Honduras Military Used during 1980s by CIA and Citizens Suffer Death Squads

Some who are unfamiliar with Central American politics of the 1980s may be surprised to hear that Honduras was not a positive force in the leftist guerilla movements of Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. The United States had a powerful influence in Honduras at the time due to the CIAs presence and enabling of Honduras’ military’s human rights violations. During this decade, the Reagen administration used Honduras as a strategic battleground for their fight against the leftist forces of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and guerillas in El Salvador and Guatemala.  

In 1998, the CIA declassified a scandalous document which uncovered CIA activity during this tumultuous period in Honduras. Essentially, the CIA knew of the extensive human rights violations that the Honduran military was carrying out against its people, but they did not fully report on them, and they even lied to the United States Congress.  

The report unveiling these violations of human rights were released to the Honduran Human Rights Ombudsman. The Clinton Administration released this report to them, while blacking out critical sections on torture as a means of information extraction and accountability issues. It is believed that the reason the CIA did not report the extensive human rights abuses by the Honduran military who controlled the government at the time, because Honduras was a vital country for them to grasp on to the last chance of grasping their Central American policy.  

What should also anger Americans is that over $1 billion in taxpayer money was given to the Honduran military in the 1980s. This is also important to the themes of our class, because this report was released due to pressures by people and organizations outside of the government. Dr. Leo Valladares from the Honduran Human Rights Ombudsman was able to apply pressure to get these documents declassified through a prize winning 1995 Baltimore Sun series.  

Works Cited:

Peacock, Susan. “SECRET CIA REPORT ADMITS: ‘HONDURAN MILITARY COMMITTED HUNDREDS OF HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES’ AND ‘INACCURATE’ REPORTING TO CONGRESS,” October 23, 1998.

“History of Honduras.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, April 12, 2021.