Honduran leader threatens to expel US military from base if Trump orders mass deportations

The president of Honduras has threatened to expel the U.S. military from a base it built decades ago in the Central American country if President-elect Donald J. Trump carries out mass deportations of illegal immigrants from the United States.

Honduran President Xiomara Castro’s response, in a speech broadcast on television and radio on Wednesday, was the first concrete response by a leader in the region to Mr. Trump’s plan to repatriate millions of Latin American citizens living in the United States.

The threat came as Ms. Castro and the Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, called a meeting of foreign ministers later this month to address the deportation issue.

“Faced with the hostile situation of mass expulsion of our brothers, we must consider changing our cooperation policies with the United States, especially in the military field,” Ms. Castro said.

“Without paying a single cent for decades, they maintain military bases in our territory, which in this case would lose every reason to be in Honduras,” she added.

Honduran Foreign Minister Enrique Reyna said afterward In a radio interview The Honduran leader has the power to suspend without congressional approval the country’s decades-old agreement with the United States that allows it to build the Soto Cano air base and operate the largest American military force in Central America from there.

Such a move would pose serious risks to the small country, which relies on the United States as its largest trading partner and source of humanitarian aid.

“I’m a little surprised by his audacity,” Will Freeman, a fellow for Latin American studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, said of the Honduran president’s statement.

Trump transition team spokesman Brian Hughes, responding to Ms. Castro’s warning, said in a statement: “The Trump administration looks forward to engaging our partners in Latin America to ensure our southern border is secure and illegal immigrants can be returned to their countries.” country of origin.”

Trump promised to quickly deport illegal immigrants when he took office, but his transition team has not shared any concrete plans, leaving Latin American governments guessing even as they try to prepare. Mr. Trump also pledged to do so Slap a 25 percent tariff Mexico and Canada will have to stop the flow of migrants and fentanyl into the United States.

Most governments in Latin America, including Mexico’s, have worked to remain on equal footing with Trump, even as they have sought to emphasize the contributions their citizens make to the American economy, whatever their legal status.

“We will continue to show how the Mexican people of the United States contribute in a very important way to the American economy,” Ms. Sheinbaum emphasized this week. “If the Mexican people were not in the United States, there would be no food on American tables.”

Governments have also sought to reassure their citizens in the United States that they are preparing for any large-scale expulsions. Honduras said it would establish mobile consulates, and Mexico created an online app for its citizens to alert consular authorities if they are at imminent risk of arrest.

On Friday, in a clear shift from Its previous target To reach an agreement with Mr. Trump to avoid receiving such migrants, Ms. Sheinbaum also suggested that Mexico might take in deportees from other countries, even as she reiterated that her administration had not approved mass deportations.

“We will ask the United States, to the extent possible, that migrants who are not from Mexico be transferred to their countries of origin. If not, we can cooperate through different mechanisms,” Ms. Sheinbaum said.

She added: “There will be time to talk to the US government if these deportations actually happen.” “But here we will receive them; we will receive them well, and we have a plan.”

The region’s governments rely on remittances from immigrants in the United States. They represent up to 25 percent of Honduras’ economy. more than Half a million Hondurans are illegal It is estimated that about 5% of Hondurans will live in the United States by 2022, according to the Pew Research Center.

Since the 1980s, a US task force has operated from Soto Cano, an air base owned by the Honduran government in Comayagua, a town about 50 miles from the capital, Tegucigalpa. It was originally built by the United States in the 1980s to help contain the communist threat in the region.

Soto Cano currently hosts more than 1,000 U.S. military and civilian personnel, a spokeswoman for Joint Task Force Bravo said Friday.

“We are guests of the Honduran government at the Honduran base,” spokeswoman Capt. Hilary Gibson said.

While the task force has played a role in counter-narcotics efforts, it has recently focused on disaster relief and humanitarian aid management, Captain Gibson said.

The US Embassy in Honduras did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The US military maintains a presence at bases in other countries in the region, including in El Salvador, although these bases have fewer US military forces than Soto Cano.

While many Hondurans celebrated Ms. Castro’s remarks, some elected officials sought to distance themselves from the president. Several members of Congress cited the need for dialogue with the Trump administration and noted that removing the US military from the base would not prevent Mr. Trump from carrying out mass deportations.

Foreign Minister Reyna said Thursday that Honduras intends to remain on good terms with the United States. But he stood behind the president’s comments, saying that “if mass deportations occur that violate the rights of immigrants,” the country’s leaders have the “right to rethink” its relationship with the United States.

Mr. Freeman, a fellow for Latin American studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the government’s stance came as a surprise because while Ms. Castro had recently taken what he described as an openly confrontational approach toward the United States — including a move to end… Long-standing extradition treaty Behind closed doors, she was known to be “playing friendly” with the US ambassador, in an attempt to gain America’s continued support.

He said it was also surprising that Ms. Castro would send such a warning before Mr. Trump took office, especially in light of comments by Marco Rubio, the Republican senator from Florida, Trump’s pick for secretary of state.

Mr. Rubio had warned that Honduras under Ms. Castro’s government could become “the next Venezuela,” Mr. Freeman said, as the escalating crisis under Nicolás Maduro’s authoritarian rule has led to mass migration.

“I think it would spoil the relationship, which was already tense, with the Trump administration,” Mr. Freeman said. “And I don’t see these northern Central American countries being in a position to benefit much from the United States on what immigration policy looks like.”

“Now Mexico is a completely different story,” he added.

The United States does not maintain full diplomatic relations with some countries in the region, including Venezuela and Cuba, which have faced harsh US sanctions. As a result, these countries are unlikely to accept large numbers of deportation flights.

After the speech of Mrs. Castro, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Honduras Announce On social media, the meeting between foreign ministers appeared to discuss mass deportations, which he said the leaders of Honduras and Mexico had called for. The post was accompanied by a photo of Ms. Castro holding Ms. Sheinbaum’s hand.

Emiliano Rodriguez Mega Contributed to reports.