Iran Crisis Could Leave It Vulnerable to Contras, Nicaragua : Honduras Reevaluating U.S. Ties

The crisis in Washington over arms sales to Iran and the transfer of proceeds to Nicaraguan rebels is prompting the government of Honduras to rethink its role as a key U.S. ally in Central America.

Honduras permits U.S.-backed insurgents who are trying to overthrow the Marxist Sandinista government of Nicaragua to operate from camps in Honduras.

In addition, the United States has gradually built up a military presence in Honduras that includes airstrips, barracks, radar stations and intelligence facilities.

Military Maneuvers

Honduras has also been the site of numerous joint military maneuvers with U.S. troops, including a series of exercises that began last Sunday.

A withdrawal of Honduras’ support could cripple the Reagan Administration’s effort to pressure and undermine the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

“This is what happens when a nation like ours bets its entire foreign policy on one issue,” Ricardo Flores, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said. “It makes us very nervous.”

Hondurans fear that, because the arms sales have come to light, Reagan Administration policy in Central America may undergo a sharp change. Congressional leaders have already indicated that aid to the contras, as the Nicaraguan rebels are known, is in jeopardy. Halting funding for the contras could leave Honduras with thousands of stateless armed men in its territory.

“Who will take them off our hands?” a Foreign Ministry official asked.

Hondurans are afraid that military and economic aid to this country could be curtailed. If so, a weakened Honduras would then face a Nicaragua that has been made especially hostile by Honduras’ cooperation in the rebel program.

On Wednesday, the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry notified Honduras of its displeasure with the current U.S.-Honduran military exercises, expressing “deep concern over the use of Honduran territory . . . for the execution of acts of force and threat that not only undermine Latin American efforts for peace but promote the deepening of . . . the conditions for more tension and confrontation along the border.”

“We’re on edge,” said Roberto Suazo Tome, the Honduran Foreign Ministry official in charge of Central American affairs. “If the policy collapses, the burden will be on us.”

The Honduran reaction to the Iran-contra crisis follows a pattern that has developed over the last five years: When domestic opposition to the contras intensifies in the United States, second thoughts inevitably surface in Honduras. In the past, such worries were alleviated by the ability of the Reagan Administration to overcome opposition at home and steadily increase military and economic aid to Honduras.

But Honduran officials see what they think are signs that those days are over. The Iran crisis is just the latest and most critical of the signals.

First, the United States recently withdrew a promised package of $300 million in economic aid for all of Central America. Honduras’ share was to have been $85 million. Honduras still expects to get $118 million in economic aid and $60 million in military aid in 1987, but government officials had been counting on more.

Furthermore, the fact that the Democrats regained control of the Senate in last month’s U.S. elections had clouded the prospects for more aid for the contras, even before the Iran arms sales became public.

Those developments have left Hondurans with the impression that Reagan is very much a lame duck and that the next President may be a Democrat.

“We have to think about talking with someone like Gary Hart (outgoing Democratic senator from Colorado) in the future as well as someone like (Vice President) George Bush,” a Foreign Ministry official said.

As a sign of their concern, Honduran officials are prodding Washington either to sell F-5 warplanes to this country or to help it finance the purchase of Kfir jet fighters from Israel.

Envoy Meets President

On Thursday, President Jose Azcona met with U.S. Ambassador Everett Briggs to press for the jet sale, to discuss a buildup of Sandinista troops on Honduras’ border and to discuss the effects of the Iran arms controversy.

Honduran officials said this country plans also to ask for firmer security agreements from the United States. Last year, under pressure on this point, Reagan sent a letter to the authorities here promising U.S. support in defending Honduras against outside attack.

“That letter only had Mr. Reagan’s signature on it,” a Foreign Ministry official said, implying that, for Hondurans, Reagan is becoming a figure of the past.