Fla. National Guard Trains in Honduras ‘for Tropical Effect’
The Reagan Administration said today that an artillery unit of the Florida National Guard is training in Honduras but will not operate any closer than 30 miles to the Nicaraguan border.
White House spokesman Larry Speakes said the troops are on “a training exercise . . . under tropical conditions in a remote area of Honduras.”
Told that Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega had claimed that U.S. troops are massing on his border, Speakes said: “Ortega’s just using this as an excuse to stir up fear among the Nicaraguan people about a U.S. invasion. He’s been doing it for years, and this is only his latest attempt.”
Speakes did not say why Florida National Guard troops had to go to Honduras to find tropical conditions.
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