Honduras coverage 1985

Mar 25 1985
^AM-Honduras-US
^U.S. Tanks Arrive For Joint Maneuvers With Hondurans
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ U.S. Army tanks and armored personnel carriers were unloaded from a Navy ship Monday as American troops prepared to resume military maneuvers with Honduran forces, a U.S. military spokesman said.
   The armored vehicles were delivered at San Lorenzo, a port town about 48 miles south of Tegucigalpa on the Gulf of Fonseca, according to Maj. William Lowe.
   He said the 20-24 tanks will be used in an anti-armor exercise April 8-13 on a coastal plain about 15 miles from the Nicaraguan border.
   About 300 members of the Texas National Guard will act as an enemy force and will try to drive the M-60 tanks and armored personnel carriers past tank traps that will be manned by Honduran troops, Lowe said. It is the first time U.S. tanks have been used in the rounds of joint maneuvers that began in 1983.
   The National Guard troopers, scheduled to arrive at the Palmerola Air Base this weekend, are part of a force of about 8,000 American military personnel who will participate in two separate maneuvers - Big Pine III and Universal Trek, Lowe said.
   In the Universal Trek exercise, involving about 3,000 U.S. troopers and scheduled for late April, Marines will land on beaches along the Atlantic coast in an amphibious assault while Army paratroopers drop behind the beaches, Lowe said.
   The anti-armor exercise is part of Big Pine III.
   Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has said the joint maneuvers are meant to intimidate his left-wing Sandinista government, but Lowe denied that was the intent.
   "It's meant as a training exercise ... it's not meant as a statement to Nicaragua," Lowe said.
   He said another phase of Big Pine III will involve U.S. troops in a counterinsurgency exercise in the jungles of the Yoro Valley in north central Honduras.
   That exercise will occur April 15-21 and will involve teams of "searchers" using helicopters and paratroopers to locate guerrilla bands, Lowe said.
   The Big Pine III exercise, a continuation of the series conducted in 1983 and 1984, is scheduled to end with the Universal Trek exercise in early May, he added.
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Mar 27 1985
^AM-Honduras-Maneuvers
^Precedes TEGUCIGALPA
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   CHOLUTECA, Honduras (AP) _ U.S. troops drove armored vehicles to within four miles of the Nicaraguan border Wednesday in preparation for maneuvers that will include a simulated attack by Soviet-made tanks such as those used by Nicaragua.
   The armor exercise is the first time U.S. troops in Honduras have used tanks and other armored vehicles. The operation, to start April 8, is part of the Big Pine III exercises that began Feb. 11 and are scheduled to last until May 3.
   About 2,300 U.S. and 5,500 Honduran troops will take part in the six days of maneuvers at Las Hormigas, near the Nicaraguan-Honduran border to the south of Choluteca. The U.S. force includes 450 members of the Texas National Guard.
   Col. James Witte, a U.S. military spokesman, said the troops will defend against a hypothetical attack by invading forces in southern Honduras.
   A total of 42 tanks and personnel carriers, 20 of them British-made Honduran equipment, are to be used, along with an unspecified number of U.S. combat aircraft.
   Among the tanks brought by the United States are a Soviet-made T-55 tank, a PT76 amphibious tank and two armored personnel carriers. Nicaragua's military inventory includes T-55 tanks.
   U.S. Army Capt. Milford Gutridge said American troops would get no closer than three miles from the Nicaraguan border on land and no closer than six miles by air.
   "It's self-imposed, the Hondurans didn't tell us to do it," Gutridge said. "It's something we imposed on ourselves for our safety. ... We don't want to cross someone's border and create an international incident."
   In January 1984, a U.S. helicopter was shot down and its pilot killed by Nicaraguan troops who said they fired after the helicopter crossed the border. U.S. officials said the aircraft was off course but did not say whether it had strayed into Nicaraguan air space before landing on the Honduran road where the pilot was shot.
   Between 20 and 24 tanks and personnel carriers were unloaded from a U.S.Navy ship Monday for the exercise.
   "All the military materials used here will be returned to the United States once the activity is concluded," Witte said.
   In the first phase of the exercises, 1,200 U.S. army engineers are building trenches, improving airplane parking areas, eliminating obstacles to movement of armored vehicles and improving two landing strips near the border with El Salvador.
   In another phase of Big Pine III, from April 15 to 21, the troops will take part in a counterinsurgency exercise in jungles in north central Honduras.
   Honduras has been the keystone for a U.S. military buildup in Central America since the leftist Sandinistas came to power in Nicaragua in July 1979 by overthrowing the pro-U.S. regime of Anastasio Somoza. The series of U.S.-Honduran military exercises has proceeded since 1983.
   One week after the end of Big Pine III, another military exercise called Universal Trek-85 is scheduled to start. Pentagon sources have said that will feature amphibious landings and air assaults.
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Mar 28 1985
^PM-Honduras-Maneuvers
^US Troops Near Nicaraguan Border To Repel Mock Attack
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   CHOLUTECA, Honduras (AP) _ U.S. troops on maneuvers in Honduras have moved armored vehicles to within four miles of the Nicaraguan border to repel a mock attack by Soviet-made tanks like those used by Nicaragua.
   U.S. Army Col. James Witte said the troops will battle a hypothetical invasion of Honduras in the maneuvers, which begin April 8. They are part of the Big Pine III exercises that began Feb. 11 and are to last until May 3.
   Anti-Sandinista rebels fighting to oust the leftist government in Nicaragua have used southern Honduras as a base. The Nicaraguan regime has repeatedly said it fears a U.S. invasion.
   But U.S. Army Capt. Milford Gutridge said American troops would get no closer than three miles from the Nicaraguan border on land and no closer than six miles by air.
   "The Hondurans didn't tell us to do it," Gutridge said of the limits. "It's something we imposed on ourselves for our safety. . .. We don't want to cross someone's border and create an international incident."
   U.S. forces on Wednesday drove their vehicles into the border area. The American and Honduran forces involved in the maneuvers have a total of 42 tanks and armored personnel carriers, and U.S. combat aircraft also will be used.
   They also brought a Soviet-made T-55 tank, a PT76 amphibious tank and two armored personnel carriers. Nicaragua has T-55 tanks.
   It is the first time U.S. troops in Honduras have used tanks and other armored vehicles.
   About 2,300 U.S. and 5,500 Honduran troops will take part in the six days of maneuvers at Las Hormigas, south of Choluteca. The U.S. force includes 450 members of the Texas National Guard.
   Honduras has been the key to a U.S. military buildup in Central America since the leftist Sandinistas came to power in Nicaragua in July 1979 with a coup that ousted the pro-U.S. regime of Anastasio Somoza.
   In January 1984, a U.S. helicopter was shot down and its pilot killed by Nicaraguan troops who said they fired after the craft crossed the border. U.S. officials said the aircraft was off course but did not say whether it had strayed into Nicaraguan air space before landing on the Honduran road, where the pilot was shot.
   Between 20 and 24 tanks and personnel carriers were unloaded from a U.S. Navy ship Monday for the exercise.
   "All the military materials used here will be returned to the United States once the activity is concluded," said Witte, a military spokesman, on Tuesday.
   To prepare for the maneuvers, 1,200 U.S. army engineers are digging trenches, clearing the path for armored vehicles and improving two landing strips near the border with El Salvador.
   In another phase of Big Pine III, from April 15 to 21, the troops will take part in a counterinsurgency exercise in jungles in north central Honduras. One week after the end of Big Pine III, another military exercise called Universal Trek-85 is scheduled to start. Pentagon sources have said that will feature amphibious landings and air assaults.
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Mar 30 1985
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^AM-Honduras
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ Government prosecutors filed treason charges Saturday against the five new Supreme Court judges installed by Congress in its political dispute with President Roberto Suazo Cordova.
   The legislature, acting on the report of a commission it appointed, dismissed five of the nine Supreme Court judges Friday for alleged corruption, and appointed their replacements. It named Ramon Valladares Soto, a former interior minister, to head the new court.
   Hours later, police arrested Valladares Soto, took him before the First Tegucigalpa Criminal Court and then jailed him in the central prison. Criminal Court Judge Marco Antonio Lanza has six days to issue an indictment or dismiss the charge. Treason is punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment.
   Police also tried to arrest the four other new justices, but relatives said the men had fled into hiding.
   A military spokesman told The Associated Press on Friday that Suazo Cordova had ordered the arrests. The presidential press office said Saturday that was not so, but it did not say who had issued the order.
   The power struggle over control of the high court, which had been solidly behind Suazo Cordova, is the latest in a growing confrontation between the president and the single-house, 82-member Congress. Suazo Cordova's Liberal Party holds a 44 seats but is badly split, with a main faction leading the fight against him.
   Congress President Efrain Bu Giron, 55, wants to be the Liberal Party's presidential candidate in the Nov. 27 elections, while Suazo Cordova backs Oscar Mejia Arellano, 70. The party will choose its candidate at its national convention April 11-14 in Comayagua.
   Suazo Cordova said Friday that Congress' decision to replace the justices was unconstitutional and amounted to a "technical coup" because the constitution says court members cannot be removed during their four-year terms.
   "I trust in God that everything will be resolved very soon in a satisfactory form for the well being of the country and of our people," the president told The Associated Press.
   Suazo Cordova took office in January 1982, following elections that ended nearly two decades of virtually uninterrupted military rule.
   Valladares Soto's doctor, Rolando Gonzalez Vives, said the new chief justice "suffers from grave heart and stomach problems ... and needs constant medical attention."
   The military spokesman, who spoke with the condition he not be identified, said the president ordered all military leaves canceled and soldiers to remain in their barracks. The armed forces appear to have remained neutral in the rift, although Suazo Cordova has publicly claimed their support.
   During an emergency session Friday night attended by 50 legislators, the Congress sent a letter to Gen. Walter Lopez Reyes, the military commander in chief, asking him "to protect the constitution and to try to help protect the Congress in maintaining the law." He has not replied to the appeal.
   The nine supreme court justices are elected by Congress to terms that run concurrently with those of the president and the legislature. The constitution is vague as to how they can be removed and the impeachment process is complicated.
   A congressional committee, investigating alleged corruption in the judiciary, asked the five justices to testiy before it. They refused, claiming legal immunity. By a vote of 50-30, the legislature on Friday declared the jurists incompetent, fired them and named their replacements. Two members of small minority parties did not vote.
   Legislators vowed Saturday to put the new judges in office.
   "We are ready to do it," said Deputy Hector Sabillon of the National Party."We're not afraid because we're protected by the law and have immunity. But that doesn't give us real safety because the new president of the Supreme Court is in jail right now and also has immunity."
   Honduras has long been a staunch U.S. ally. It has become even more important in recent months as the Reagan administration continues its campaign against the leftist government in neighboring Nicaragua. U.S.-backed anti- Sandinista rebels operate from bases in southern Honduras.
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Mar 31 1985
^AM-Honduras
^Hondurans Celebrate Palm Sunday Amidst Crisis
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ Police with automatic weapons patrolled the capital Sunday, reminders of the power struggle between the president and Congress, but many Hondurans set the political crisis aside and crowded churches to mark the start of Holy Week.
   The military remained on alert and Ramon Valladares Soto, the new Supreme Court head, remained in jail. The four other new justices remained in hiding.
   But the faithful in this Roman Catholic country spent Palm Sunday relaxing and enjoying the beginning of the traditional vacation time in Latin America.Carrying small palm fronds, they crowded into the capital's cathedral and nearby churches to attend Mass.
   For the first time since the political storm broke Friday, when Congress voted 50-30 to replace five of nine Supreme Court justices, many people stopped listening to radios and watching television. Most programs either broadcast the Masses or featured religious talks.
   The political tug-of-war, meanwhile, shifted from the capital to La Paz, 50 miles north of Tegucigalpa, where President Roberto Suazo Cordova went to receive the visiting president of Colombia, Belisario Bentacur, who was to leave Monday for Washington.
   The president of Congress, Efrain Bu Giron, said he would not attend the reception in La Paz - Suazo Cordova's hometown - as a protest. He demanded the release of Valladares Soto, who was arrested and charged with treason Friday, hours after being sworn in as the new head of the nation's highest court.
   The presidential office said ousted chief justice Carlos Manuel Arita Palomo would represent the court at the welcoming ceremonies for Bentacur.
   Suazo Cordova earlier decreed this week a holiday for government workers, as is traditional in Honduras, but said that because of the crisis, people employed by the judicial branch of government would have to work.
   The power struggle over control of the high court, which had been solidly behind Suazo Cordova, is the latest in a growing confrontation between the president and the single-house, 82-member Congress. Suazo Cordova's Liberal Party holds 44 seats but is badly split, with a main faction leading the fight against him.
   Bu Giron, 55, wants to be the Liberal Party's presidential candidate in the Nov. 27 elections, while Suazo Cordova backs Oscar Mejia Arellano, 70. The party will choose its candidate at its national convention April 11-14 in Comayagua. By law, Suazo Cordova, inaugurated in 1982 after nearly two decades of military rule, cannot seek re-election.
   Suazo Cordova, 58, said Friday that Congress' decision to replace the justices because of alleged corruption was unconstitutional and amounted to a "technical coup" because the constitution says court members cannot be removed during their four-year terms.
   The 1981 constitution is vague about the legislature's power to remove justices for alleged wrongdoing. But all nine justices are elected by Congress for four-year terms to coincide with that of the president.
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Apr 2 1985
^AM-Honduras
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ Foreign Minister Edgardo Paz Barnica said Tuesday that the power struggle between President Roberto Suazo Cordova and Congress has weakened Honduras' bargaining position with the United States.
   Honduras is negotiating revisions in a military and economic assistance pact with the United States, which is providing this country with $204 million in aid in the current fiscal year.
   Paz Barnica, at a news conference, said "Honduras' capacity as a negotiator has weakened at the moment" and the dispute over control of the Supreme Court "has an international repercusion."
   He called on "those who started this crisis to reflect on the damage they are creating for Honduras with their intransigent and arrogant attitude," but mentioned no names.
   U.S. Embassy spokesman Art Skop, asked about the foreign minister's statement, said the bilateral negotiations are "going forward." He said the conflict was an internal matter, and the Honduran military has given its assurance that U.S.-Honduran military maneuvers would continue as planned.
   About 8,000 U.S. military personnel are expected to participate in the joint maneuvers in several sections of Honduras.
   The dispute over the Supreme Court began Friday when Congress fired five justices, accusing them of corruption, and appointed five new ones.
   Suazo Cordova called the action a "technical coup." Over the weekend charges of treason were filed against the new judges and the one named chief justice was jailed.
   On Monday, 53 of the 82 members of Congress were charged with treason.
   Criminal Court Judge Marco Antonio Lanza, who filed all the treason charges, asked the legislators to strip themselves of constitutional immunity so they could be arrested.
   A congressional committee was appointed to draft a response, and one member, Carlo Montoya, said the committee would reject Lanza's request.
   The new chief justice, Ramon Valladares Soto, was jailed Friday, and the other four congressional appointees went into hiding, but one, Orlando Lozano Martinez, said Tuesday they had returned to their homes.
   Efrain Bu Giron, the president of Congress, said Tuesday the crisis was caused by Suazo Cordova, who he claimed wants to remain in office for another two years. Presidential elections are scheduled for Nov. 27, and the constitution bars Suazo Cordova from seeking re-election.
   Suazo Cordova's Liberal Party holds 44 seats in Congress, but is deeply divided over the selection of a presidential nominee. Suazo Cordova's faction supports Oscar Mejia Arellano, a former interior minister, while another faction backs Bu Giron.
   The five justices removed by Congress belonged to Suazo Cordova's faction, and he called their dismissals unconstitutional.
   Under the constitution, Supreme Court members are appointed by Congress to serve four-year terms that coincide with the tenure of the president and legislature.
   Police patrolled the streets of the capital Tuesday and troops remained on alert. Gen. Walter Lopez Reyes, the armed forces chief, said Sunday the military would support the constitution and intervene only in case of civil disorder.
   Suazo Cordova's four-year term ends Jan. 27, 1986. He leads the nation's first elected government after nearly two decades of military rule.
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Apr 10 1985
^AM-Honduras-Maneuvers
^Texas National Guardsmen Take Part in Mock Invasion
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   SAN BERNARDO, Honduras (AP) _ U.S.-Honduran military maneuvers opened Wednesday with Texas National Guard troopers and armored vehicles staging a mock invasion of Honduras at a site three miles from the Nicaraguan border.
   U.S. Army Maj. William Lowe said the Texans were simulating a tank attack on Honduras, with Honduran defenders taking hilltop positions overlooking the Choluteca Gap.
   About a dozen U.S. tanks and 15 armored personnel carriers carrying some 200 National Guardsmen rumbled through the coastal plain while two A-37 jets and one French-made Super Mystere swooped overhead in feigned attacks.
   Some guardsmen used smoke bombs to obscure the movements of their vehicles, and one of the devices set a brushfire that was quickly snuffed out by the troopers.
   U.S. military officials have said the Choluteca Gap, a triangle of about five-by-ten miles, is the only area along the mountainous 375-mile-long border between Nicaragua and Honduras where armored vehicles can operate properly.
   Under rules distributed to the Texas National Guardsmen before the maneuvers began, they are authorized to kill "to defend against immediate threat of death or serious bodily injury" and to use deadly force to prevent the theft or sabotage of weapons, ammunition and sensitive equipment.
   During the exercise, 3,200 Honduran soldiers using about 50 British-made armored vehicles will defend the Choluteca Gap that is gouged with anti-tank ditches, Honduran army Capt. Carlos Quesada said.
   Seventeen M-60 tanks and 17 armored personnel carriers that the National Guard brought from Texas for the exercises are to be shipped back to the United States when the war games are over.
   About 8,000 U.S. troopers, including a force of 419 from the Texas National Guard, will take part in the maneuvers this month, American commanders said.
   The exercises are part of the Big Pine III operation that began Feb. 11 and is to last until May 3. America and Honduras have been holding a series of joint military maneuvers since February 1983.
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Jun 1985
^AM-Nicaragua-Rebels
^Two Indian Groups Seek Unification Agreement
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ Two Indian rebel groups will attempt to join forces in their fight against Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista government, a spokesman said Thursday.
   Raul Tobias, a military commander of the Misura group based in Honduras, said five of the organization's directors will meet Friday in the United States with Brooklyn Rivera, leader of the smaller, Costa Rica-based Misurasata.
   He did not disclose the location of the meeting.
   Tobias said the unification effort was possible because Rivera broke off talks with the Nicaraguan government last week. Misura has refused to negotiate with the Sandinistas.
   Rivera, who reportedly commands 2,000 rebels, accused the Sandinistas of trying to impose a cease-fire without seriously considering the Indians' claims. He split from the Misura, which claims 5,000 fighters, in 1982.
   "When negotiating, Brooklyn told his troops to stop fighting," Tobias said. "Now that the negotiations have failed, they'll join us and begin fighting again."
   The organizations' names come from the Miskito, Sumo and Rama tribes that live on Nicaragua's isolated Caribbean coast.
   In January 1982, the Nicaraguan government uprooted nearly 10,000 Indians from communities along the Coco River that forms the boundary between Nicaragua and Honduras.
   Sandinista officials said the relocation was necessary so the Miskitos would not become accidental victims of the government's war with the rebels, but it provoked widespread anger among the Indians.
   The government said after the negotiations with Rivera failed that it would soon allow thousands of Indians to return to their ancestral homelands. It said the government "laments the unilateral rupture of talks on the part of Rivera" and "maintains its willingness to continue them whenever requested."
   In a separate development, a Misurasata leader in San Jose, Costa Rica, said Nicaraguan soldiers captured and executed 11 Misurasata rebels without trial last month near the main Caribbean port of Bluefields.
   Joaquin Suazo, general coordinator of Misurasata, said in a statement distributed to reporters Wednesday that the soldiers caught the rebels during a disturbance May 11 and executed them by firing squad.
   The report could not be confirmed independently.
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Jun 13 1985
^AM-Honduras-Contras
^Rebels Jubilant over House Vote With AM-Nicaragua-Reaction
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ Nicaraguan rebel leaders said Thursday they were jubilant and relieved over the U.S. House vote to give non-lethal aid to groups fighting the leftist Sandinista government in their country.
   Roger Hermann, political coordinator of the Indian rebel force Misura, called Wednesday's vote "fantastic."
   "Our soldiers need hammocks, clothes, rain ponchos and medicine. It's very hard for us to get these things," he said from his base in Honduras.
   He added that Misura seizes many weapons from ambushed Nicaraguan soldiers, but "we capture very little medicine." Misura claims to have 5,000 fighters operating on Nicaragua's Atlantic coast.
   The legislators' "display of confidence" in the rebel cause may prompt some Latin American countries to send the guerrillas military aid, Hermann said. He declined to name the countries.
   A spokesman for the Honduras-based Nicaraguan Democratic Force said the House had acted "in a responsible manner."
   "We are not asking for military aid," Frank Arana said. "But if ever we need it, we hope to get the approval of Congress, because now Congress has realized we are fighting a just struggle to bring peace and democracy to our country and to expel from Central America the cancer of Communism that is threatening all the region through the Sandinista government."
   The House voted 248-184 to give $27 million in aid to the rebels, known as Contras. Last week the Senate voted to send $38 million in assistance, and the two versions must be reconciled before any money is sent.
   In Costa Rica, a leader of the Revolutionary Democratic Alliance, which also is battling the Sandinistas, said he hoped the aid would allow the rebels to help civilians displaced from their homes by the fighting.
   "We have 100,000 displaced people in the 35,000 square kilometers (14,000 square miles) in which our forces move, who are living in extremely difficult situations as they lack clothes, shoes, medicines and food," Jose Davila Membreno said.
   Leaders of the Democratic Force and the Revolutionary Democratic Alliance announced Wednesday that they were uniting to form the Nicaraguan Opposition Union, which they called an "umbrella group for all democratic forces" seeking a new government in Nicaragua.
   The announcement at a news conference in El Salvador came before the House vote, but the rebels said the two actions were not related. They made no mention of Misura. Eden Pastora, who commands most of the Costa Rica-based rebels, is not participating in the coalition.
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Jun 14 1985
^AM-Salvador
^Guerrillas Reportedly Planned Refugee Action
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ Salvadoran guerrillas once planned to encourage war refugees to resettle in rebel strongholds and contested areas to form support bases, according to a document attributed to the guerrillas.
   The document reportedly was captured from guerrillas of the left-wing Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front by Salvadoran troops. It was made available to The Associated Press Friday by U.S. officials in Honduras on condition that they not be identified. Its authenticity could not be independently coinfirmed.
   It says the front planned to promote the resettlement by sending "letters and delegations to humanitarian and church organizations, asking them to act as intermediaries and mediators in presenting the platform to the government of El Salvador."
   The front, known by its Spanish acronym as the FMLN, is a coalition of five rebel organizations fighting the U.S.-supported Salvadoran government.
   Refugees should be resettled in areas from which they were displaced and the FMLN should "provide an indemnity for destroyed homes, crops and livestock killed by the armed forces (and) provide monthly payments to families of members killed or kidnapped by the (armed forces)," according to an English translation of the document.
   The document was said to have been captured April 18 in El Salvador's Cabanas province, which borders Honduras.
   It was among diaries, notebooks and correspondence captured with a wounded rebel commander, Nidia Diaz, according to the officials. Other parts of the material were obtained earlier by news organizations in El Salvador, and U.S. State Department officials in Washington also released some of the documents to AP last month.
   Earlier information from the documents indicated some rebels have received training in Vietnam, the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, East Germany and Cuba.
   The document seen Friday was signed with the initials N.D., with the indication it was written Sept. 21, 1984.
   An estimated 500,000 Salvadorans have been uprooted in more than five years of warfare. Some 20,000 Salvadoran refugees live in Honduras in camps near the border administered by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
   Honduras has discussed ways to return the refugees or relocate them away from the border but has taken no action.
   According to the document, resettlement would correspond with the FMLN's need to increase the "degree of incorporation of the masses into the revolutionary process" and to enlarge the "revolutionary armed forces and the expansion of the FMLN's work throughout the country."
   In San Salvador, the Salvadoran capital, friends of a local journalist, Francisco Javier Campos, 23, said he was ordered into a van by armed men in civilian clothes and driven away Friday. Campos is a photographer for the afternoon newspaper El Mundo and a reporter for Radio Sonora.
   A co-worker at the paper, who asked not to be identified for security reasons, quoted witnesses as saying Campos' captors showed him some credentials before ordering him into the van.
   Officials at Treasury Police headquarters would not say if Campos was in custody. Usually, the families of people who have been picked up are notified by telegram within a day or so of the arrest.
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Jun 16 1985
^AM-Indian Rebels
^Indians Vow to Fight for Their Lands in Nicaragua An AP Extra
^Laserphoto TEG2 of June 10
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   RUS RUS, Honduras (AP) _ Although short of weapons, food and other supplies, Misura Indian rebels operating out of Honduras say they will keep fighting the Sandinista government in Nicaragua to regain their traditional lands and preserve their culture.
   Soon after the Sandinistas came to power in Nicaragua in 1979, Indian leaders charged that the government was attempting to assimilate them into what they believed to be a totalitarian society.
   In January of 1982, the Sandinista government uprooted nearly 10,000 Indians from communities along the Coco River that forms the border with Honduras. The Sandinistas maintained the measure was necessary to protect the Indians from hostilities in the area.
   Thousands of Indians fled across the river to Honduras or south to Costa Rica, where a smaller Indian rebel organization, Misurasata, is based.
   The 5,000 Indians the Misura group claims to have in arms now use hit-and- run tactics against Sandinista patrols and convoys on jungle trails and roads in eastern Nicaragua. Misura is an acronym for the Miskito, Sumo and Rama tribes that form the guerrilla army.
   Many of the rebels use AK-47 automatic rifles and ammunition they captured from the convoys or took from dead Sandinista soldiers.
   But the ambushes are small, Misura leaders say, because their troops are low in weapons, ammunition, food, clothing and medical supplies.
   "We could recruit 10,000 more soldiers if we had outside aid," said the Misura international relations director, Adan Artola. "But right now, it wouldn't serve any purpose to have 100 new recruits come to our bases and have nothing for them to eat and nothing to fight with."
   Misura fighters say they have gone for 13 months without foreign aid since the U.S. Congress cut off funds to Nicaraguan Contras last year. They attribute their survival to farming, hunting and fishing, to using captured Sandinista supplies and to eating food acquired from refugee relief organizations.
   Artola said the rebels want an autonomous Indian state in Nicaragua with participation in government on the national level; the right to keep their traditional language, customs, land and religion, and the right to control their natural resources.
   "The race that loses its language loses its soul," he added. "We must keep our language, our culture and our identity. If we don't fight now, in 100 years (our culture) won't exist."
   The Sandinistas recently offered to discuss an autonomy measure but Raul Tobias, the Misura leader, said negotiations are out of the question.
   "Any dialogue with the Sandinistas is false," he said. "At the negotiating table they are sheep, but on the other side they are ferocious wolves."
   Here in Rus Rus, where about 500 Nicaraguan refugees live in bamboo houses with woven palm-frond roofs, Misura rebels visit their wives and families. It is three miles north of the Coco River on the isolated Caribbean coast.
   Tobias said the all the refugees "are united for us to continue the war, even though they have suffered many losses," including the loss of crops, houses and churches in their homeland.
   Friends of the Americas, a private relief organization based in Baton Rouge, La., maintains an outpost here.
   John Baldwin, a 53-year-old former Los Angeles resident who heads the group's operation in Rus Rus, said Friends of the Americas tries to "ignore" the rebels and refuses to help guerrilla fighters.
   But some of the rebels said that food distributed to the refugees in exchange for work or other goods trickles down to them, and that their families are occasionally treated free at the Friends of the Americas clinic.
   About a mile down the dirt road from Rus Rus, past a Honduran army checkpoint, is a makeshift Misura hospital where wounded and sick rebels recuperate, their M-16 and AK-47 rifles propped up next to their cots against the bamboo walls.
   There is no operating room, laboratory or hospital equipment - just a few bottles and vials of medicine on a table.
   The Misura group cooperates with the Honduras-based Nicaraguan Democratic Force, or FDN, which claims to have 15,000 anti-Sandinista fighters. The smaller Revolutionary Democratic Alliance is based in Costa Rica.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Jun 17 1985
^AM-Honduras-Contras
^Rebels Report Ambush of Sandinista Convoy
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ Nicaraguan rebels blew up a highway bridge in Nicaragua and ambushed a Sandinista army convoy, killing or wounding 80 soldiers, a rebel spokesman said Monday.
   Frank Arana, a spokesman for the Honduras-based Nicaraguan Democratic Force, reported one rebel wounded in the attack, which he said occurred Saturday about 90 miles north of Managua, capital of Nicaragua.
   He said he did not know how many of the Nicaraguan soldiers were killed and how many wounded.
   There was no independent confirmation of the encounter, which Arana said took place at the Sompopera Bridge on the highway between Jinotega and Wiwili. Access to the area is restricted by the Nicaraguan government and the Defense Ministry in Managua issued no report of fighting.
   Arana said the rebels destroyed the six trucks in the convoy, which he said were made in East Germany. They also captured 15 AK-47 automatic rifles, 50,000 rounds of AK-47 ammunition, 50 knapsacks and 50 hammocks, he said.
   The ambush is part of a new strategy ordered by the group's military commander, Enrique Bermudez, to cut off supplies to Nicaraguan military outposts, according to Arana.
   The Nicaraguan Democratic Force is the largest of four guerrilla groups fighting the leftist Sandinista government. It claims to have 17,000 men under arms.
   Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives joined the Senate in voting to restore non-military aid to the rebels, known as Contras. The House approved $27 million in assistance and the Senate $38 million.
   President Reagan, for whom the votes were a major political victory, has called for quick action by a conference committee to reconcile the two authorizatons.
   President Daniel Ortega said after the House vote that he was ending a moratorium on arms imports, and hinted that Nicaragua might try again to buy sophisticated warplanes.
   Nicaraguan rebel leaders said the aid authorization would enable them to mount a major offensive within months.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Jun 19 1985
^AM-Nicaragua-Captive
^Rebel Group Confirms It Captured West German Woman
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ A Nicaraguan rebel group confirmed Wednesday that it had captured a West German woman and said she probably would be turned over to the International Red Cross.
   About 40 West Germans remained a second day in their nation's embassy in Managua, Nicaragua, to demand the immediate release of Eva Regina Schmeemann.
   Horst Heubaum, West Germany's ambassador to Nicaragua, appealed on Nicaraguan government radio to the rebels not to harm Ms. Schmeemann or two Nicaraguans traveling with her.
   Nicaragua announced Tuesday that the woman was abducted by a rebel group.
   Roger Hermann, political coordinator for the Misura Indian organization, said in Honduras that Ms. Schmeemann, 27, was captured Friday after Misura rebels ambushed the jeep she was traveling in near the Nicaraguan town of Puerto Cabezas, about 280 miles east of Managua.
   He said someone in the jeep returned fire, wounding at least one rebel.
   Ms. Schmeemann and her companions surrendered, he said.
   The rebels found two loaded M-16 rifles, maps and military documents in the jeep, Hermann said.
   Misura military commander Raul Tobias said Tuesday that Ms. Schmeemann was walking to Honduras, a trip that normally takes 10 days.
   Once she reached a safe location, Hermann said, she would likely be turned over to the International Red Cross.
   In Managua, those occupying the West German Embassy held a news conference to demand that their government ask the U.S. State Department and the Honduran government to free the woman.
   The demonstrators complained that Bonn was backing the United States in its support for rebel groups fighting the leftist Sandinista government.
   Friends of the woman said she is a biologist who was doing volunteer work among rural Nicaraguans.
   Hermann said: "If she was there for humanitarian reasons, then she shouldn't have been traveling with Sandinistas, and she shouldn't have been carrying weapons."
   Misura - an acronym for the Miskito, Sumo and Rama tribes inhabiting the isolated Atlantic coast - is one of four guerrilla groups fighting the Sandinistas.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Jun 20 1985
^AM-Honduras-American
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ An American citizen was shot and killed by a Honduran army patrol near the Salvadoran border, a U.S. Embassy spokesman said Thursday.
   A Honduran military spokesman said the American was shot Wednesday when he tried to flee from a border patrol that had asked him for identification .
   The U.S. Embassy spokesman, Art Skop, said the name of the slain man was being withheld pending notification of relatives. By Thursday evening, Skop said, the State Department had been unable to locate the man's next of kin.
   The body of the man, who appeared to be in his 30s, was brought to a morgue in Tegucigalpa on Thursday, Skop said.
   He said the American, who was not a government employee, was fired on by members of the Honduran armed forces' 12th battalion near the town of Cayaguanca. Skop said the site of the shooting was not close to where the Salvadoran military currently is fighting leftist guerrillas, but he declined to provide any details about the circumstances of the slaying.
   A U.S. Embassy source who asked not to be identified for protocol reasons said a six-man Honduran patrol reported it had spotted the American and another person, ordered them to halt and fired when the pair began running.
   He said the identity of the second person, who escaped, was not known.
   Another U.S. Embassy source said the victim was hit four times by M-16 bullets.
   Embassy officials said they did not know why the man was in the region.
   The Honduran military spokesman, who spoke on condition he not be identified, said the shooting "is being investigated in a detailed way, and later the armed forces will provide the details of the case."
   The Salvadoran rebels had alleged Wednesday over their clandestine Radio Venceremos that the Honduran military was cooperating with El Salvador's armed forces in a major operation that started last week. The report could not be confirmed independently, and officials here said they had no information.
   The Salvadoran army operation is in the northern part of Morazan province, a longtime stronghold of rebels in El Salvador fighting against the U.S.-supported government.
   The guerrillas have made similar claims about joint Honduran-Salvadoran action against them frequently in the past. Both armies have denied that they carry out joint operations in El Salvador.
   In April 1984, a helicopter carrying two U.S. senators was hit by gunfire and forced down in Honduras. Sens. J. Bennett Johnston, D-La., and Lawton Chiles, D-Fla., were aboard the craft on a fact-finding mission in Honduras and had planned to visit a camp for Salvadoran refugees on this side of the border. No injuries were reported.
   On Jan. 11, 1984, the pilot of a U.S. Army helicopter based in Honduras was killed by Nicaraguan gunfire after he made a forced landing in Honduran territory about 200 yards from the Nicaraguan border.
   Nicaraguan officials said their troops shot at the helicopter while it was over Nicaragua but not after it landed.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Jul 27 1985
^AM-Honduras-March
^Nicaraguan Refugees Begin March to Washington
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ Chanting "With God and patriotism!" some 500 Nicaraguan refugees on Saturday began what they called a march on Washington to seek U.S. help in overthrowing their country's Sandinista government.
   They said they planned to walk to Washington, but admitted they probably would have trouble even leaving Honduras because more than half of them do not have passports.
   "Carter and Mondale gave our government to the Sandinistas and now we want it back," said march organizer Boris Leets Castillo referring to the previous Democratic administration of President Jimmy Carter and Vice President Walter F. Mondale.
   Leets said he fled Nicaragua after the left-wing Sandinistas ended 42 years of Somoza family rule by ousting the late President Anastasio Somoza in July 1979.
   Leets, 41, was at the head of the quarter-mile-long column as it wound its way in bright sunshine along a highway through the mountains northwest of Tegucigalpa heading toward Guatemala.
   Many of the marchers were young men, but there also were some women, including mothers nursing babies.
   Dressed in tattered T-shirts and jeans, the refugees carried their few belongings in torn straw sacks, bags or suitcases. The rice, beans, spaghetti and bananas for the projected week-long trip to the Guatemalan border were in a battered pickup truck.
   Leets, an agronomist who writes an anti-Sandinista newsletter, said the group included about 500 Nicaraguans, 100 Hondurans, 25 Salvadorans and four Costa Ricans. He said he hoped the march will "appeal to the conscience of the American people."
   Leets conceded his group, called "Exodus," might have difficulty crossing the border, but said they were counting on the goodwill of the governments of Guatemala, Mexico and the United States to let them pass without proper documents.
   If refused entry to the United States, Leets said he would order the group to go on a hunger strike in protest.
   He said it would take them about eight months to make the 4,200-mile trip to Washington, and they would ask for donations of food along the way.
   Like many other marchers, Alberto Corea, 20, from Chichigalpa, Nicaragua, said he joined the march to ask for the liberation of his country. He said he fled Nicaragua because he refused to serve in the army of a government he considered repressive.
   But when asked if he joined the march to escape the tedious life at the southern Honduran refugee camp in Jacaleapa where he had been for six months, he replied, "I was bored in the camp and I wanted to do something else."
   Boanerjes Lagos, 20, who fled his home in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, said he wants the United States to intervene militarily to overthrow the Sandinistas.
   "That's the only way we can liberate our country from communism," he said.
   The Reagan administration backs Nicaraguan rebels based in Honduras and Costa Rica that are fighting the Sandinistas.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Aug 17 1985
^PM-Nicaragua-Miskitos
^Indian Rebels Fire Two Leaders
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ Nicaraguan Indian rebels fired their two most prominent leaders, accusing one of treason and the other of being a dictator, a rebel spokesman said.
   "The elders have cut off the two heads that have always hurt our movement," Roger Hermann, political coordinator of Misura, an organization of Miskito, Sumo and Rama Indians who are fighting the Sandinista government of Nicaragua, said.
   The Council of Elders, the highest authority of Indian tribes on Nicaragua's Atlantic coast, Thursday night stripped all authority from Steadman Fagoth Muller and Brooklyn Rivera, Hermann said in an interview.
   Fagoth, a marine biologist by profession, was a director of Misura, which has an estimated 3,000 rebels and generally operates in the north. Rivera was a leader of Misurasata, a smaller organization of Indian rebels in the south.
   They were the most well-known leaders of their organizations internationally.
   Hermann said the elders met in Honduras' isolated Mosquitia Province, near the Nicaraguan border, but would not give a precise location.
   Fagoth was accused of "trying to be a dictator," Hermann said. He said Fagoth and 32 armed men held 12 Misura members hostage for two days earlier this month in demand of absolute authority in the organization. Other Misura members freed 10 of the hostages and Fagoth released the other two later, he said.
   Fagoth fled last Sunday to Honduras, where he was arrested and was being held by Honduran military authorities in Mocoron, near the Nicaraguan border, pending expulsion from the country, a Honduran army spokesman said.
   The elders accused Rivera of trying to negotiate peace with the Sandinista government without their authorization, an action the council says is treason.
   Rivera's talks with the Sandinistas broke off earlier in the year, but the Nicaraguan government has been allowing Indians to return to their villages.
   They were uprooted three years ago and marched through mountains and jungles to new settlements by the Sandinista government, which maintained that they were endangered by anti-governemnt rebels operating in the area.
   Indian leaders accused the government of trying to strip them of their belongings, culture and customs.
   Rivera was said Friday to be traveling in Europe.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Aug 19 1985
^AM-Honduras-American
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ An American Jesuit priest who reportedly criticized U.S.-Honduran military maneuvers was taken into custody for investigation of possible "crimes against the security of the state," the armed forces spokesman said Monday.
   The Rev. John Donald, 46, a native of Albuquerque, N.M., was taken into custody Sunday night in Tocoa, 140 miles north of the capital, said U.S. Embassy spokesman Art Skop. Donald was being held Monday in the custody of the army in Tegucigalpa and efforts by consular officials to speak with him have been unsuccessful, Skop said.
   Capt. Roberto Acosta of the armed forces public relations office said the investigation involved "crimes agains the security of the state," but said he did not expect to have further information immediately.
   A military source, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons, said Donald had repeatedly criticized U.S.-Honduran military maneuvers.
   "In his recent sermons, Donald criticized unnecessarily the aid of the United States for our armed forces ... and that is prohibited because he is a foreigner," the source said.
   Skop said he doubted the Hondurans would arrest a man just for making sermons criticizing American military aid to Honduras, but pointed out that it is illegal for foreigners to make public statements about politics in Honduras without previous government authorization.
   "They are very serious charges. They're charges I'm sure the government of Honduras would not make lightly," Skop said.
   The Rev. Faustino Boado, head of the Roman Catholic Church's Jesuit Order in Honduras, said Donald had been working in the Central American country for at least eight years and is parish priest in Sonaguera, in the northern province of Sabaa.
   Dr. Ramon Custodio, president of the private Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras, said Donald was formerly stationed in Olanchito, 30 miles west of Tocoa, where townspeople demonstrated against American military maneuvers last week.
   "We don't know yet if the arrest and last week's demonstration are related," Custodio said in a telephone interview.
   The human rights committee said in a statement that the priest had been taken into custody "without any justification" after officiating at a Mass.
   "Father Donald was arrested without judicial order and we still don't know in which military installation he can be found," the statement said.
   The United States is planning to conduct joint military maneuvers with Houduras near Olanchito next week, but details have not yet been released.
   U.S. and Honduran armed forces have held nearly continuous military maneuvers since 1982 in what is considered a message to the leftist Sandinista government in neighboring Nicaragua.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Aug 20 1985
^PM-Honduras-American
^American Priest Held By Honduran Authorities
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ A Roman Catholic priest from the United States has been detained for investigation of possible "crimes against the security of the state," an armed forces spokesman said.
   The U.S. Embassy said Monday that the Rev. John Donald, 46, a native of Albuquerque, N.M., was taken into custody Sunday in Tocoa, 140 miles north of the capital of Tegucigalpa.
   Details of his detention were not released, but one military source said Donald had repeatedly criticized joint U.S.-Honduran military exercises in his sermons.
   U.S. Embassy spokesman Art Skop said efforts by consulate officials to speak to the priest, who is in custody of the army in Tegucigalpa, have been unsuccessful.
   Capt. Roberto Acosta of the armed forces public relations office said the investigation involved "crimes against the security of the state."
   A military source, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons, said Donald had been a frequent critic of U.S.-Honduran military maneuvers.
   "In his recent sermons, Donald criticized unnecessarily the aid of the United States for our armed forces ... and that is prohibited because he is a foreigner," the source said.
   Honduran law bars foreigners from making public statements about politics in the country without prior government approval, Skop said.
   "They are very serious charges. They're charges I'm sure the government of Honduras would not make lightly," he said.
   The Rev. Faustino Boado, head of the Catholic Church's Jesuit Order in Honduras, said Donald had been working in the Central American country for at least eight years. Donald currently is parish priest in the town of Sonaguera in the northern province of Sabaa.
   Dr. Ramon Custodio, president of the private Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras, said the priest had previously worked in Olanchito, 30 miles west of Tocoa, where townspeople last week demonstrated against U.S. military maneuvers.
   "We don't know yet if the arrest and last week's demonstration are related," he said.
   The human rights committee said in a statement that the priest had been taken into custody "without any justification" after officiating at a Mass.
   "Father Donald was arrested without judicial order and we still don't know in which military installation he can be found," it said.
   The United States is planning joint military maneuvers with Houduras near Olanchito next week, but details have not yet been released.
   U.S. and Honduran armed forces have held nearly continuous military exercises since 1982.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Aug 21 1985
^AM-Honduras-Priest
^Freed American Charges Military Captors Threatened Torture
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ An American priest detained by the Honduran military said Wednesday he was blindfolded, handcuffed and threatened with torture. He said his captors accused him of training guerrillas and making bombs.
   The Rev. John Donald, 46, was held for two days and freed Tuesday night. He is from Albuquerque, N.M., and has been in Honduras since 1977.
   He told a news conference Wednesday that Honduran soldiers informed him he was arrested for "investigation of crimes against the security of the state," and released him after determining that the charge was unfounded.
   Donald, a Roman Catholic priest of the Jesuit order, said he was "psychologically tortured" by Honduran military intelligence officers.
   The priest was arrested Sunday night in Saba, his parish in the northern part of the country.
   At one point in the journey to Tegucigalpa, the capital, two U.S. Army soldiers drove him and his four Honduran captors in a jeep from a U.S. military camp in San Lorenzo to a Honduran military camp in Mocora, he said.
   "They didn't realize I was being detained, but I told one of the Americans I had a problem and I wanted him to let somebody know where I was and where I was being taken," Donald said. "He said he would do it but I don't know if he ever did or not. ... He knew I was being detained and he knew that I was in trouble."
   The U.S. Embassy issued a statement saying: "We have no reason to believe that there was any U.S. involvement in the detention of Father Donald. However, in light of his statements today, we are looking into the matter urgently."
   Donald said he did not know the names of the American soldiers, but they appeared to be "lower-ranked personnel."
   When the jeep arrived in Mocora at about 2:30 a.m. Monday, one of the Americans tried to write down information from Donald, but the Honduran soldiers separated them, the priest said.
   "As far as I know, there was no response to that appeal (for help)," he said.
   The U.S. military has increased its presence here since the leftist Sandinista government came to power in neighboring Nicaragua in July 1979, and holds regular exercises with Honduran forces.
   Donald said he plans to remain in Honduras despite the arrest.
   He told the news conference that at 5 a.m. Monday his hands were tied together, a raincoat was draped over his head and he was flown in a helicopter from Mocora to San Pedro Sula, the country's second largest city, near the Caribbean coast.
   He said he was handcuffed and blindfolded in San Pedro Sula, then taken by plane to Tegucigalpa. The blindfold and handcuffs stayed on until his release about 40 hours later, he said.
   In Tegucigalpa, he said, he was accused of "making bombs, transporting arms ... hiding arms in caves and training peasants for guerrilla groups."
   His interrogators "slammed doors as if it were some sort of shot from a gun (and) dropped some object on the floor, to see if I would respond, to see if I was nervous," he said.
   "They threatened me with torture and said they would turn me over to other agents who wouldn't be so pleasant, and that I would be held until I confessed to all the crimes they accused me of."
   Donald said two men, whose voices he recognized as those of ranchers near his parish, made the accusations against him.
   By law, foreigners are barred from making statements about Honduran politics without permission from the government.
   A Honduran military spokesman had told reporters while Donald was in custody that the priest had criticized the U.S. military presence here in his sermons, but Donald denied that.
   He said the government was angered by his church's defense of human rights.
   "There seems to be a cooperation between the North American military presence and the systematic persecution of not only members of the church but any organized group," he said.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Aug 22 1985
^AM-Honduras-Priest
^U.S. Soldier Gave Ride to Honduran Soldiers and Captive Priest
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ The American Embassy said Thursday that a U.S. Army private drove Honduran soldiers to a military camp with an American priest they had arrested and did not deliver the priest's appeal for help.
   The soldier decided on his own to drive the Rev. John Donald, 46, and the four Honduran soldiers from a U.S. Army camp near San Lorenzo, in the northern province of Yoro, to a Honduran camp in Mocora on Monday after a Honduran officer requested the ride, an embassy official said. He spoke anonymously for protocol reasons.
   "It was not a (U.S.) high command decision," the official said.
   The soldier apparently was unaware at first that Donald was under arrest, but during the one-hour drive the priest asked him to tell a U.S. Army chaplain that he needed help, the spokesman said.
   He said the soldier did not deliver the plea for help "because no chaplain was present at the (U.S.) camp."
   The soldier was not identified.
   Donald, a Roman Catholic priest of the Jesuit order, told a news conference Wednesday that two American soldiers drove him and the Honduran soldiers from the U.S. camp to the Honduran camp in an Army jeep. The Embassy initially issued a statement saying it did not believe there was any U.S. involvement, but said it was looking into the matter.
   The priest was freed Tuesday night.
   "They didn't realize I was being detained, but I told one of the Americans I had a problem and I wanted him to let somebody know where I was and where I was being taken," Donald said at the news conference. He said that when they arrived in Mocora at about 2:30 a.m. Monday, one of the Americans tried to write down information but the Hondurans separated them.
   Donald never identified himself to the U.S. soldier as a U.S. citizen, the embassy official said. Donald is a native of Albuquerque, N.M., and has been in Honduras since 1977.
   The spokesman said the embassy knew of only one soldier directly involved in the incident, but said two other American soldiers were with him on the drive.
   There is "no information to suggest any further involvement of U.S. personnel in the detention," of Donald, he said.
   "U.S. authorities are reviewing the procedures for briefing all official U.S. personnel on their responsibility to report immediately an incident such as this and to provide assistance to U.S. citizens," he said.
   Honduran soldiers arrested Donald on Sunday at his parish in Saba, in the northern province of Colon, for investigation of crimes against the security of the nation, and released him Tuesday after finding the charge was unfounded.
   Donald said that during his 48 hours of captivity, he was deprived of sleep, received one glass of water and one cup of coffee and was not given food until one hour before his release. After the contact with the American soldiers, he said, he was kept handcuffed and blindfolded for about 40 hours and was threatened with torture, the priest said.
   The U.S. military presence in Honduras has increased significantly since the leftist Sandinistas came to power in neighboring Nicaragua in 1979, and American soldiers hold regular joint exercises with Honduran forces.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sep  4 1985
^AM-Nicaragua-Rebels
^Two Indian Contra Groups Announce Merger
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   RUS RUS, Honduras (AP) _ Two Nicaraguan Indian groups fighting their country's leftist government say they will unite in hopes of attracting U.S. aid.
   The decision to merge the Misura and Misurasata rebel groups was announced in this isolated jungle village Tuesday night at the end of a three-day council of 491 elders from the Miskito, Suma and Rama tribes. The meeting was open to journalists.
   The council of elders is the highest authority of the Indians, who inhabit Nicaragua's Caribbean coast and have resisted efforts by the Sandinista government to increase government control in the remote region.
   According to the council announcement, the new organization will be called Kisan, which stands in the Miskito language for "Nicaraguan Coast Indian Unity." It will be run by a seven-man directorate, including some leaders of the two former groups, which will be responsible to the council of elders.
   The meeting began Sunday in this village of thatched huts, which is about 188 miles east of Tegucigalpa, capital of Honduras, and less than two miles from the Nicaraguan border.
   Wycliffe Diego, coordinator of the directorate, told reporters Tuesday night that White House officials he would not identify had urged the union. He said they called it a prerequisite for getting some of the $27 million in "non-lethal" aid to Nicaraguan rebels authorized by the U.S. Congress.
   "Now the war will be won in Washington. There it can be won or lost. Not only our own bullets will win this war," Diego told the elders.
   Two Misurasata leaders expressed doubts about the solidity of the union. Kenneth Bushey, who was elected to the directorate, said he would serve only as an individual, not as a representative of his group.
   Centuriano Knoth, who was chosen deputy chief of the Kisan general staff, told reporters: "It is clear there is no unity. When they elected Kenneth, they wanted to give an image of unity, but we haven't accepted it."
   Leaders of the two Indian rebel groups have bickered for three years even though Misura, based in Honduras, has been fighting in northeastern Nicaragua and Misurasata has operated in the southeast, near the Costa Rica frontier.
   Misura and Misurasata were two of four Nicaraguan rebel groups.
   The Honduras-based Nicaraguan Democratic Force, largest of the four, recently formed a coalition with the political leadership of the smaller Revolutionary Democratic Alliance based in Costa Rica, also as a means of qualifying for U.S. aid.
   Kisan leaders say they will try to join this new group, which calls itself United Nicaraguan Opposition, or UNO.
   It does not include the military leadership of the Revolutionary Democratic Alliance led by Eden Pastora. He was a hero of the Sandinista revolution and turned against his comrades when they moved sharply to the left after overthrowing President Anastasio Somoza in July 1979.
   Pastora refuses to join the UNO. He contends that the Democratic Force military command is dominated by former members of Somoza's army.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sep  5 1985
^AM-Nicaragua-Rebels
^Indian Rebels Vow Fight Against Sandinistas
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   RUS RUS, Honduras (AP) _ One elderly Nicaraguan Indian vowed to fight with a machete "if I have to" against his country's leftist Sandinista government. Another said he wouldn't return to his homeland as long as the Sandinistas remain in power.
   Statements such as these received strong approval at an Indian congress in the remote village of Rus Rus, two miles from the Nicaraguan border.
   During the congress, which ended late Tuesday, two rebel Indian groups, the Misura and Misurasata, agreed to merge in an effort to attract U.S. aid. The new group will be called Kisan, standing for Nicaraguan Coast Indian Unity in the Miskito language.
   The Indians from the Miskito, Suma and Rama tribes inhabit Nicaragua's Caribbean coast. Many speak English or their own Indian languages, rather than Spanish, the language of most Nicaraguans.
   Their social and cultural separateness have led the Indians to resist Sandinista efforts to increase government control in their remote region.
   Some 20,000 Indians have fled Nicaragua to Honduras since 1981. In 1982, the Sandinistas forcibly moved 60,000 others out of their homelands and put them into relocation camps.
   Now, the Nicaraguan government has agreed to allow the Indians that were moved from their homelands to go back and has promised autonomy for the region.
   But many of the refugees attending the meeting said they won't return and won't negotiate with the Sandinistas.
   "I'm not going back as long as the Sandinistas are in Nicaragua," one of the congress's 491 delegates told the crowd. "The Sandinistas took all my cattle and said everything belongs to the government, and when I spoke up for my rights, they put me in jail twice."
   Mollins Tillet, the president of the Indians' Council of Elders, exhorted those at the congress to fight for the Indians' return.
   "You young ones must struggle so you don't die here and so you can take the bones of the old ones who do die here back to Nicaragua," he said.
   An elderly delegate said, "My sons are fighting in the mountains (with the anti-Sandinista guerrillas), and when they die, I will take over the fight and will do battle against the Sandinistas with a machete if I have to."
   The crowd roared its approval.
   The interior of the rough-hewn building where the congress was held was adorned with images of Jesus, and the speakers frequently referred to their struggle as a "war of God."
   At the close of the ceremony, the delegates sang "Onward Christian Soldiers" in the Miskito language, and a minister of the Moravian Church blessed the struggle as its leaders knelt before him, saying, "It will not be us who wins this war, but the Almighty."
   Wycliffe Diego, the new leader of the Kisan, told reporters that White House officals whom he would not identify said unification among the Indian groups was a condition for getting some of the $27 million in non-lethal aid Congress authorized for Nicaraguan rebels.
   U.S. officals have said they are concerned the rebels may begin fighting each other.
   Leaders of the Misura and Misurasata have argued for three years even though Misura is based in Honduras and has been fighting in northeastern Nicaragua and Misurasata has operated in the southeast, near the Costa Rica frontier.
   Although two representatives of the Misurasata were elected to posts in Kisan's directorate and general staff, they said the unification was "false" because their leader, Brooklyn Rivera, was not present.
   Two other guerrilla groups are fighting the Sandinistas. The largest, the Honduras-based Nicaraguan Democratic Force, recently formed a coalition with the political leadership of the smaller Revolutionary Democratic Alliance based in Costa Rica, also as a means of qualifying for U.S. aid.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sep  6 1985
^PM-Nicaragua-Indians
^An AP Extra
^    EDITOR'S NOTE - Nicaraguan Indians held their congress this year in Rus Rus, a village on Honduras' isolated Caribbean coast where hundreds of them have sought refuge. A major topic was the fight of Indian guerrilla organizations against Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista government. Associated Press reporter Andrew Selsky was one of five U.S. journalists who observed the congress.
   RUS RUS, Honduras (AP) _ Hundreds of Nicaraguan Indians, some escorted by guerrilla patrols, slogged for weeks along jungle trails to attend an assembly in this remote refugee village and form an alliance against the leftist Sandinista government.
   The delegates represented all the Indian communities along the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua.
   In forming the new group called Kisan, which means Nicaraguan Coast Indian Unity in the Miskito Indian language, the assembly dissolved the Misura and Misurasata rebel groups, two of four guerrilla armies fighting the Sandinista government.
   The Indians, who claim about 4,000 soldiers, hope to qualify for some of the $27 million in non-lethal aid the U.S. Congress authorized for the rebels, also known as Contras.
   "We have lived in our country before the time of Columbus, but now we must plead with the Sandinistas for the control of our lands," said Wycliffe Diego, who was elected leader of Kisan by the assembly.
   "We will die before we become slaves to any government, much less the Sandinistas," declared Diego, 39, who formed the first Nicaraguan Indian rights group, Alpromiso, in 1973 when Anastasio Somoza was in power. The Sandinistas overthrew Somoza in July 1979.
   Diego, like others, addressed the 491-delegate assembly in the Miskito Indian language, which another Indian translated into Spanish for the 10 U.S., European and Honduran journalists who attended the three-day assembly. The assembly ended Tuesday, but reports about it were delayed because there are no telephones in the area.
   Some of the delegates were guerrilla officers, dressed in heavy boots, jeans and T-shirts. Others were clergymen representing the Roman Catholic and Moravian churches in Nicaragua. Still others were from nearby refugee villages.
   The delegates from Nicaragua were accompanied by guerrillas from the Misura group because of fears of attacks by Sandinista troops.
   Violence between the Sandinistas and the Indians erupted in 1981 when government troops tried to arrest a dissident leader in a Moravian church in Prinzapolka, Nicaragua. A shootout left four Indian rebels and eight soldiers dead, Indian leaders say.
   In the following weeks, Indian guerrillas in the Misura and Misurasata bands attacked soldiers with bows and arrows and machetes, then later with automatic rifles taken from dead soldiers.
   In 1982, the government began forcibly relocating thousands of Miskito Indians living in the coastal jungle area. The Indians say soldiers set fire to Miskitos' homes, churches and crops, and killed their livestock.
   The Sandinistas now say the forced relocation was a mistake and are trying to move the Miskitos back to their ancestral homelands along the Coco River, which divides Honduras and Nicaragua.
   But delegates representing the refugees vowed not to return as long as the Sandinistas remained in power.
   "You young ones must struggle so you don't die here and so you can take the bones of the old ones who do die here back to Nicaragua," said Mollins Tillet, the president of the Indian's council of elders.
   "Our most fervent wish is that our next assembly be held in Nicaragua, which for us is a piece of heaven," he said.
   The approximately 400 refugees who fled across the Coco River to live in Rus Rus, just two miles from the border, had to begin all over. About 19,000 other Indian refugees live in similar settlements on the Honduran side of the river, relief officals say.
   The Indians erected bamboo huts atop stilts for protection against the monsoon-like rains that lash the region eight months of the year. With the help of international relief agencies and tribesman already in Honduras they grow rice and beans, and some have a cow or two.
   Some Indian leaders say they are seeking an autonomous state in Nicaragua, and representatives of the Misaurasata faction believe an autonomy plan can be negotiated with the Sandinistas.
   "Our fight is for our rights," Kenneth Bushey, a Misurasata guerrilla commander elected to the Kisan governing body, told reporters. "If the Sandinistas respect those rights, we won't have any reason to fight," he said.
   However, otehr leaders like Diego want more.
   "We want to have a dialogue with other (rebel) groups and to fight together for the freedom of our country and to get rid of Sandinismo forever, which is communism," Diego told the assembly.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sep 9 1985
^AM-Refugees-Guerrillas
^Man Who Claims To Be Guerrilla Deserter Says Rebels Rest At U.N. Camps
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
¶   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ Armed leftist guerrillas from El Salvador rest and recuperate at U.N. refugee camps in Honduras and use the agency to get refugee documentation, a man who claims to be a guerrilla deserter said Monday.
¶   Jose Antonio Chicas Sanchez, 20, told reporters that the Popular Revolutionary Army forcibly inducted him March 3 and he was trained at a rebel "military school" commanded by a Nicaraguan. He said he deserted two months later "because I didn't want to fight."
¶   The Popular Revolutionary Army is one of five factions fighting to overthrow the U.S.-backed government of El Salvador, which borders Honduras on the west.
¶   Chicas said he fled to the Callejones refugee camp, about two miles from the border with El Salvador, to be with his wife, a refugee in the camp.
¶   But Chicas said guerrilla commanders in the camp discovered he was a deserter and held him captive for three months. He did not explain how or when he escaped, but said he went to authorities and identified six rebel leaders who lived at the camp.
¶   Reports differ as to what happened Aug. 29 when Chicas returned to the camp with Honduran troops. Refugees at the camp have been reported as saying that about 100 soldiers began beating the refugees with rifle butts and opened fire on them, killing a 2-month-old baby and a man.
¶   The military said the man grabbed a soldier's rifle and wounded him in the leg, then was gunned down by another soldier, and that refugees stoned the soldiers when they marched into the camp.
¶   Soldiers arrested 10 people, and Chicas said three were guerrilla commanders and another also was a guerrilla. He did not identify the other six.
¶   He said 500 Salvadoran guerrillas are hiding in the six U.N. refugee camps about 100 miles west of Tegucigalpa, near the border.
¶   Luise Druke, an official of the U.N. High Commission for Refugees, told The Associated Press after the news conference that there are only 500-600 men aged 15 to 50 in the camps.
¶   She said it was "not quite clear" how Chicas concluded they were all guerrillas. The camps hold 9,000 refugees, she said.
¶   Chicas said guerrillas visit the camps to rest from fighting in El Salvador, and receive refugee documents with the unwitting help of the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR.
¶   "The guerrilla commanders at the camps talk with the UNHCR, and they are the ones who give the permission to the ones who come to rest there," Chicas said.
¶   The guerrillas take medicine and cloth donated to the refugees by international relief agencies, he said. They send the medicine to the battlefield to care for wounded and use the cloth to make uniforms, Chicas said.
¶   Salvadoran guerrillas have submachine guns, pistols and grenades hidden in the refugee camps, Chicas said.
¶   Ms. Druke refused to comment on Chicas' allegations, but said U.N. documentation of refugees is coordinated with Honduran immigration authorities.
¶   U.S. Embassy press attache Arthur Skop said the United States has "known for a considerable time about guerrilla presence in the camps. The only solution is to move the camps away from the conflictive zones."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sep 13 1985
^AM-Nicaragua-Hijack
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ Five Nicaraguans said they hijacked a small plane on its way to a Nicaraguan island in the Caribbean Sea on Friday and forced the pilot to fly to Honduras.
   The military's public affairs office said Friday night that the Nicaraguans were being questioned, and that it had no further comment.
   A spokesman for the group of five, including two women and three men all in their 20s, told the control tower at Toncontin Airport, "We are carrying out this action because we want to live in a climate of liberty."
   An official in the Civil Aeronautics Office, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, "Apparently the Nicaraguans are going to try to request political asylum from our authorities."
   The control tower reported that the group had said the plane was headed for Nicaragua's Corn Island it was forced to head for Honduras. There was no information on how the hijack was carried out.
   After the Cessna 315-2 plane landed and was parked on the southern part of Toncontin's air strip, a force of soldiers and police surrounded it and took all aboard into custody.
   Soldiers and police twice took a camera from Associated Press photographer Andrew Selsky as he tried to take pictures of the airplane from the airport terminal. The camera was returned undamaged but without the film both times. Selsky was not harmed.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sep 14 1985
^PM-Honduras-Attack
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ A Honduran military spokesman said warplanes shot down a Nicaraguan helicopter and strafed mortar batteries along the frontier that had fired volleys into Honduras hours earlier.
   However, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega today denounced the action on Friday as a Honduran "invasion," which he said was repulsed by Nicaraguan land forces and helicopter units.
   Ortega telephoned President Roberto Suazo Cordova of Honduras to ask that "we meet immediately and avoid a conflict that could bring incalculable consequences," a reliable government source said.
   "President Ortega had asked the Honduran government for a meeting of the two countries under the auspices of the Contadora group" in an earlier communique, said the source, but added: "President Ortega considers that it is more urgent that the two presidents meet directly and immediately, to avoid greater fatal consequences."
   In the communique, published in the Sandinista newspaper Barricada, Ortega said Contra forces tried to enter Nicaraguan territory Friday "counting on the support of the units of the army of Honduras and of the air force of that same country."
   A Honduran military spokesman said Honduras moved 2,000 troops to the border on Friday before launching the air attacks, and radio stations said the army was placed on full alert.
   The incident was the latest in a series of border clashes between the U.S.-backed government in Honduras and the leftist Sandinista regime of Nicaragua.
   Ortega's statement said the action was accompanied by threatening speeches and notes, so that Honduras "lends itself to being an instrument to call on the interventionist and criminal action of the government of the United States against the people and government of Nicaragua."
   Ortega's statement did not mention casualties or the loss of a helicopter.
   Maj. Ricardo Borjas of the armed forces public affairs office told The Associated Press it was inevitable that the Honduran attack caused casualties. Officials could not provide a casualty count.
   Honduras said the mortar assault took place at the border village of Espanolito, 11/2   miles from the border and about 38 miles southeast of Tegucigalpa.
   Suazo Cordova, calling an "urgent" session of Congress for this morning, said all 82 deputies should attend "for whatever decision they must make in defense of national integrity and sovereignty."
   Honduras recalled its ambassador to Nicaragua, Col. Isidro Tapia Martinez, for consultations on the skirmishing along the border, said Antonio Mazariegos, the chief government spokesman.
   Sixty people have died in the past six months in border fighting between Honduran and Nicaraguan troops. U.S.-backed Nicaraguan rebels operate from bases in Honduras and are often pursued across the border by Nicaraguans.
   A Honduran military spokesman, speaking on condition he not be identified, said Honduras had sent 2,000 troops to the border after Nicaragua's Sandinista army lobbed mortar shells at a Honduran outpost, killing one soldier and wounding eight others.
   A U.S. Embassy spokesman said no Americans were involved in the actions and that none of the approximately 1,200 U.S. troops who are based in Honduras have been put on alert.
   "There has been a long record of Sandinista attacks along the border," said the spokesman, Arthur Skop. "This is the first time there has been a Honduran military response. They have a basis to respond to these actions."
   Skop said the downed Nicaraguan helicopter was Soviet-made because "they don't have anything else." Skop said he could not identify the type of helicopter.
   The Honduran attack was launched at 4 p.m. Friday (6 p.m. EDT) and was aimed at Nicaraguan batteries across the border from Espanolito which had fired mortars into Honduras at 10 a.m. and again at noon, said a military spokesman, who requested anonymity.
   It was not immediately clear if Honduran aircraft crossed into Nicaraguan air space during the attack, he said.
   The Nicaraguan Democratic Force, the largest of the U.S.-backed rebel groups fighting the Sandinista government, maintains bases along the border.
   Since 1983, Honduras and the United States have conducted joint military exercises, which have included about 15,000 American troops and nearly all of Honduras' 21,000-member armed forces.
   Nicaragua has the largest military force in Central America, with more than 100,000 people under arms.
   The United States maintains its military task force headquarters at Palmerola Air Base, which also serves as the training base for the Honduras air force.
   Since 1981, the United States has furnished $217.2 million in military aid to Honduras. The increases have been dramatic, from $3.9 million in 1980 to $88.2 million proposed for 1986.
   The border clash came as Latin American diplomats concluded a two-day meeting in Panama to discuss a peace treaty for the five Central American countries. The meeting was sponsored by the Contadora group.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sep 23 1985
^AM-Honduras
^Government Orders U.N. To Move Refugee Camps
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ The government ordered the United Nations to move its refugee camps away from the Salvadoran border amid recent disclosures that Salvadoran guerrillas use the camps to rest and recuperate.
   In a letter printed in a local newspaper Monday, the minister of government and justice told the U.N. High Commission for Refugees' chief representative in Honduras, Waldo Villalpando, to move the refugees about 40 miles from the Salvadoran border in Western Honduras to the area near the town of Mesa Grande.
   About 9,000 Salvadoran refugees who have fled the civil war in their country live in six U.N. refugee camps near Colomoncagua, 2 miles from the Salvadoran border and 150 miles west of Tegucigalpa.
   Earlier this month, in a news conference arranged by the Honduran military, a Salvadoran who identified himself as a deserter from a guerrilla group said about 500 Salvadoran guerrillas were hiding in the camps.
   He said the guerrillas use the camps to rest, and receive refugee documentation and supplies with the unwitting help of the U.N. High Commission.
   On Aug. 29, Honduran troops entered one of the camps with the deserter, who pointed out alleged guerrilla leaders.
   Refugees said the soldiers began beating refugees indiscriminately and opened fire, killing a 2-month-old baby and a man. The military said the refugees had pelted the soldiers with rocks and attacked them with sticks, and that the man who was killed had wrested away a soldier's rifle and shot the soldier.
   The soldiers arrested 10 people for allegedly having ties with the guerrillas.
   The Salvadoran guerrillas would have a harder time reaching the refugee camps if the camps are placed deeper into Honduran territory. Some of the refugees, many of them known to be guerrilla sympathizers, have said they will refuse to move.
   U.S. Embassy spokesman Arthur Skop said after the raid that American officals "have known for a considerable time about guerrilla presence in the camps," and that "the only solution is to move the camps away from the conflictive zones."
   The United States is supporting the Salvadoran government in its war against the leftist guerrillas.
   The Honduran armed forces announced Monday that U.S. troops will help build a road next January as part of continuing military exercises between the two countries.
   A U.S. military source last week told The Associated Press that the United States is helping build roads and air fields in Honduras so the Honduran military will be better able to move troops and war materials in case Nicaragua invades Honduras.
   The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that the United States was also providing the assistance so American troops could use the facilities if the United States went to war against Nicaragua, a possibility he described as extremely remote.
   This summer, U.S. Army engineers built a 15-mile stretch of roadway in Yoro province, in the north-central part of the country. In the exercise announced Monday, U.S. soldiers using their own heavy equipment will build a continuation of that road and possibly other roadways, according to a communique issued by the Honduran armed forces public affairs office.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Oct 3 1985
^AM-Contra Aid
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ An American official coordinating U.S. government aid to Nicaraguan rebels has been quietly seeking advice from rebel leaders in Honduras about how the money should be distributed, one of the leaders said Thursday.
   Roger Hermann, political coordinator of Kisan, a new group of Nicaraguan Indians fighting to overthrow the Sandinista government, said he met for about 30 minutes Thursday with Cresencio Arcos, deputy director of the U.S. Office of Humanitarian Assistance.
   The office was created by President Reagan to disburse $27 million in non- lethal aid to the rebels.
   Hermann said Arcos wanted advice from rebel leaders on how the money should be handed out, but was unable to say when American officals would begin to do so.
   "They're always telling us the aid will come next week, next week," Hermann said. "So far it's been all air and no substance."
   The rebels had expected to receive the aid a month ago. Part of the reason for the delay may be that the Honduran government, sensitive about the presence of Nicaraguan rebels in Honduran territory, does not want the U.S. Embassy in Honduras involved in the distribution of the aid.
   Foreign Minister Edgardo Paz Barnica said in August that he did not think the Honduran government would accept the U.S. Embassy giving money to anyone who was fighting a neighboring country's regime.
   The embassy "has nothing to do with the distribution of the aid," said Embassy spokesman Michael O'Brien.
   The loss of that valuable support structure forces the United States to coordinate with the rebels from Washington or elsewhere.
   Arcos said through embassy sources that he did not want to be interviewed by the news media in Honduras.
   Hermann said he told Arcos that the 5,000 Indian rebels and 20,000 Nicaraguan Indian refugees in Honduras need medicine, food and clothing. Much of the aid Kisan hopes to receive will go to the guerrillas, Hermann said, but the refugees will also receive the supplies "so the fighters can go to the battlefield knowing their families are being taken care of."
   Kisan - the acronym stands for Nicaraguan Coast Indian Unity in the Spanish language - will request about $5 million of the aid, Hermann said. The aid will be channeled through the United Nicaraguan Opposition.
   A spokesman for the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, the largest rebel group with a reported force of 17,000 soldiers, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Arcos was not meeting with them during his trip to Tegucigalpa, and that the group was not even aware of his presence in the city.
   However, Hermann said Arcos could be reached through the Nicaraguan Democratic Force office in Tegucigalpa.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Oct 16 1985
^AM-Honduras-Contra Aid
^First Shipment Of U.S. Aid To Contras Seized; Security Council To Meet
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ The Honduran government seized the first shipment of U.S. humanitarian aid to rebels trying to overthrow the leftist Nicaraguan government, news reports said Wednesday.
   Foreign Minister Edgardo Paz Barnica said the shipment had arrived in the country without the government's knowledge and an "urgent" meeting of the National Security Council would be called over the incident. He did not say when the meeting would be held, and did not comment on the newspaper report that the cargo had been seized.
   "This is a very delicate matter," Paz Barnica told reporters at an impromptu and brief press conference. "This cargo effectively arrived without the knowledge of the government of Honduras."
   The shipment of supplies purchased with part of the $27 million in humanitarian aid authorized by the U.S. Congress this summer arrived Thursday at Toncontin airport in Tegucigalpa.
   A Tegucigalpa newspaper, El Heraldo, reported Wednesday that the shipment had been seized and was being held at an armed forces center near the capital.
   El Heraldo quoted the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Walter Lopez Reyes, as saying, "Our country can not, under any circumstances, allow this type of operation which tends to inflict serious moral damage to the Honduran nation.
   "We will not tolerate a similar offense, nor can we admit this cargo or allow others" of the same type to enter the country, Lopez was quoted as saying.
   Paz Barnica said Lopez's comments were "very significant," but did not elaborate.
   U.S. Embassy spokesman Arthur Skop on Wednesday said the shipment contained medical supplies paid for by the U.S. government, but "onward transportation arrangements were made by representatives of the Nicaraguan Democratic Resistance."
   The Embassy, aware of Honduras' sensitivity over the presence of Nicaraguan rebels on its soil, has said it will play no role in the distribution or the monitoring of aid shipments.
   Skop would not discuss U.S. involvement, if any, in the transportation of the supplies out of the United States and would not say if such shipments to rebels in Honduras would be attempted again.
   The Nicaraguan rebels are fighting to overthrow the leftist Sandinista government which came to power in 1979 after defeating the rightist regime of President Anastasio Somoza in a civil war.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Oct 24 1985
^AM-Honduras-Elections
^Cordova Loyalists Call For Special Session Of Congress
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ Opposition leaders called thousands of people into the streets Thursday night to protest a special session of Congress approved by a faction loyal to President Roberto Suazo Cordova.
   Opponents said they feared Congress might be dissolved, ending chances of presidential elections scheduled next month.
   The U.S. Embassy said it was concerned the special session and consequent protests could disrupt what would be the first transition of civilian governments without military intervention in more than 50 years.
   A slim congressional majority of 46 on Wednesday approved the special session motion introduced by a faction of the 82-member Congress loyal to Suazo's Liberal Party. The motion called for the special session to "deal with matters of greatest importance to the life of the country."
   The constitution prohibits the 59-year-old president from being elected to a second term, but opposition leaders and American observers said they feared the special session was an attempt to sabotage presidential elections scheduled for Nov. 24. Suazo Cordova's term ends in January.
   National Party candidate Leonardo Callejas called for street demonstrations to coincide with the special session Thursday night, and thousands of protesters gathered in front of the Legislative Palace.
   "This afternoon we will begin the mobilization of the citizens of Tegucigalpa," Callejas said. "This afternoon, the streets of Tegucigalpa will be taken by the nationalists to reclaim the right to have elections."
   A U.S. Embassy official told The Associated Press that it was "speculation"  to worry that the special session might disrupt the November elections, but that such speculation was worthy of concern and the embassy would closely monitor the situation.
   Callejas told Radio America on Thursday that the purpose of the special session may be to "postpone the electoral process to try to give ... Cordova two more years (in office).
   "And, if this is true, it would be truly irresponsible, and would create a popular crisis," he said.
   Last spring, the nation was driven to the brink of constitutional crisis by political maneuvering to assume control of the National Tribunal of Elections. But the crisis was resolved under an agreement that gave the presidency to the party and its candidate that won the most votes in a popular election.
   The last time a Honduran civilian government has changed hands without military intervention was in 1929.
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Oct 25 1985
^AM-Honduras-Elections
^Cordova Loyalists Call For Special Session Of Congress
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ About 2,000 demonstrators converged on the Congress building Thursday night, protesting a special session of Congress approved by a faction loyal to President Roberto Suazo Cordova.
   Government opponents, who called for the protest, said they feared Congress might be dissolved during the session, ending chances of presidential elections scheduled next month.
   About 50 riot police, wearing gas masks and carrying batons and automatic weapons, surrounded the Congress building and kept the crowd at bay.
   The U.S. Embassy said it was concerned the special session and consequent protests could disrupt what would be the first transition of civilian governments without military intervention in more than 50 years.
   A slim congressional majority of 46 on Wednesday approved the special session motion introduced by a faction of the 82-member Congress loyal to Suazo's Liberal Party. The motion called for the special session to "deal with matters of greatest importance to the life of the country."
   The constitution prohibits the 59-year-old president from being elected to a second term, but opposition leaders and American observers said they feared the special session was an attempt to sabotage presidential elections scheduled for Nov. 24. Suazo Cordova's term ends in January.
   Congress adjourned Thursday night without taking any action, but agreed to meet again Friday evening.
   National Party candidate Leonardo Callejas called for street demonstrations to coincide with the special session Thursday night, and thousands of protesters gathered in front of the Legislative Palace.
   "This afternoon we will begin the mobilization of the citizens of Tegucigalpa," Callejas said. "This afternoon, the streets of Tegucigalpa will be taken by the nationalists to reclaim the right to have elections."
   A U.S. Embassy official told The Associated Press that it was "speculation"  to worry that the special session might disrupt the November elections, but that such speculation was worthy of concern and the embassy would closely monitor the situation.
   Callejas told Radio America on Thursday that the purpose of the special session may be to "postpone the electoral process to try to give ... Cordova two more years (in office).
   "And, if this is true, it would be truly irresponsible, and would create a popular crisis," he said.
   Last spring, the nation was driven to the brink of constitutional crisis by political maneuvering to assume control of the National Tribunal of Elections. But the crisis was resolved under an agreement that gave the presidency to the party and its candidate that won the most votes in a popular election.
   The last time a Honduran civilian government has changed hands without military intervention was in 1929.
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Nov 19 1985
^AM-Honduras-US
^Claim U.S. helicopters dropped election literature
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ Two U.S. military helicopters dropped campaign literature supporting the governing party's candidate in next Sunday's presidential election, according to local radio and newspaper reports.
   U.S. Embassy spokesman Arthur Skop told reporters that two helicopters from an American military detachment "were provided in response to a direct request Nov. 11 from the office of the president of Honduras" and were flown by U.S. military personnel.
   He refused to elaborate, but said it would be against U.S. policy for American military aircraft to be used by a foreign government for unofficial business and that dropping campaign pamphlets would be considered "non- official business."
   He referred all further questions to President Roberto Suazo Cordova's office.
   Presidential spokesman Francisco Mejia said Suazo Cordova had asked for the helicopters to help the president inaugurate a primary school on Nov. 11. He said the reports that campaign leaflets were thrown from the helicopters were "completely false."
   The helicopters were from the Palmerola air force base, about 10 miles from Suazo Cordova's home province of La Paz where the pamphlets purportedly were dropped.
   Witnesses said the leaflets praised Oscar Mejia Arellano, the Liberal Party candidate Suazo Cordova hand-picked to succeed him as president. Suazo Cordova is barred by the constitution from seeking a second, four-year term. A president and legislature will be elected Sunday.
   The newspaper Tiempo said Tuesday, "Two helicopters of the North American military forces stationed in Honduras threw campaign leaflets favoring the ... candidate Oscar Mejia Arellano."
   A Tegucigalpa radio station, Radio America, broadcast a telephone interview Monday with a listener identified only as Jose Rodriguez, He claimed that Col. William Comee Jr., the commander of the Palmerola air base, had acknowledged in public the use of the helicopters by Suazo Cordova.
   According to the broadcast, Comee loaned Suazo Cordova two helicopters, and when the pilots returned "they informed (the colonel) that the president of the republic had been throwing political propaganda throughout La Paz province."
   It also said Comee was "the victim of a deception" and appeared "disgusted" when he spoke about the incident in Comayagua, a town about three miles from the air base.
   Maj. Donald Maurer, who answered the telephone at Comee's office at the Palmerola air base, declined comment on the Radio America report. U.S. Air Force Capt. Oscar Seara, a spokesman at the base, also refused to comment.
   The United States maintains a force of about 1,000 military personnel at Palmerola, 30 miles northwest of Tegucigalpa.
   America's military presence in Honduras is a key part of the Reagan administration's policy in Central America. A series of joint U.S.-Honduran military exercises have been held since 1982, following accusations by Washington that Nicaragua's left-wing Sandinista government is attempting to destabilize the U.S.-backed governments in the region.
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Nov 20 1985
^AM-Honduras-Elections
^Dispute Brewing over Honduran Election Process
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ This Central American nation, which has endured 17 violent changes of government its 147-year history, has scheduled national elections Sunday to choose its next president.
   But the elections are not without controversy because of a snag in the law that could leave this nation of 4 million without a president when the four- year term of President Robert Suazo Cordova ends on Jan. 27. Suazo Cordova is constitutionally barred from seeking re-election.
   At issue is which of two laws takes precedent: the national constitution that says the president will be elected by a simple majority or the new electoral reform pact that says the candidate within the political party that gets the most total votes will be president.
   The distinction between the two laws is important because there are no primary or runoff elections in Honduras.
   The reform pact, supported by Suazo Cordova, was enacted in September by a Congress dominated by Suazo Cordova's Liberal Party. The Liberal Party is expected to win the most votes on Sunday.
   But National Party candidate Rafael Leonardo Callejas is expected to be the leading individual vote-getter. Under the constitution, he would be declared the winner.
   However, Leonardo could be beaten by Jose Azcona Hoyo, the leading Liberal Party candidate, because Azcona comes from the party whose candidates are expected to total the most votes.
   There are four Liberal Party members running for president; three National Party candidates; one from the Christian Democrat Party; and one from the Innovation and Unity Party.
   Because Suazo Cordova's term ends Jan. 27, the constitution says if no winner is declared by then, the Cabinet will call for new elections and will assume the presidency until a new president is elected.
   Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Gustavo Acosta Mejia said last week that the constitution "is above everything" and is the highest law. But the government is not acknowledging that fact, he said, because it wants to keep the Liberal Party in power.
   The National Tribunal of Elections, supposed to assure fair elections and declare the new president, said it will not decide which electoral method should be used until after the elections, because to do so now is premature.
   As president, Suazo Cordova can refer the dispute to the Supreme Court, but neither he nor the high court has taken such action.
   The armed forces, a major behind-the-scenes power in his civilian government, has said it is up to the tribunal to decide how the president will be elected. Suazo Cordova's victory in the 1981 elections ended almost 20 years of military rule.
   Three of the five members of the tribunal are allies of the president, and Azcona said last week that Suazo Cordova should tell them to clarify the election rules.
   "Don't be playing with the future of Honduras," Azcona said in a campaign rally. "Don't be playing with democracy - this democracy that must be consolidated on Nov. 24."
   Meanwhile, the Roman Catholic Church in Honduras, in a letter to the tribunal, said it must give a "clear definition" of the election laws before Sunday. Failing that, it said the country could experience "great frustration, conflicts and maybe even violence."
   Violence is not new to Honduras. It has had 17 coups, revolutions or assassinations of leaders since independence in 1838. Suazo Cordova's government is the 69th under 14 constitutions since 1838.
   The United States has about 100 military advisers based just outside Tegucigalpa.
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Nov 21 1985
^PM-Honduras-Election
^Electoral Law Snag Could Leave Honduras Without President
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ Hondurans vote for a new president Sunday, but a legal controversy could leave them without a leader when the term of President Roberto Suazo Cordova expires Jan. 27.
   Suazo Cordova, who has led this U.S. ally in Central America for nearly four years, is barred by the constitution from seeking re-election.
   Yet, it is unclear which of two election laws will take precedent in deciding his successor, and the two laws are likely to lead to opposite results.
   Top officials have been reluctant to make a ruling, raising fears that the lack of a clear winner could throw this country of 4 million into violence.
   Honduras has had 17 coups, revolutions or assassinations of leaders since independence in 1838. During the same period the country has had 69 governments and 14 constitutions.
   Suazo Cordova's victory in the 1981 elections ended almost 20 years of military rule.
   The constitution says the president will be elected by a simple majority, but a new electoral reform pact says the top candidate within the political party that captures the most votes will be president.
   There are no primary or runoff elections and parties can enter more than one candidate, so the distinction between the two laws is critical.
   Gustavo Acosta Mejia, the former Supreme Court chief justice, said last week that the constitution "is above everything" and is the highest law. But he said the government is not acknowledging that because it wants Suazo Cordova's Liberal Party to remain in power.
   Congress, which is dominated the Liberal Party, enacted the reform pact in September.
   The Liberal Party, with four candidates, is expected to win the most votes Sunday. Jose Azcona Hoyo is viewed as the leading Liberal Party candidate.
   But National Party candidate Rafael Leonardo Callejas is considered likely to be the leading individual vote-getter. Under the constitution, he would be declared the winner.
   The National Party has entered three candidates. The Christian Democrat Party and the Innovation and Unity Party have each entered one.
   Under the constitution, if no winner is declared by the end of Suazo Cordova's term, the Cabinet must schedule new elections and take over the presidency until a successor is chosen.
   The National Tribunal of Elections, which will monitor the voting and declare the winner, said it is premature to decide which electoral method to use.
   The Roman Catholic Church in Honduras said in a letter to the tribunal that it must give a "clear definition" of the election laws before Sunday. Failing that, it said the country could experience "great frustration, conflicts and maybe even violence."
   Even before the elections, Suazo Cordova could ask the Supreme Court to rule in the dispute, but he has not done so.
   The armed forces, a major behind-the-scenes player in Suazo Cordova's government, has said the electoral tribunal must decide the outcome.
   Three of the five members of the tribunal are allies of the president, and Azcona said last week that Suazo Cordova should tell them to clarify the situation.
   "Don't be playing with the future of Honduras," Azcona said at a campaign rally. "Don't be playing with democracy - this democracy that must be consolidated on Nov. 24."
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Nov 23 1985
^PM-Honduras-Elections
^Rules Still Snarled as Election Day Looms in Honduras
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ Hondurans vote Sunday to choose a new Congress and president, but the federal elections panel has still not said what formula it will use to decide which candidate will become the next head of state.
   About 2 million people are eligible to elect the successor to President Roberto Suazo Cordova, who leaves office Jan. 27 in what could be Honduras' first peaceful transition of civilian governments in more than 50 years.
   Military leaders held power, through coups and controlled elections, almost continuously from 1963 until Suazo Cordova's election in 1981. Honduras' 69th and latest constitution since 1838 prohibits presidential re-election.
   Nine candidates are on the presidential ballot, including four from Suazo Cordova's Liberal Party and three from the chief opposition National Party. An electoral reform package passed by the Liberal-led Congress in September permits more than one candidate from the same party.
   U.S. diplomats here said they would be watching for smooth voting and a trouble-free transition in deciding future aid levels.
   Honduras, a U.S. ally in Central America and one of the region's poorest countries, received $217.4 million in economic aid and $62.5 million in military aid from the United States last year.
   The aid could be endangered, U.S. officials said, if the government fails to untangle the electoral snarl and Honduras is without a president in January.
   At issue is a contradiction between the constitution, which says the winner needs "a simple majority of votes," and the reforms, which award the presidency to the top vote-getter in the party that gets the most votes.
   Eight of the nine presidential candidates signed a statement late Friday urging the National Tribunal of Elections to announce within 48 hours whether it would follow the constitution or the reform laws in picking the winner.
   A well-informed source who spoke on condition he not be identified said the eight candidates were called together Friday by the head of the armed forces, Gen. Walter Lopez Reyes, who wanted the "rules of the game" clarified.
   Suazo Cordova's favorite, Oscar Mejia Arellano, was absent from the meeting at a military base, according to Rafael Leonardo Callejas, leading candidate of the National Party.
   Elections Tribunal head Rafael Palacios Tosta said this week it would be premature to decide before the election which rules the panel will observe. The Supreme Court has also rejected petitions from labor unions, the church and other groups to intervene.
   A poll conducted Nov. 11-19 by the U.S.-based Spanish International Network found that of 1,139 Hondurans surveyed, 44 said they would vote for Callejas and 30 percent for Liberal Party candidate Jose Azcona Hoyo, with 14 percent favoring Suazo Cordova's choice.
   However, the Liberals' candidates were preferred to the National Party's candidates 49 percent to 46 percent, according to the SIN poll.
   If the projections are borne out, the winner will depend on what rules the Electoral Tribunal decides to follow - a scenario observers say was intended by Suazo Cordova to permit manipulation of the results.
   The constitution states that if there is no president to succeed Suazo Cordova, his council of ministers will assume the presidency and call for new elections.
   U.S. diplomats said they would consider that a blow to Honduras' democratic process.
   Voters will also choose a new Congress, expanding to 132 from the former 82 seats with this election; and 284 mayors. Each of the presidential candidates has already selected his three prospective vice presidents.
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Nov 25 1985
^PM-Honduras Elections
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ Honduras' Liberal Party held a slight lead today in vote-counting from general elections and Liberal candidate Jose Azcona Hoyo was ahead of eight other presidential contenders.
   With one-quarter of the ballots from Sunday's polling counted, the National Elections Tribunal said in a mid-morning report the governing Liberal Party was ahead with 266,313 votes over its traditional rival, the National Party, with 232,312.
   Azcona Hoyo, one of four candidates fielded by the Liberals, had 127,809 votes.
   Although the National Party's Rafael Leonardo Callejas was leading in the popular vote-count with 212,122 ballots, he may yet lose the election because of an earlier ruling by the National Elections Tribunal.
   Callejas was one of three National Party candidates.
   Departing President Roberto Suazo Cordova's hand-picked choice, Oscar Mejia Arellano, a 66-year-old lawyer and former interior minister, took the lead briefly in the vote-count early this morning from Azcona Hoyo, but lost it again a few hours later.
   Under a last-minute interpretation of unclear legislation, the Elections Tribunal ruled the party with the most votes would win the election, and its candidate with most of these votes will get to be president.
   Earlier returns broadcast over national television late Sunday had indicated that Azcona Hoyo was ahead.
   The election computing center was slow to release even unofficial tallies, and the count could last through today.
   Shortly before the polls closed Sunday, Azcona Hoyo had claimed victory, saying, "All of the reports from the interior of the country indicate that we have won."
   Azcona Hoyo, Mejia Arellano and Callejas are all moderates and advocate strong ties with the United States. Suazo Cordova is barred by the constitution from running for a second term.
   A peaceful electoral transition from one civilian president to another would be the first in Honduras since 1929. There are 4 million people in this country the size of Tennessee, and Honduras is considered a key U.S. ally in Central America.
   Political observers expressed concern the outcome could plunge the nation into a political crisis because of the last-minute decision on how the winner will be chosen.
   Under a new electoral law, the top vote-getter from the party that polls the most votes will be declared president and inaugurated Jan. 27 for a four- year term.
   That means one candidate could win while not getting a majority of the popular votes. The constitution calls for direct election of a president by a simple majority.
   Azcona Hoyo, a 58-year-old civil engineer, was running along with three other Liberal Party candidates and their combined total could be more than that of Callejas and two other National Party candidates.
   Two smaller and newer parties fielded one candidate each but were not considered likely to affect the outcome.
   It was widely expected that the National Party would protest if Callejas leads the field but is kept from the presidency by the new electoral law. Callejas, who studied at the University of Mississippi, is a 42-year-old banker and businessman from a prominent family.
   The electoral reform law, essentially combining the primary and general elections into one round, had been forged earlier this year to end a constitutional crisis. But it wasn't until just before midnight Saturday that the National Elections Tribunal ruled the law would prevail in the election.
   Suazo Cordova's election in October 1981 ended 17 years of virtually uninterrupted military rule. The military remains the behind-the-scenes power in Honduras, the second-poorest country in the Americas after Haiti.
   The presidential campaign focused more on Suazo Cordova's personality and leadership ability than on such issues as the country's $2 billion foreign debt, 30 percent unemployment and shortage of health care and schools.
   Nearly 2 million Hondurans were eligible to vote at 6,500 voting tables segregated by sex throughout the country. Also at stake were 138 seats in an expanded national assembly, 284 mayors and three vice presidents.
   Reagan administration officials were closely watching the outcome to see how well democracy is taking hold in Central America. The United States contributed $900,000 for the voting forms, ballot boxes and other electoral supplies.
   U.S. military and economic aid has increased significantly in Honduras since the leftist Sandinistas came to power six years ago in neighboring Nicaragua. The aid totaled $214.7 million in 1985.
   U.S.-backed Nicaraguan rebels based in Honduras - known as Contras - are fighting the Sandinista government, adding to Honduran-Nicaraguan tension.
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Nov 27 1985
^AM-Honduras-Elections
^Church Urges Politicians Not to challenge election law
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ The Roman Catholic Church urged the political opposition Wednesday not to challenge a controversial election law that delivered the presidency to the incumbent Liberal Party, hinting in its plea at fears of a coup.
   This Central American country has not had a peaceful transition from one elected government to another since 1929.
   Writing in the newspaper La Tribuna, the Rev. Luis Alonso Tejada Suazo, spokesman for the archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Hector Enrique Santos, warned that a legal challenge could create "disturbances" and "endanger security."
   An election law adopted earlier this year, which contradicts the 1982 constitution, gives the presidency to the party, not the individual, that attracts the most votes.
   Its provisions virtualy assure that Liberal candidate Jose Azcona Hoyo will become the next president, even though he got far fewer votes in Sunday's election than Rafael Leonardo Callejas of the opposition National Party.
   With three-quarters of the 1.9 million ballots counted, the National Elections Tribunal's returns showed that the Liberals, who entered four candidates, had 759,926 votes and the National Party, with three, had 674,231.
   On an individual basis, Callejas led Azcona 627,962 votes to 407,982.
   The constitution states the candidate with the most votes wins, but the election commission ruled hours before the polls opened that the new law was valid.
   Callejas told The Associated Press in an interview that he would not challenge the law's validity personally, but leaders of his party said they might appeal to the Supreme Court.
   An appeal would take months to resolve. Honduran law requires that, if a successor has not been chosen by the end of President Roberto Suazo Cordova's four-year term Jan. 23, he must step down and let the Cabinet govern until new elections are held within six months.
   That could cause major political confusion in a country with a history of coups. Suazo Cordova was the first elected civilian president after 17 years of almost uninterrupted military rule.
   Tejeda said in his article that legal challenges "will only bring about complications, and the only ones who would pay the consequences of a tragedy would be the Honduran people."
   "Leaders of the parties are obligated to respect the (electoral) law. Otherwise they will endanger the security of the population by creating disburbances. They must analyze this and not do it on impulse."
   The United States has stipulated improvements in the democratic system as a condition for further aid to Honduras, a keystone of U.S. plans to contain a possible spread of influence by the leftist Sandinista regime in neighboring Nicaragua.
   U.S. military and economic aid to Honduras has increased steadily since the Sandinistas seized power six years ago in Nicaragua, and totals $214.7 million this year.
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Dec  5 1985
^AM-Honduras Aid
^Controversy Over Delay In American Economic Aid
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ Honduras has not met conditions for $67.5 million in U.S. economic aid, an American Embassy spokesman said Thursday, contradicting the finance minister's assertion earlier that the opposite was true.
   "We're anxious to disburse that money, but we're under a commitment signed by both parties not to do so until the conditions have been met," spokesman Michael O'Brien said.
   Finance Minister Manuel Fontecha told reporters earlier that the "government has complied with the basic conditions" and the money should be delivered.
   An editorial in the conservative newspaper La Prensa said the delay might stem from U.S. displeasure with the government's refusal to allow aid shipments to Nicaraguan rebels based on its territory. A shipment arrived in Honduras several months ago, but was returned to the United States on the order of the government.
   Another U.S. Embassy spokesman, who spoke anonymously for protocol reasons, said there was no connection between the the shipments for the rebels and the aid to Honduras.
   Officials of both countries said the conditions include ceilings on bank loans and restructuring of tariff rates.
   Honduras is considered the Western Hemisphere's second poorest nation after Haiti.
   Although rebels fighting the leftist Sandinista government in neighboring Nicaragua have bases here, the government has avoided open endorsement of their activities. Officials apparently are concerned that allowing unhindered shipments of $27 million in U.S. "non-lethal" aid, authorized by Congress earlier this year, would be moving beyond that position.
   The La Prensa editorial said economic pressure would mean Washington "is trying to return to the days of the 'big stick' or of the counterproductive and suicidal policies of the 'Ugly American.'"
   The $67.5 million is part of a $214.7 million package of U.S. aid to Honduras for 1985.
   Aid has increased steadily since the Sandinistas came to power in Nicaragua in 1979. The United States has made Honduras a cornerstone of its Central American policy.
   Several joint U.S.-Honduran military maneuvers have taken place since 1982. The Pentagon announced Thursday that a military engineering exercise scheduled for January involves construction of a 121/2  -mile road in north central Honduras.

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Dec 13 1985
^AM-Honduras-Nicaragua
^Car From Nicaragua Filled With Munitions
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
   TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ Security forces searching through the wreckage of a car that entered Honduras from Nicaragua found it packed with bullets and grenades, the military said Friday.
   The occupants of the car, both Costa Ricans, were injured in the Nov. 7 crash on a highway about 20 miles south of here and are under arrest, Col. Cesar Elvir Sierra told The Associated Press.
   Inside the car, security forces found about 6,100 rounds of ammunition, 16 hand grenades, 70 blasting caps, medical supplies and 10 portable radios, an armed forces news release said. It said five grenades were Soviet-made.
   A U.S. Embassy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it appeared the supplies were headed for leftist guerrillas.
   "The fact that the vehicle crossed from Nicaragua to Honduras would indicate a high possibility that the stuff was for guerrillas in El Salvador or Honduras," the official said.
   "They would hardly be crossing from Nicaragua to deliver the supplies to the Contras," he said, referring to U.S.-backed Nicaraguan rebels based in Honduras who are fighting to overthrow the leftist government in neighboring Nicaragua.
   The United States has long said Nicaragua is sending arms to leftist guerrillas fighting in El Salvador, which also borders Honduras and is separated fom Nicaragua by the Gulf of Fonseca.
   Alfonso Mora, an official of the Costa Rican Embassy here, confirmed that the driver of the car, Elias Solis Gonzalez, and the passenger, Martha Espinoza Espinoza, live in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, and are citizens of that country.
   Mora said Solis Gonzalez told a Costa Rican offical after the crash that he was surprised at police statements that his car was packed with ammunition.
   Solis Gonzalez, who described himself as a self-employed businessman, received cuts to the leg and his passenger received a punctured lung in the crash, Mora said.