You may recall Zelaya had been planning to change the airbase at Palmerola (Soto Cano) back to civilian use. They had been forced to deal mainly with their main base in Tegucigalpa which is the SECOND MOST DANGEROUS AIRPORT IN THE WORLD. As you may remember, big planes go down there frequently with devastating results.
You may also recall John Negroponte was Reagan's ambassador in Honduras, a P.O.S. who lied about the Honduran US-trained death squads torturing and murdering Hondurans relentlessly, even slaughtering US nuns working in Honduras.
Not long before the coup, Negroponte showed up to tell Zelaya he'd better forget his plans for returning Honduras' badly needed airport to civilian use, as Ecuador's Rafael Correa had accomplished already in his country, with Manta Air Base:
Zelaya, Negroponte and the Controversy at Soto Cano
The Coup and the U.S. Airbase in Honduras
By Nikolas Kozloff
~snip~
Throwing fuel on the fire Assistant Secretary of State John Negroponte, a former U.S. ambassador to Honduras, said that Honduras could not transform Palmerola into a civilian airport “from one day to the next.” In Tegucigalpa, Negroponte met with Zelaya to discuss Palmerola. Speaking later on Honduran radio the U.S. diplomat said that before Zelaya could embark on his plans for Palmerola the airport would have to receive international certification for new incoming flights. According to Spanish news agency EFE Negroponte also took advantage of his Tegucigalpa trip to sit down and meet with the President of the Honduran Parliament and future coup leader Roberto Micheletti
.
Needless to say Negroponte’s visit to Honduras was widely repudiated by progressive and human rights activists who labeled Negroponte “an assassin” and accused him of being responsible for forced disappearances during the diplomat’s tenure as ambassador (1981-1985). Moreover, Ford and Negroponte’s condescending attitude irked organized labor, indigenous groups and peasants who demanded that Honduras reclaim its national sovereignty over Palmerola. “It’s necessary to recover Palmerola because it’s unacceptable that the best airstrip in Central America continues to be in the hands of the U.S. military,” said Carlos Reyes, leader of the Popular Bloc which included various politically progressive organizations. “The Cold War has ended and there are no pretexts to continue with the military presence in the region,” he added. The activist remarked that the government should not contemplate swapping Mosquitia for Palmerola either as this would be an affront to Honduran pride.
Over the next year Zelaya sought to convert Palmerola into a civilian airport but plans languished when the government was unable to attract international investors. Finally in 2009 Zelaya announced that the Honduran armed forces would undertake construction. To pay for the new project the President would rely on funding from ALBA and Petrocaribe, two reciprocal trading agreements pushed by Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez. Predictably the Honduran right leapt on Zelaya for using Venezuelan funds. Amílcar Bulnes, President of the Honduran Business Association said that Petrocaribe funds should not be used for the airport but rather for other, unspecified needs.
A couple weeks after Zelaya announced that the armed forces would proceed with construction at Palmerola the military rebelled. Led by Romeo Vásquez, the army overthrew Zelaya and deported him out of the country. In the wake of the coup U.S. peace activists visited Palmerola and were surprised to find that the base was busy and helicopters were flying all around. When activists asked American officials if anything had changed in terms of the U.S.-Honduran relationship they were told “no, nothing.”
More:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23123.htm
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