Honduras Dropping Demand for Special U.S. Defense Treaty

The Honduran government, a wavering partner in U.S. military policy in Central America, has retreated from a demand for a bilateral defense treaty with the United States, Foreign Minister Edgardo Paz Barnica said Thursday.

The country’s military leaders wanted a special treaty with the United States because they fear possible conflict with increasingly well-armed neighbors. But, in the face of U.S. intransigence, the Hondurans are now willing to settle for some “mechanism” short of a treaty, Paz Barnica said in an interview.

He added that the U.S. government has made clear it is not willing to sign such a special treaty with Honduras “because it has no such treaty elsewhere in the hemisphere.”

“It’s the final objective that Honduras is looking for,” Paz Barnica said. “The medium, model or name (of the mechanism)--these things are not important. The end is important.”

Too Little in Exchange

Hondurans, especially the country’s military leaders, contend that Honduras takes great political and military risks by cooperating with the United States but receives too little in exchange.

The softening of Honduras’ demand for a bilateral treaty followed reports of a stormy incident here three weeks ago involving Robert C. McFarlane, President Reagan’s national security adviser. McFarlane reportedly walked out of a dinner given by Gen. Walter Lopez, head of the Honduran armed forces, because of an argument over Honduran insistence on a new treaty.

Honduras has played host to U.S.-backed Nicaraguan rebels (contras) opposed to the Sandinista government, engaged in joint military maneuvers with U.S. forces, let U.S. planes use a major Honduran airfield and permitted the construction of smaller airfields and radar stations.

Honduran representatives reportedly refused to accept McFarlane’s assurances that the Reagan Administration would stand behind its friends in Central America. Lopez is said to have argued that although Honduras has faith in Reagan, it is not sure what Congress would do if Honduras were threatened by El Salvador, Nicaragua or the anti-Sandinista contras.

Congressional approval of renewed aid for the contras is by no means certain, and Honduras fears that if the funding is rejected, the 12,000-man insurgent army could run wild in Honduran territory.