‘Temporary’ manoeuvres appear likely to continue

Press, 15 May 1987, Page 24

‘Temporary’ manoeuvres appear likely to continue

By

ANNE-MARIE O’CONNOR

NZPA-Reuter Tegucigalpa United States soldiers came to Honduras in 1982 to improve a few airstrips and fight off mock invasions in joint exercises that provided for an American troop presence which military officials in Washington described as "temporary.” Five years, dozens of manoeuvres and nine improved air strips later, this impoverished country is still being cast as the bulwark against the spread of communism in Central America and at least one high-level United States officer now calls the future of the exercises with Honduran troops “indefinite.” At various stages of an exercise called Solid Shield ’B7, nearly 10,000 United States troops are being deployed to Honduras from late April through mid-May. Its climax will be a marine amphibious landing supported by a simulated air assault on a beach near Puerto Castilla on Honduras’ north coast, a United States spokesman said.

About 4000 of those United States troops will remain offshore but, combines with soldiers here on separate manoeuvres, the exercise will raise the United States troop presence on the ground to 8720, which United States officials say would be a record.

In early April, General John Galvin, then outgoing head of the United States Southern command'

in Panama, told Honduran officers at the closing ceremonies of one exercise that manoeuvres were vital as a message to the army in neighbouring Nicaragua “to stay at home.”

But it is clear by now that Honduras, which has also been used as a base by United States-backed Nicaraguan rebels known as contras, is more than a playground • for war games. Though the exercises are the official focus of the United States presence, they may be one of its least important functions.

United States military officers say the centre for the American military presence, Palmerola air base, could be transformed in less than 24 hours into a forward base for a United States military intervention in Central America. United States officers say such action is unlikely, even against Nicaragua, which the Reagan Administration blames for spreading Leftist insurgency throughout the region.

Instead, as it seems unlikely that United Statesbacked Nicaraguan rebels could topple the Managua Government soon, the United States presence here has become a cornerstone in “containing” the nearly eight-year-old Sandinista revolution and preventing other leftist forces from gaining power, United States officers say. “Ther mainstream of the United’States military has

always favoured containment,” a high-level United States officer told Reuters in an interview at Palmerola, a Honduran air base 36 miles (57km) north-west of Tegucigalpa. The major function of the manoeuvres themselves was to provide training to United States troops in Central American terrain and transform the Honduran military into a more professional fighting force. In view of the persistent instability in most of Central America, the officer told Reuters, “these manoeuvres have an indefinite future.” The United States Defence Department said United States Army helicopters based at Palmerola in early May were dispatched to Guatemala to airlift 300 Government troops to a remote region of that nation to fight Leftist guerrillas. Defence Department officials cited the airlift, requested by the Guatemalan President, Vinicio Cerezo, as another sign of increasing United States military co-opera-tion with its regional allies.

Another important job for the 1200 to 3000 United States soldiers stationed here on a rotating basis was what was delicately termed “surveillance,” that is, spying. Top-secret listening posts atop two radarequipped hills near Tegucigalpa and the town of La Paz, and at Tigre Island, in the strategic Gulf of Fonseca between Nicaragua and El Salva-

dor, are the “eyes and ears” of the United States Defence Department in Central America, military officers say. Beachcraft RU-21 reconnaissance planes fly regular missions to collect information from neighbouring El Salvador which is used to help the Salvadorean army fight Leftist rebels, who appear to have regained strength in recent months.

United States military technicians at Palmerola collect information from the flights and from satellites, according to United States soldiers involved.

C.I.A. advisers training the Honduran-based contras use United States intelligence on Sandinista

troop positions to help the rebels. “Under cover of military manoeuvres in Honduras during 1983, United States armed forces personnel constructed airstrips, including the one at Aguacate, that, after the C.I.A. provided us with airplanes, were instrumental in resupplying our troops,” according to Edgar Chamorro, a former member of the directorate of the major rebel army, the Nicaraguan Democratic Force. Four of the airstrips improved by United States troops in previous manoeuvres are used by the rebels to transport weapons, supplies and personnel, United States and rebel sources say.