguan border.
   U.S. troops have been conducting military exercises almost continuously since 1982 as a show of force to the Nicaraguan government.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Apr 4 1986
^AM-Nicaragua-Indians
^Miskito Indians Flee Fighting
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ Thousands of Miskito Indians have fled Nicaragua for refugee camps in this neighboring country to escape fighting between Sandinista troops and Indian guerrillas, a U.N. official said Friday.
   About 2,400 refugees have arrived and 2,000 more are expected, Luise Druke- Bolewski told reporters. She is with the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees here.
   She said the commission has put an emergency plan into effect to handle the flow and has moved staff members from other parts of Honduras to the Mosquitia region in the east, where the Indians are arriving.
   Some are "in a pretty awful state," she said, and many complained of a lack of food and medicine in Nicaragua.
   The United Nations now cares for 18,000 Miskito refugees in Honduras and the emergency plan can absorb another 12,000, Ms. Druke-Bolewski said, adding that about 4,600 have arrived since December.
   In 1982, Nicaragua's leftist government forced the Indians from their traditional homeland, the Caribbean coastal jungles along the Coco River, to eliminate support for Indian guerrillas and create a free-fire zone for the battle against U.S.-backed rebels known as Contras.
   The Indians were allowed to return last year from relocation camps in central Nicaragua where most of them had lived. They found their villages burned to the ground and jungle overrunning the ruins.
   Adan Artola, military commander of the Indian rebel alliance called Kisan, said in a telephone interview that five guerrillas were killed and 19 wounded in fighting from March 24-30. He claimed at least 60 Nicaraguan soldiers were killed and 80 were wounded.
   Artola claimed Sandinista casualties were high because the guerrillas ambushed two trucks loaded with reinforcements, killing most of the occupants before they could return fire.
   He said the Sandinistas have captured many of Kisan's fixed positions and the guerrillas are using ambush tactics more frequently.
   About 15,000 Indians moved back to the Coco River after the ban was lifted, Artola said, but about 3,000 have fled the fighting.
   Kisan is an acronym in the Miskito language for "Nicaraguan coast Indian unity."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Apr 4 1986
^AM-Honduras-US
^President Says Honduras Countered Incursion Without Presssure
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ President Jose Azcona Hoyo told the nation Friday he took steps to counter a Nicaraguan military incursion last month "without internal or external pressure."
   In a nationally broadcast address, Azcona Hoya disputed statements reportedly made by a high-level Honduran government official and published this week in some U.S. newspapers about American pressure. The official was not identified by the newspapers.
   White House spokesman Larry Speakes said Thursday the U.S. government wanted a "clarification" from Honduras on the official's alleged statements that the United States had pressured Honduras to publicly denounce the incursion.
   "We have not minimized the incidents on our border with Nicaragua, nor have we magnified them," the president said in his first address on national radio and television since he took office Jan. 27.
   "The decisions which I had to take ... I took without internal or external pressure, guided solely by my democratic and republican background," he said.
   U.S. Embassy spokesman Arthur Skop, who said he had read a copy of Azcona Hoyo's speech, declined to say if he believed it provided the "clarification" sought by the Reagan administration.
   "We told the truth about a very dangerous incursion that the Sandinistas subsequently admitted to," Skop said, referring to Nicaragua's Sandinista government. "We have not pressured the government of Honduras. We responded to their request."
   Part of that request was for emergency military assistance. President Reagan responded by authorizing $20 million in emergency military aid. At the time, U.S. and Honduran officials said about 1,500 Sandinista troopers had crossed into Honduras on March 22 in an effort to destroy bases of U.S.-backed Nicaraguan rebels.
   U.S. Army helicopter pilots transported Honduran soldiers, mortars and other weapons to the zone of the fighting in the Las Vegas triangle, an area of southern Honduras that juts into Nicaragua.
   In the past five or six years, Honduras has filed at least 300 protests accusing Nicaraguan troops of border violations, but most involved small patrol units. The Sandinistas came to power in July 1979 after defeating the right-wing government of the late President Anastasio Somoza.
   U.S. officials in Washington first reported the incursion last month, and the initial response by Honduran officials was that they did not have such information. The government later confirmed the U.S. account.
   Marco Tulio Romero, the chief of the presidential press office, told The Associated Press the conflicting information in Washington and Tegucigalpa was due to a "lapse of coordination," and Honduras had not tried to keep the Sandinista incursion secret.
   He said the Honduran government "does not want to exagerrate (the incursion) because we are not on a war footing with Nicaragua."
   Romero said neither he nor the president knew which government official made the alleged statements about U.S. pressure, but Azcona Hoyo "is not angry about the statements because we live in a pluralistic democracy."
   He said Azcona Hoyo would not have bowed to pressure "because he will not be manipulated by anybody."
   Azcona Hoyo "will look after the interests of Honduras," Romero added.
   This impoverished Central American country received $214.7 million in U.S. aid last year.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Apr 8 1986
^AM-Honduras-US Pilots
^U.S. Pilots Fly Honduran Troops Back from Border Zone
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ U.S. Army pilots began flying Honduran soldiers and weapons Tuesday out of the rugged border area where Nicaraguan troops were said to have crossed last month, a U.S. Embassy official said.
   About 600 Honduran soldiers had been flown by U.S. pilots to the zone after reports that up to 1,500 troops of Nicaragua's Sandinista army were caught on a mountain about 150 miles east of Tegucigalpa.
   The Embassy official, speaking on condition his name not be used, said about 15 U.S. Army Chinook and Huey helicopters from the Palmerola Air Base were bringing the Honduran troops, plus mortars and other weapons back to their home bases.
   The official said he did not know how many U.S. or Honduran troops were involved in the airlift.
   President Reagan released $20 million in emergency military aid to Honduras on March 24, after Honduran President Jose Azcona Hoyo asked for help in moving troops to the border.
   The U.S. and Honduran governments said Nicaraguan soldiers crossed the border intending to attack bases used by the anti-Sandinista Contra rebels in the triangular-shaped Las Vegas Salient, a piece of Honduran territory that juts into Nicaragua.
   Sources here said the Sandinista soldiers became trapped by the Contras but withdrew by March 28, leaving behind an estimated 200 dead and some stragglers.
   Foreign Minister Carlos Lopez Contreras said Tuesday the Honduran troops had been sent to the zone "to induce a spontaneous retreat (by the Nicaraguans) rather than an open confrontation."
   Contreras told a press conference that Honduras sent Nicaragua a diplomatic protest about the incursion and "made a parallel military action because otherwise the protest would have lacked significance.
   "We're trying to control (these) incidents ... so we don't invite open fighting between both (Honduran and Nicaraguan) armies," Contreras said.
   "We are using a lot of moderation in the face of situations that at times are very difficult," he added.
   Honduran officials have consistently denied any knowledge of Contra bases in their country, although the March incident was not the first time Nicaraguan soldiers have been reported crossing the border in pursuit of rebels.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Apr 9 1986
^AM-Honduras-Miskitos
^Indians Said to be Fleeing Nicaraguan Soldiers
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   AUKA, Honduras (AP) _ About 5,000 Miskito Indians have left Nicaragua in the last two weeks to seek refuge in makeshift Honduran camps, an official with the U.N. High Commission for Refugees said Wednesday.
   United Nations and other relief agency workers said the refugees have moved to posts such as Auka, eight miles from the Nicaraguan border. Reporters were flown in on a U.S. military plane and given tours by members of the U.S. Embassy based in Tegucigalpa.
   Indians and relief workers said the refugees left their homes because Sandinista government soldiers from Nicaragua were coming more frequently to their villages searching for U.S.-backed Contra rebels.
   The Reagan administration is pushing hard to get Congress to approve $100 million in aid for the Contras, fighting to topple the Nicaraguan government. House reconsideration of a measure for the aid is scheduled later this month, following a win in the Senate for the Republican aid proposal.
   Earlier, the aid proposal was defeated by the Democratic-dominated House.
   The move by the Miskitos is the second time in four years that the Indians have left their ancestral homelands on the Coco River that forms the border between Nicaragua and Honduras.
   In 1982, the Sandinista government told the Indians to leave in an effort to eliminate civilian support for Indian guerrillas and create a free-fire zone.
   The Indian rebels are members of Kisan, an acronym in the Miskito language for Nicaraguan Coast Indian Unity. The group is one of a handful of U.S.-backed rebel groups fighting to oust the government in Managua.
   Late last year, the Nicaraguan government allowed the Indians to return to the Coco River area, but when government troops on March 24 launched an offensive against the guerrillas, the Indians began leaving again.
   The Indian civilians largely support the guerrillas, and some of the combat was taking place in the Indian villages.
   "We had to move. If not, the Sandinistas would have done away with us," said Amanecio Gonzalez, who crossed the Coco River into Honduras Tuesday with his family of 10.
   Indians interviewed said they left because they were afraid of being caught in more fighting and because they resent having Sandinista soldiers in their villages.
   The Indians, including children and the elderly, said they walked for days over jungle trails to get to the processing stations. They carried their possessions in sacks on their backs. Some brought chickens and dogs.
   The U.N. worker said interviews with the refugees indicated that about 4,000 Indians remained on the Nicaraguan side of the Coco River. Many, she predicted, would follow their family members to Honduras.
   Officials said that under a U.N. emergency plan put into effect when the refugees began leaving their homelands, an additional 9,000 refugees can be cared for at the camps, where each displaced family is given about seven acres of land to plant crops with seeds provided by relief agencies.
   About 20,000 Nicaraguan Miskito Indians are being cared for by the U.N. High Commission for Refugees in Honduras.
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Apr 11 1986
^AM-Honduras-Nicaragua
^Honduras Released Seven Sandinista Soldiers
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer=
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ President Jose Azcona Hoyo said Friday he would be willing to ask more than 2,900 U.S. soldiers to leave Honduras if Nicaragua would agree to get rid of the Soviet and Cuban advisers on its soil.
   Azcona Hoyo told reporters that Honduras was willing to sign a regional peace plan drafted by the Contadora group of nations, which calls for a mutual non-agression pact and an end to all foreign military presence in Central America.
   "Honduras is willing to sign any Contadora compromise document and we are determined that after that no North American soldier, no U.S. military aide will remain here," Azcona Hoyo said.
   However, he emphasized, "While Nicaragua persists in its arms race, Honduras will not be able to adopt a decision of that nature."
   More than 15,000 U.S. soldiers have taken part in joint military maneuvers in Honduras since the two countries signed a military assistance treaty in 1954.
   The peace talks in Panama City broke down Monday. The foreign ministers of El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica said Nicaragua refused to accept a June 6 deadline for signing a regional peace treaty. Guatemala is the fifth Central American nation involved in the talks.
   Nicaragua said that the compromise agreements presented in Panama this week were not in line with a proposal all five Central American countries had agreed to in January. The previous plan had more strongly condemned U.S. intervention in the region.
   The talks were sponsored by the Contadora group of nations - Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia and Panama - which had begun the process in January 1983 after meeting on Panama's Contadora Island.
   "Nicaragua is consolidating its Marxist-Leninist revolution," Azcona Hoyo said. "That greatly worries us, simply because Nicaragua will try to expand its communist doctrine and subversion to Honduras."
   He said Nicaragua "constitutes a serious problem for us because it earmarks all its economic resources to the arms race ... and the Sandinista government maintains its people in a permanent psychosis of war."
   Honduras released six Sandinista soldiers Friday who were captured when Nicaraguan army units crossed the border last month.
   The soldiers were released to Nicaraguan Ambassador Danilo Abud Vivas in the offices of the Honduran Red Cross.
   A seventh soldier captured during the incursion, which the United States said was an attack on anti-Sandinista Contra rebels, remained in a civilian hospital under Red Cross care for a throat wound. Olga Ines Devilleda, a Red Cross official, identified him as Carlos Alberto Sandino Ocon and said he was not in condition to travel.
   Abud Vivas said the releases were a step "in favor of peace" and announced that, in return, 12 Hondurans caught fishing illegally in Nicaraguan waters April 4 would be released to the Honduran Embassy in Managua, capital of Nicaragua.
   The six soldiers, dressed in new civilian clothes, appeared in good condition. All appeared to be in their late teens or early 20s.
   When reporters began asking them questions, the ambassador stepped in and said he did not want them to make statements.
   A Honduran military officer said the soldiers were caught "in flagrant violation of our territory," but were being freed as a "goodwill gesture."
   The Foreign Ministry identified the six going home as Jose Abraham Sosa Aleman, Jose Mejia Bonillo, Rolando Jose Flores Tinoco, Bayardo Ramon Cruz Ulloa, Panfilo Gutierrez Martinez and Mario Salomon Hernandez.
   Red Cross officials said the Honduran army had no more Sandinista prisoners.
   The seven soldiers were captured late last month when Nicaraguan troops crossed into Honduras. The U.S.-backed Contras fighting the leftist Sandinistas said the attack was an unsuccessful attempt to wipe out rebel bases.
   U.S. and Honduran officials first said 1,500 Nicaraguan soldiers were involved, but later estimates were lower. The Honduran government barred journalists from the area.
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Apr 17 1986
^AM-Honduras President<
^URGENT Honduras president Supports Aid to Contras, But Doesn't Think War Wanted<
^By ANDREW SELSKY=
^Associated Press Writer=
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ President Jose Azcona acknowledged Thursday night that some Nicaraguan rebels are based in Honduras, but his government has no intention of sending a large number of soldiers to the border to keep them out.
   Honduras "will not devote the resources to guard the backs of the Sandinistas," he said, referring to the Marxist government of Nicaragua.
   In the past, the government had flatly denied that the U.S.-supported rebels, known as Contras, were in Honduras.
   "They come and they go. I believe that near the border they have camps, temporary camps," said Azcona, who became president on Jan. 27. Since their fight is in Nicaragua, "they have no reason to install permanent camps in Honduras."
   In an interview with The Associated Press, he said he supports U.S. aid to the Nicaraguan rebels, although he does not believe the Sandinista government wants to wage a war against its neighbors.
   Tensions heightened between the neighboring countries late last month when, according to U.S. and Honduras officials, an estimated 1,500 Sandinista soldiers crossed the border into Honduras and attacked a Contra training camp.
   President Reagan has asked Congress to approve $100 million in military and humanitarian aid for the rebels. The Senate has approved a modified version of the plan. But the House of Representatives, in a surprise maneuver Wednesday, abruptly stopped consideration of the aid request. The plan is expected to resurface in the House in the coming weeks.
   The Reagan administration has argued that supporting the rebel force will put pressure on the Sandinistas to bring about such reforms as a free press in Nicaragua.
   Azcona expressed skepticism that the Contras would be able to force the Sandinistas to change their system of government. But even so, he said the aid should be provided because it would increase the pressure on the Sandinistas to seek a political solution to the war.
   That pressure would be heightened, he said, if countries in Europe and Latin America joined the United States in urging the Sandinistas to create a more democratic system of government.
   If political reforms are not made in Nicaragua, he predicted that Honduras would be affected by the flow of Nicaraguans who would likely seek refuge in Honduras. An estimated 50,000 refugees, about half of them Nicaraguans, now live in United Nations refugee camps near the Honduran-Nicaraguan border.
   The Nicaraguan government will not make any changes unless there is outside pressure, he said. "Their position is clear. ... They are pushing the revolution to absolute totalitarianism," he said.
   Even so, Azcona said, "I don't believe (the Sandinistas) want war, they want to win time to consolidate their revolution."
   The Sandinistas came to power in July 1979, taking over the government in a revolution that ended 42 years of rule by the rightist, pro-American Somoza dynasty.
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Apr 21 1986
^AM-Honduras-American
^American, Four Hondurans Found Bound In Tegucigalpa Fire
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ An American coffee exporter and four Hondurans who were found dead in a house fire last weekend had their hands bound behind their backs, police said Monday.
   U.S. Embassy spokesman Arthur Skop identified the dead American as Paul Lawton, about 43 years old, a native of Boston who had been living in Honduras for 20 years.
   Police Lt. Maria Luisa Borjas said firefighters found the five badly charred bodies late Friday when they extinguished a blaze at Lawton's home in the suburb of El Hatillo.
   She said Lawton's hands were handcuffed behind him and those of the four others were tied with electrical wire.
   Ms. Borjas said a forensic examination showed that one victim, a woman whom she did not identify, had been shot in the back.
   "Until autopsies are performed, we can't tell if the others were shot, because the bodies were so badly burned," she said.
   However, the newspaper El Tiempo identified the dead woman as Claudia Roman, from the Bay Islands off Honduras' Caribbean coast. The newspaper quoted unidentified police sources as saying all four were shot with a .45- caliber handgun.
   Ms. Borjas said another victim was identified as Rodolfo Castejon, a former manager of the Honduran Coffee Institute, which regulates the coffee export trade.
   Police have no idea why the five were killed, and no suspects, Ms. Borjas said.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Apr 23 1986
^AM-Honduras-American
^Pathologist Says American Stabbed To Death In Multiple Murder
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ An American chemical manufacturer, who was found slain in his burned home with four Honduran friends last week, died of a single stab wound in the heart, a forensic expert said Wednesday.
   All five - two men and three women - were found dead Friday night with their hands bound behind their backs, their bodies badly burned in a fire that consumed businessman Paul Lawton's home, police said.
   Dr. Luis Vidal Ramos, a police pathologist who performed autopsies on the bodies, told The Associated Press that Lawton was stabbed twice in the chest with a dagger, and the fatal wound pierced his heart.
   The other man, Rodolfo Castejon, was killed by a single gunshot wound to the head and the three women died of stab wounds in the chest, Vidal Ramos said.
   Castejon was a wealthy coffee and cardamom grower, cattle rancher, and former general manager of the Honduran Coffee Institute, a government agency that regulates coffee exports.
   Two of the women were identified by police as girlfriends of Lawton and Castejon, while the third was described as Lawton's house guest.
   An American diplomat familiar with the case, who asked not to be identified for protocol reasons, said he was told by Honduran authorities the bodies in Lawton's home, in the Tegucigalpa residential district of El Hatillo, were doused with liquid fuel and set on fire.
   Vidal Ramos said the autopsies showed the victims all died before the fire started. He also said the bodies were so badly burned he was unable to tell whether they were tortured.
   Cristo Pitsikalis, Lawton's business associate, said Lawton was a native of Boston, around 43 years old, had been living in Honduras for more than 20 years, and had been divorced for the past 10 years.
   He said he and Lawton owned a small chemical manufacturing plant.
   Pitsikalis said that Castejon, who owned a ranch near Copan, in western Honduras, usually stayed at Lawton's house when he visited Tegucigalpa.
   He said robbery did not appear to be a motive in the slayings because nothing of value had been stolen from the house.
   Lt. Maria Luisa Borjas, a police spokeswoman, admitted that police investigators were baffled by the case - they had no leads or clues and could not establish a motive for the killings.
   U.S. Embassy spokesman Athur Skop also said he had no information.