The president of Honduras has threatened to oust U.S. troops from bases they built in the Central American country decades ago if President-elect Donald J. Trump begins deporting large numbers of undocumented immigrants from the United States.
Honduran President Xiomara Castro’s response Wednesday in a speech broadcast on television and radio was the first concrete pushback from a leader in the region against President Trump’s plan to return millions of Latin American citizens living in the United States.
The threat came as Castro and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum convened a meeting of foreign ministers later this month to address the deportations.
“In the face of a hostile attitude aimed at mass expulsion of our brothers, we will have to consider a change in our policy of cooperation with the United States, especially in the military field,” Ms. Castro said.
“They have maintained military bases on our territory for decades without paying a penny, in which case they would lose all reason to exist in Honduras,” she added.
Honduran Foreign Minister Enrique Reyna later said in a radio interview that the Honduran leader had the authority to suspend a decades-long agreement with the United States that allows construction and operations of the Soto Cano air base without congressional approval. From there, we have America’s largest military task force in Central America.
Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Friday, Ms. Sheinbaum suggested that Mexico might accept deportees from other countries, a clear departure from her previous goal of striking a deal with Mr. Trump to not accept such immigrants. She reiterated that her government did not agree to mass deportations. exile.
“We will ask the United States to allow, to the extent possible, immigrants who are not from Mexico to return to their countries of origin. If not, we can collaborate through a variety of mechanisms,” Sheinbaum said.
“If these deportations actually occur, there will be time for dialogue with the U.S. government,” she added. “But here we will receive them. “I will receive it well, and I have a plan,” he said.
President Trump promised to quickly deport undocumented immigrants upon taking office, but the transition team did not share specific plans, leaving Latin American governments guessing as they prepare. President Trump also pledged to impose 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada if they fail to stem the flow of immigrants and fentanyl into the United States.
Governments in the region rely on remittances from U.S. immigrants. They account for a whopping 25% of Honduras’ economy. More than 500,000 undocumented Hondurans (about 5% of the Honduran population) are estimated to be living in the United States in 2022, according to the Pew Research Center.
Since the 1980s, U.S. task forces have operated out of Soto Cano, a Honduran government-owned air base in Comayagua, about 50 miles from the capital, Tegucigalpa. This building was originally built by the United States in the 1980s to curb the threat of communism in the region.
More than 1,000 U.S. troops and civilians are currently staying in Soto Canoe, Joint Task Force Bravo spokesman said Friday.
“We are guests of the Honduran government at the Honduran base.” Spokesperson Capt. Hilary Gibson said.
Captain Gibson said the task force has played a role in drug interdiction efforts, but has recently focused on disaster relief and humanitarian assistance management.
The U.S. Embassy in Honduras did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The U.S. military has bases in other countries in the region, including El Salvador, but those countries have fewer U.S. troops than Soto Cano.
While many Hondurans celebrated Castro’s comments, some elected officials sought to distance themselves from the president. Several members of Congress have pointed to the need for dialogue with the Trump administration and pointed out that pushing U.S. troops off bases would not prevent the president’s mass deportations.
Foreign Minister Reina said Thursday that Honduras would maintain good relations with the United States. But he backed the president’s comments, saying the country’s leaders “have the right to reexamine” their relationship with the United States “if we see large-scale deportations that violate the rights of immigrants.”
Will Freeman, a fellow in Latin America at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, said of the Honduran president’s remarks, “I was a little surprised by the boldness of that.”
He pointed out that although Castro has recently taken an openly confrontational approach to the United States (including a move to end a long-standing extradition treaty), the United States remains its largest trading partner. And Ms. Castro was known to be secretly “cozying up” with the U.S. ambassador to try to win continued U.S. support, including humanitarian aid for the immigration crisis, he said.
Mr. Freeman said it was also surprising that Mr. Castro took on this position before President Trump took office. This is especially true considering the comments made by Marco Rubio, the Republican Senator from Florida who was nominated by President Trump to be Secretary of State.
Mr. Rubio warned that Honduras under Mr. Castro’s government could become a “second Venezuela,” Mr. Freeman said. There, Mr. Freeman said, the growing crisis under the dictatorial rule of Nicolás Maduro has led to mass migration.
“I think it will worsen our relationship with the Trump administration, which is already probably worse,” Mr. Freeman said. “And I don’t think the northern Central American countries are in a position to have much influence with the United States on the shape of immigration policy.”
“Now Mexico is a completely different story,” he added.
Most Latin American governments, including Mexico’s, have sought to maintain good relations with President Trump while trying to highlight the contributions their citizens have made to the U.S. economy, regardless of their legal status.
This week, Mr. Sheinbaum reiterated: “We will continue to show how Mexicans in the United States contribute to the U.S. economy in very important ways. And if Mexicans weren’t in America, there wouldn’t be food on American tables.”
The government has also tried to convince citizens in the United States that it is preparing for mass deportations. Mexico has created an online application that allows citizens to notify their consulates if they are at imminent risk of being detained.
The United States does not have full diplomatic relations with some regional countries that are subject to harsh U.S. sanctions, such as Venezuela and Cuba. As a result, these countries are unlikely to accommodate large numbers of deportation flights.
After Castro’s speech, Honduras’ foreign minister announced on social media that a meeting of foreign ministers had been held to discuss mass deportations, which he said had been convened by the leaders of Honduras and Mexico. The post also included a photo of Castro holding hands with Sheinbaum.
Emiliano Rodriguez Mega contributed to the report.
